Greenpeace Ranks Apple Last in Greenness

biz.Yahoo.com ^ | 04/03/2007 | Toby Sterling

[Swordmaker]

Greenpeace Int'l Ranks Apple Last for Environmental Friendliness, While Lenovo Group Tops List

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- Greenpeace International placed Apple Inc. last in its rankings of major electronics makers for their environmental friendliness, while Chinese manufacturer Lenovo Group Ltd. jumped to the top of the list.

An Apple spokeswoman said the company rejects Greenpeace's ranking system and that its products are among the "greenest" on the market, pointing to more technical ratings used by the Green Electronics Council.

Greenpeace ranked 14 computer and mobile phone makers according to their efforts to limit the use of hazardous chemicals in production and in taking steps to ensure that goods that become broken or obsolete are recycled.

Lenovo replaced Nokia Inc. at the top of the list, followed by Sony Ericsson, Dell Inc., and Samsung Electronics Co.

Near the bottom with Apple were LG Electronics Inc. and Matsushita Co.'s Panasonic.

Greenpeace spokeswoman Iza Kruszewska said Lenovo, which bought IBM's consumer electronics division in 2005, has tried to lessen its environmental impact since the list was introduced in August 2006. It was the first of the electronics giants to offer all customers the opportunity to give back computers for recycling.

Lenovo is a rare example of a company bucking the tide in China, which is a dumping ground for hazardous electronics, both domestically made and imported, she said.

She said Apple failed to stop using several types of harmful chemicals in its manufacturing, and -- unlike many other companies -- has not set any timetable for phasing them out.

"We disagree with Greenpeace's rating and the criteria they chose," Apple spokeswoman Sheryl Seitz said, reading a prepared statement. "Apple has a strong environmental track record and has led the industry in restricting and banning toxic substances such as mercury, cadmium and hexavalent chromium, as well as many BFRs (brominated flame retardants)."

According to standards developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., Apple products are not especially toxic.

The Green Electronics Council, funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, runs a web site that allows buyers to judge products on a score comprised of 23 different categories established by the IEE, including the materials used, energy conservation and packaging. Apple scored generally better than Lenovo and Dell.

All of the computer companies in Greenpeace's study had failed to eliminate BPRs and toxic vinyl plastics, though some of the phone makers did.

In addition, Greenpeace's study didn't take into account that in terms of quantity, Apple produces less toxic waste than larger competitors.

Kruszewska said the study intentionally ignored companies' absolute size to concentrate on their relative performance. She conceded the choices of manufacturers and judging criteria were subjective. But Greenpeace tried to be "fair and transparent" in giving advance warning to the companies on the way they would be rated.

She said Greenpeace's relationship with Apple has deteriorated since it set up a spoof web site devoted to criticizing Apple's environmental policies, she added.

"Once we launched the 'Green my Apple' Web site, we stopped hearing from Apple altogether," she said.

She said Apple initially participated in regular conference calls with Greenpeace on the ratings scheme, but didn't change its practices any more than required by law.

"Steve Jobs has a lot to answer for," Kruszewska said, referring to Apple's CEO.

Greenpeace's full rating list was: Lenovo, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Dell, Samsung, Motorola Inc., Fujitsu-Siemens, Hewlett Packard Corp., Acer Inc., Toshiba Corp., Sony Corp., LG.Electronics Inc., Panasonic and Apple.

[Swordmaker]

Well, in this case, I cannot help but wonder if Steve Jobs turned down a “donation opportunity” and this is payback...

Rumor has it he did and it is.

[Swordmaker]

I bought a brand new MS Mouse to go with my iMac. Guess what was the only hanging app I’ve ever experienced on it.

The MS Mouse should work without a problem. What happened?

So I’ve gone with the default one-button (except for those size-squeezie-thingies) and am marching on.

Remind me again... is your new iMac an Intel iMac? If so, you already have a multi-button mouse but you may need to tell it that it is...

[IslandJeff]

Intel iMac, no differentiated mouse buttons on it, as far as I can tell. Love the little scrollball - works laterally, too.

[Swordmaker]

Intel iMac, no differentiated mouse buttons on it, as far as I can tell. Love the little scrollball - works laterally, too.

They're there, Jeff... just invisible.

You need to turn on the right mouse button. The default is that the right side is the same as the left side: "primary button." Actually the Mighty Mouse (yeah, I know) is a four-button mouse. It is touch sensitive as to where you click it. Click it on the left, it is a left button... click right, it is a right button. Click down on the ball, voila! a third button. The pads on the side a pressure sensitive. You can program all of them to do what you want:

By the way, try holding down the CTRL key and using the scroll ball... whee! and useful too!

Also, try holding down CTRL-OPT-CMD (The APPLE Key) and pressing the "8" key...

[IslandJeff]

Sweet, Swordie. Amazing. I was thinking of my mouse in a shallow, morphological sense.

The MS Mouse hung during an iTunes upgrade install. Why mess with what works. It does. Defies logic.

The “squeezies”, as I’ve nominated them, will just work themselves in later. Sorry to pollute your threads with Mac 101 freshman queries.

[Bookwoman]

I turned on my right mouse button a while back like you demonstrate with your great screen shot there, but not all my programs seem to recognize the right mouse button - notably my FireFox. It is really annoying. What am I doing wrong? Is there something else I have to do?

[antiRepublicrat]

Apple failed to stop using several types of harmful chemicals in its manufacturing, and -- unlike many other companies -- has not set any timetable for phasing them out.

That's because Apple rarely announces anything in advance, including its environmental practices. Of course Apple would get a lower score given that Greenpeace counts promises to improve towards a company's score.

It all boils down to: "Apple didn't kiss our butts, so we're going to rate them badly."

[Swordmaker]

I turned on my right mouse button a while back like you demonstrate with your great screen shot there, but not all my programs seem to recognize the right mouse button - notably my FireFox.

That's really strange. Firefox works with my Right Mouse button just fine. I cannot think of any reason why yours would not. Mouse options are system level and not under application control. Weird. I'd contact FireFox.

[Swordmaker]

Sorry to pollute your threads with Mac 101 freshman queries.

Not a problem, Jeff. I found that the "squeezies" are difficult to get used to at first and I turn them off on my clients' computers where there are multiple users. I got used to the amount of pressure they respond to and find them useful.

[guinnessman]

That fact that Greenpeace doesn’t like them makes me like my Mac even more!