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Apple today announced two eco-friendlier-products milestones:

Apple ships PVC-free power cords with the new iMac and MacBook

Apple’s most popular computer systems — iMac and MacBook — now ship with PVC-free power cords in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Venezuela. PVC has been used in computer power cords for decades, and while it poses few risks under normal use, toxic compounds can be generated and released if PVC is manufactured or incinerated without proper controls. That’s why Apple is continuing to eliminate it from all our computer systems.All currently shipping Mac systems have PVC-free internal cables, and now MacBook and iMac systems are completely PVC-free. Apple engineers worked closely with our partners and tested dozens of materials in order to find a safe, reliable alternative to power cords that contain PVC. We are currently working with agencies in regions outside those mentioned above to achieve the necessary certifications to ship PVC-free power cords worldwide.

Apple completes transition to mercury-free LED-backlit displays across Mac product line

With the introduction of the new 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMac and the new MacBook, Apple offers energy-efficient, mercury-free LED backlight technology on every Mac with a display. So while other companies make promises to move away from power-hungry displays containing toxins such as mercury, Apple is taking action.iPod and iPhone have featured LED technology since their inception. In 2007, MacBook Pro became the first Mac to feature a mercury-free LED-backlit display. During the past year, we’ve added LED backlight technology to all MacBook Pro models. And we introduced the 24-inch LED Cinema Display: the first large-screen display to use LED backlight technology. This transition to LED backlight technology is yet another way Apple is working to lessen environmental impact through smarter product design.

via Apple – Environment – News.

September 30, 2009, 9:30 AM

NYTimes.com | Green Inc.: Apple Expands Environmental Disclosures

By JOE HUTSKO

Apple last week updated its Apple and the Environment Web site to include a life cycle impact section that, the company says, accounts for its total carbon footprint of 10.2 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

The emissions, organized by category, include those arising from manufacturing (38 percent); transportation (5 percent); product use (53 percent); facilities (3 percent); and recycling (1 percent).

“Because 53 percent of Apple’s greenhouse gas emissions are a result of the power our products consume, we design those products to be as energy-efficient as possible,” the company stated on its new Web site, adding that “Mac OS X even regulates processor activity between keystrokes, saving milliwatts of energy.”

A recent BusinessWeek article reported that carbon emissions for Hewlett-Packard and Dell were 8.4 million tons and 471,000 tons respectively. However, both companies “exclude product use and at least some manufacturing,” the article noted, and those companies “have said that including those factors would boost their carbon totals several-fold.”

Downloadable reports for all of Apple’s existing and recently retired products provide detailed breakdowns of each product’s environmental virtues (or shortcomings) — including whether it uses mercury-free LED displays or arsenic-free display glass. Also covered are the use of toxic substances like brominated flame retardants and polyvinyl chlorides, which are noxious when burned.

Apple says that all of its handheld products — iPhones and iPods — are now “PVC-free,” and that the majority of circuit boards and internal cables in its plastic-housed MacBooks are free of BFRs and PVCs. It also describes its remaining desktop, notebook, display and server products as being “BFR-free” and having “PVC-free internal cables.”

Asked whether any other electronics manufacturers are reporting the CO2 life-cycle impact for entire product lines, Casey Harrell, Greenpeace International’s toxics campaigner, said, “Not the way Apple is.”

“Others are doing some interesting reporting of their supply-chain emissions,” he added, “and HP is doing a lot of work there.”

via Apple Expands Environmental Disclosures – Green Inc. Blog – NYTimes.com.