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Apple Dominates New EPEAT Tablet Registry After Nearly Withdrawing From Environmental List in 2012

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Apr 12, 2001
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After almost removing itself from the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) registry two years ago, Apple is now leading the charge into the program's new Tablets/Slates category.

As of today, Apple's four iPad models account for 134 of the 135 tablets on the list, although the number of entries appear to be growing nearly by the minute. While Apple is represented by the various configurations of the iPad Air, the iPad mini, the iPad with Retina display and the iPad mini with Retina display, the sole non-iPad model currently on the list is the Dell Venue 11 Pro.

In a blog post announcing the new category earlier this week, Green Electronics Council CEO Robert Frisbee hailed the early inclusion of more than 100 tablets without mentioning that essentially all of them were Apple products.
We are pleased at Participating Manufacturers' enthusiasm to register these new products. In less than one week more than 100 slates/tablets have been registered in EPEAT, and we expect to see many more in the weeks and months to come. These products are an exciting addition to EPEAT and an important step into reducing the environmental impacts of a major new product type. We are confident the new products are leaders in their category.
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Apple has a bit of a rocky history with EPEAT, notifying the environmental assessment service in 2012 that it was withdrawing its products from the registry. At the time, Apple cited "changes in its design direction which were no longer consistent with the EPEAT requirements" as the reason for this removal request.

Apple quickly reversed its decision after businesses, municipalities and other Apple customers publicly decried the withdrawal decision. EPEAT also responded with a pledge to work with Apple and possibly adapt its judging standards to be more compatible with the company's cutting edge product designs.

Apple's product lineup is now represented in several EPEAT categories, including desktops, notebooks, displays, integrated desktop computers, and tablets/slates. The company has earned a gold star rating for all of its eligible products, including its difficult-to-repair MacBook Pro with Retina display. This controversial gold rating has prompted some groups to accuse EPEAT of lowering its standards in order to include Apple on the list.

Article Link: Apple Dominates New EPEAT Tablet Registry After Nearly Withdrawing From Environmental List in 2012
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/08/20/apple-epeat-tablets/
G

GeneralChang

macrumors 68000
Dec 2, 2013
1,675
1,509
"Look at all these tablets we have registered! I mean, they're pretty much all iPads, but... y'know..."
 
maflynn

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,448
43,370
Aluminum213 said:
Apple can and should do more
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Sounds more like a knee jerk reaction. What specifically can they do more? I'm not that knowledgeable in this area so any information you provide will be helpful. From the article they seem to be doing a lot, but you thing its not enough - why?
 
Z

Z400Racer37

macrumors 6502a
Feb 7, 2011
711
1,664
Well, when you can change the rules... lol...

Hey Apple, stop glueing by battery and soldering my chips, and then we can be cool. Thanks :)
 
Tankmaze

Tankmaze

macrumors 68000
Mar 7, 2012
1,707
351
I don't know what this registry function as? But guessing the environment keyword I assume this would correlate with recycling. Well apple could start by making their iPads accessible and not glue everything so users can easily service the device like changing the battery, LCD,etc so it would last longer hence less waste.
 
H

HyperZboy

macrumors 65816
Feb 7, 2007
1,086
1
2 words...

ENVIRONMENTAL NAZIS!

It's like PETA. Yes I'm against animal cruelty in all forms, but if you go all wacko batsht crazy on me telling me just eating meat is unethical or immoral, hey I'm out of there. Go tell it in a padded room.

Same with this group. Great goals, but sometimes bite off the hand that feeds it because they think they know better than Apple. If Apple would have cut off their membership, basically the leading proponent of many of the things they stand for would have told them to go to HELL!

I'm glad Apple backed them down a bit.
 
T

TWSS37

macrumors 65816
Feb 4, 2011
1,107
232
"EPEAT also responded with a pledge to work with Apple and possibly adapt its judging standards to be more compatible with the company's cutting edge product designs."

So by writing the rules and standards that products are judged by, all of your models are ranked? I think this would be more newsworthy if they weren't...
 
S

samcraig

macrumors P6
Jun 22, 2009
16,779
41,982
USA
I'm pretty sure they did withdraw and then they re-engaged. There's no "nearly withdrawing" about it.
 
nagromme

nagromme

macrumors G5
May 2, 2002
12,546
1,196
HyperZboy said:
2 words...

ENVIRONMENTAL NAZIS!

It's like PETA. Yes I'm against animal cruelty in all forms, but if you go all wacko batsht crazy on me telling me just eating meat is unethical or immoral, hey I'm out of there. Go tell it in a padded room.

Same with this group. Great goals, but sometimes bite off the hand that feeds it because they think they know better than Apple. If Apple would have cut off their membership, basically the leading proponent of many of the things they stand for would have told them to go to HELL!

I'm glad Apple backed them down a bit.
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How DARE a worthy cause hurt the feelings our precious corporate overlords :p
 
nagromme

nagromme

macrumors G5
May 2, 2002
12,546
1,196
MrX8503 said:
They're not disposed. There's a huge market in resale of Apple products. There's also the option of trading it in for the materials to be recycled.
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Exactly. The idea that Apple's non-upgradeability gives their products a short life is untrue. Competing phones, tablets, and computers get trashed much earlier. Even my old iPod Photo 60GB is still going strong and can be used to output 60GB of photos to a projector, or as a spare "stereo" to play my music in a speaker dock. It also holds my Mac games so I can play multiplayer with friends/family by hooking the iPod to their MacBooks.

The number of people who would ever actually (not in their imagination) upgrade their device's components (or even replace the battery beyond adding an external battery case) is such a TINY fraction that the environmental impact would be minor. Meanwhile, the solid construction, choice of recyclable and less-hazardous materials, minimal packaging, and loooooong usable life (including software updates far longer than Android users get) are great for the environment.

Apple's not perfect, just better on average than the competition. Disposability is not the first area of concern--just a meme people like to repeat.
 
Gasu E.

Gasu E.

macrumors 603
Mar 20, 2004
5,033
3,150
Not far from Boston, MA.
MacSince1985 said:
Make products that are repairable and upgradable, not disposable.
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Don't buy them, then. Repairability/upgradability cost size and weight. It's up to consumers to make a wise choice-- if you believe they are damaging the environment in an unacceptable way, don't buy them.

But do realize that the world is grossly overpopulated with humans-- so your very existence is bad for the environment. So it's not a matter of whether you damage the environment or not; it's a matter of whether the choices you make have benefits that exceed the negative effects.
 
J

JAT

macrumors 603
Dec 31, 2001
6,473
124
Mpls, MN
Tankmaze said:
I don't know what this registry function as? But guessing the environment keyword I assume this would correlate with recycling. Well apple could start by making their iPads accessible and not glue everything so users can easily service the device like changing the battery, LCD,etc so it would last longer hence less waste.
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Users replacing batteries means MORE waste.

----------
Gasu E. said:
But do realize that the world is grossly overpopulated with humans-- so your very existence is bad for the environment.
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But, we're not allowed to clean up that problem at all!
 
MacSince1990

MacSince1990

macrumors 65816
Oct 6, 2009
1,347
0
MacSince1985 said:
Make products that are repairable and upgradable, not disposable.
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To be fair it would be pretty difficult to make a tablet upgradeable and modular. Anything with an integrated screen is going to be tough to upgrade, period.

That said they could definitely include an SD slot.

Really though, what else would you want to be upgradeable? RAM? Storage? CPU? With the exception of storage, I really can't see there being any market for this.

Also, are we related? :p
 
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