14 DAY TRIAL // In a Greenpeace blog post, we were astonished to find that the organization we believed was really into the environment thing (and less into publicity) was bashing Apple for the third time in less than a few months. Although the company's new family of notebooks is by far less toxic than most other laptops (and their respective vendors) tracked by the Organization, Greenpeace doesn't feel any remorse in calling Apple a liar.
“Mac fans in our office (and there are more than a few) were getting excited yesterday – we were expecting an announcement from MacWorld 2009 in San Francisco, confirming that Apple would, as promised, be removing all toxic PVC plastic and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from its entire new product range,” jossc writes for Greenpeace.
“Confidence was high that this was going to happen because we've had the word from the man himself – Apple CEO Steve Jobs – from as far back as May 2007 that toxic PVC and BFRs in Mac computers would be history by the end of 2008,” jossc explains on.
“His enthusiam for the subject, of course, initially stemmed from the success of our Green my Apple campaign, which generated huge support and discussion from Mac addicts worldwide. In October last year he reiterated this promise,” the author points out. Mr. Jobs' statement, however, reveals that Apple wasn't making any promises, but merely setting goals for itself and the industry. A goal is not a promise!
“Last year we announced the unprecedented goal of eliminating polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from Apple products by the end of 2008,” Steve Jobs stated in the Apple 2008 Environmental Update. “I’m proud to report that all of Apple's new product designs are on track to meet our 2008 year-end goal,” Jobs concluded.
“That's a pretty definitive statement – not much room for misunderstanding there, I'd say,” reads the Greenpeace report. “And yet, the one new product announced so far at this year's Macworld, the Macbook Pro, turns out not to meet Mr Jobs' new greener specification,” jossc writes. “Sure it has reduced amounts of the offending chemicals, but they've not been removed altogether. Definitely NOT what Apple promised for 2009,” Greenpeace argues.
Again, the company responsible for the Mac OS simply said it was pretty sure it was on track to reach that self-imposed goal. A promise is another thing altogether. Sure enough, the goal wasn't entirely reached, but is that any reason to post yet another hateful piece on Apple?