Apple today added a new “Apple and the Environment” section to its website. The new environmental section will be used to give more detailed information about Apple’s environmental footprint. The section has four main parts life cycle impact, product usage impact, product environmental reports and environmental updates. Apple says that more than 53 percent of carbon emissions annually is resulted from product use, which is the biggest factor in product life cycle and should be included in environmental breakdown.

“A lot of companies publish how green their building is, but it doesn’t matter if you’re shipping millions of power-hungry products with toxic chemicals in them,” says Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs. “It’s like asking a cigarette company how green their office is.”

The four parts of the environmental section each gives detailed information about overall carbon and environmental footprint of Apple products. Life cycle impact part accounts for greenhouse gas emissions produced from manufacturing, shipping and using products to recycle at the end of product’s life. Product usage impact gives information about impact of Apple products when a customer uses it. The product Environmental reports show the complete environmental footprint of every new Apple product. The last section environmental updates shows timeline of environmental milestones and gives information about Apple’s most recent achievements.

The timeline of environmental milestones clearly shows that Apple has been working towards development of environment friendly products since early 90’s. But as we all know Greenpeace will today claim that it made Apple more environmentally conscious. We believe that every company should account for their overall environmental footprint including manufacturing, use of toxic chemicals, product usage impact and product recycling.
[Via Apple]