San Francisco plans to block/Ban local government agencies from buying new Apple Macintosh computers. Shortly after unveiling its latest range of laptops. Apple pulled out of the EPEAT environmental scheme.
“The organisers of EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) announced last week that Apple was withdrawing its products from the registry and would no longer submit new devices to receive ratings and we hope that they will decide to do so again at some point in future.”
The green certification scheme is designed to identify which electronic devices pose the least risk to the environment.
It noted local officials spent $ 45,579 (£29,365) on Apple equipment in 2010. The sum is a fraction of the firm’s $ 65bn net sales the same year, but the fact that its Cupertino headquarters is about 70km away from San Francisco (43 miles) and many of its staff live in the city have helped the act gain attention.
US government rules dictate that 95% of all electronics bought by official agencies must fall under EPEAT’s scheme.An article highlighted on EPEAT’s site – links the move to manufacturing techniques used to make the latest version of the firm’s MacBook Pro, which features a 5.1 million pixel high-definition display.
In order to include the new screen while minimising the laptop’s thickness Apple made it harder to disassemble the computer causing it to be difficult for even experts to upgrade or recycle the device.
The move would have made it unlikely that the machine would have qualified for EPEAT’s highest rating.
