The Green Apple Blues

Posted on January 8, 2007 by Gene

The Apple trifecta for today is complete with this entry.
Greenpeace. Oh, boy. Well, they have been lambasting Apple for some time now over the computer maker’s environmental impact; and now they plan to stage a protest at the San Francisco Apple Store.
This is all somewhat puzzling and not a little bit annoying, because Apple is generally seen to be rather more green and aware than most other manufacturers. And since Apple has less than 10% of the market for new computers (granted, they have 75% of the MP3 player market) you’d think that Greenpeace would turn their sights on a company like Dell that is churning out hunks of plastic, chemicals, and heavy metals by the truckload every day. Just because they have pledged to stop using toxic chemicals doesn’t make them green. Note this image from Greenpeace’s “Green Our Apple” webpage:

It’s worth noting that there is only one Apple product in this image… the mountain of computer detritus behind this scavenging child is from other manufacturers.

Of course, protesting at a Dell kiosk certainly wouldn’t garner the headlines and increase public awareness of Greenpeace itself, would it? And that’s what this is all about: publicity for Greenpeace.
Too bad the EPA doesn’t agree with Greenpeace (of course, it’s worth remembering that this is the Bush era EPA…). According to the government, Apple has some of the most environmentally friendly computers available. See for yourself. In fact, their laptops are the most environmentally friendly available. Still, this doesn’t mean that Apple isn’t still having a negative environment impact; but there are far worse offenders out there. By focusing on Apple, Greenpeace is simply pulling a rug over all the other computer manufacturers.

I’m not naive enough to believe that Apple is making products that are safer and less toxic than anyone else; like everyone, I want the company to build cleaner, greener devices. My point here is that Greenpeace, in my opinion, is tilting at a windmill and their campaign will not result in anything tangible other than publicity for themselves. In order to change the hearts of minds of consumers and the corporations that market to them, I think a more broadly-based campaign directed at all computer companies is necessary. Shining green lights on an Apple store looks like it is promoting the Apple store.