Apple's "greenest notebooks" not enough for Greenpeace

 

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Posted on 17 Oct 2008 at 16:14

Greenpeace has proclaimed itself disappointed by the MacBook line, despite Steve Jobs insistence that it's the greenest ever.

Touting the green credentials of any new product line is now a standard part of any Steve Jobs keynote, and he didn't disappoint at the MacBook launch, describing the new laptops as "the industry's greenest notebooks."

The company even issued a press release on the subject which argued: "The entire new MacBook family... leads the industry in the elimination of toxic chemicals by containing no brominated flame retardants (BFR), using only PVC-free internal cables and components, and using energy efficient LED-backlit displays that are mercury-free and made with arsenic-free glass."

However, speaking on its blog, Greenpeace pushed the company to do more: "A check of the full specs revealed the MacBook Pro, MacBook and MacBook Air - as well as the LED Cinema Display will now have internal cables free of PVC and will have internal components containing no BFRs. Not quite the breakthrough we were hoping for."

It did however, laud the company for its pledge to eliminate PVCs and BFRs across its product range by end 2008.

"This will be a first for a computer maker and lays down the challenge to competitors such as HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer and Toshiba," says the blog. "All have pledged to remove these chemicals from PCs in 2009. But if Apple has solved the challenges involved there's no excuse for any of these companies not to follow Apple's lead on toxic chemicals elimination now and not wait until the end of 2009."

Author: Stuart Turton