14 DAY TRIAL // The green trend is inspiring many companies to improve their products, by incorporating eco-friendly, risk-free materials in their products.
Apple is no stranger to sustainability goals, since it has recently announced its eagerness to revolutionize its power cables. Volex, the enterprise supplying Apple with these products has decided to move away from halogen and try to come up with safer replacements.
In order to achieve this goal, Volex will invest $6 million (€4.73m) this year to launch a line of halogen-free cables, which are supposed to have a minimal impact on the environment after their life ends.
Apparently, this movement was inspired by Apple's growing environmental awareness. Changes are welcomed, mostly since halogen-based products are considered hazardous since they generate toxic emissions into the atmosphere, according to Apple Insider.
Recent studies indicate that burning or dumping halogens is highly unrecommended, because toxic chemicals often remain in the soil and water supplies, exposing people to serious health risks.
Significant concentrations of dioxins and furans emissions are considered carcinogenic; therefore replacing old cables with a new generation of less risky ones sounds like a good plan.
Apple is keen on proving that its activity is not disrupting the balance of the environment.
According to a report released by the giant company, estimating its overall carbon footprint, only 2% is generated by its facilities, while 45% of the carbon footprint is triggered by product use and 46% by its manufacturing process.
Even if Apple's environmentally friendly commitments are permanently renewed and supported, and its progress has been acclaimed by Greenpeace, it still attracts the criticism of several organizations, mostly from China, according to Gigaom.
Nevertheless, this is definitely not the first time when the giant company is actually doing something to become more eco-friendly.
For example, its iMac, apart from being energy-efficient, is free of many dangerous toxic elements, like mercury, arsenic, BFRs, and PVC.