Jobs wants a greener Apple, LED displays in 2007

Boy, Mr. Jobs sure does love penning manifestos lately. Just a few short months after slamming DRM and the music industry, Jobs is back with a new manifesto that explains Apple's current and future initiatives to become more eco-friendly--a response to criticism from groups like Greenpeace, who have repeatedly suggested that Apple has fallen behind its competitors in terms of environmentally friendly manufacturing processes. "Upon investigating Apple's current practices and progress toward these goals, I was surprised to learn that in many cases Apple is ahead of, or will soon be ahead of, most of its competitors in these areas," Jobs wrote. "Whatever other improvements we need to make, it is certainly clear that we have failed to communicate the things that we are doing well." He then segues into a detailed description of initiatives that the company has undertaken to reduce or remove harmful chemicals from its manufacturing processes and details Apple's hardware recycling program. In all of the areas that Jobs mentions, Apple is allegedly ahead of competitors like Dell, Gateway, Hewlett Packard and Lenovo--companies that have been rated as being more environmentally friendly than Apple by Greenpeace. "In one environmental group's recent scorecard, Dell, HP and Lenovo all scored higher than Apple because of their plans (or 'plans for releasing plans' in the case of HP)," Jobs wrote. "In reality, Apple is ahead of all of these companies in eliminating toxic chemicals from its products."

In response to Jobs's latest manifesto, Greenpeace released its own statement. "Apple has declared a phase out of the worst chemicals in its product range, Brominated Fire Retardants (BFRs) and Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) by 2008. That beats Dell and other computer manufactures' pledge to phase them out by 2009...But while customers in the U.S. will be able to return their Apple products for recycling knowing that their gear won't end up in the e-waste mountains of Asia and India, Apple isn't making that promise to anyone but customers in the USA." While Greenpeace's critique of Apple's lack of recycling programs outside of North America is a valid one, it's worth noting that Apple's marketshare in many countries outside of North America is infinitesimally small. While the company certainly should offer a recycling program in every territory where their products are sold (as some other vendors do), it's not surprising that the company is starting with North America.

Finally, Jobs unceremoniously revealed in his manifesto that Apple will ship LED-backlit displays starting this year. "We plan to introduce our first Macs with LED backlight technology in 2007." That's good news for display enthusiasts and environmentalists alike.

For more on Apple's green initiatives:
- see Steve Jobs's essay, "A Greener Apple"
- and Greenpeace's response