While electronics companies around the world have been working hard to assure buyers that they’ve gone green, Apple has had an especially difficult time convincing consumers of their eco-friendly actions. They’ve been called out by Greenpeace, ranked low on a few green company lists, and been critiqued by Dell for their campaign touting that they had the “greenest family of notebooks”. But the new portion of their site addressing environmental concerns could finally prove that there’s more green to Apple than just that familiar fruit logo.

Called Apple and the Environment, the site could well be one of the most open and consumer-friendly eco-focused sites in the electronics industry, and it may do more than just earn Apple consumer approval; it could set a standard for other companies, too.

On the site, Apple analyzes their environmental impact from a new approach, fully recognizing the lifecycle impacts of their products instead of just the effects of manufacturing, transportation and disposal (as many electronics companies have done). Ultimately, it states that its greenhouse gas emissions break down likes this: 38% from manufacturing, 5% from transportation, 53% from product use, 1% from recycling, and 3% from facilities. Factoring in the product use greenhouse gas emissions brings their overall emissions higher, but gives a much more accurate understanding of the effects of each product.

The Apple and the Environment site also goes into details on each of the categories, explaining what they’ve done and what they’re working on, as well as providing product environmental reports for all the products they’re currently selling and those they sold in 2008 (you won’t find any info on earlier years, however, except a few stats on how much greener the new products are).

There’s no question that the Apple and the Environment site is a long-awaited reassurance from Apple that provides facts to back up some of their green claims, and that it takes an open approach often lacking in the electronics industry, but whether or not it’s enough to earn them higher rankings on lists like the Newsweek Green Rankings remains to be seen.

Powered by Bookmarkify™