Apple’s Environmental Update 2008

Apple has posted another environmental update on the heels of the announcement of its “greenest notebooks ever.” The letter, signed by Steve Jobs, outlines Apple’s goals and statistics in three areas: removal of toxic chemicals, recycling, and the carbon footprint.

The letter outlines Apple’s notebook line as becoming progressively more green, and Apple’s continuing journey to remove polyvinyl chlorides (PVCs) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from all of its products. According to the letter, Apple is almost there, the final stages of developing PVC free power cables being underway. Apple is on track to meet it’s 2008 goals in this area.

In terms of recycling, Apple has seen 57% growth in its computer takeback programs, and is on track to meet its 2010 goal of 28% in 2008. The 28% refers to the number of recycled product compared to the amount of product sold seven years earlier, a standard first suggested by Dell.

Finally, Apple has discovered that its office and factory emissions account for just about 5% of their carbon footprint, and they will instead be focusing on emissions at every stage of a product lifecycle, from creation to transportation to repair, and it will be reporting this to its consumers. A fun (and amazing to me) fact is that a 20″ iMac takes up about the same amount of energy as a commong household lightbulb when on.

Read Apple.com.