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.

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

Below is a brief description of the book, followed by the book’s foreword by Tom Zeller Jr.,  editor of the New York Times Green Inc. section.

Thanks to everyone who provided so much support and assistance throughout the writing of the book.

(Special thanks to Wiley project editor Nicole Sholly, who made the process a learning experience that set me up for my next book, Macs All-in-One For Dummies (2nd edition).)

Book Description

Save some green by going green with these environmentally friendly gadgets!

With concern for the future of our environment growing stronger and more serious every day, there has never been a better time to take a new approach to some of the most popular gizmos and gadgets on the market and learn how you can convernt to electronics that have minimal environmental impact.

Green gadgets encompass everything from iPods to energy-efficient home entertainment devices to solar laptop chargers and crank-powered gizmos. This helpful resource explains how to research green gadgets, make a smart purchasing decision, use products you already own in a more environmentally friendly way, and say goodbye to electronics that zap both energy and money.

• Explore the environmental and financial benefits of green gadgets with this friendly reference
• Discusses which gadgets save energy-and which ones create energy
• Learn ways to offset your carbon footprint when you can’t reduce consumption
• Get tips for understanding products labels and avoiding “greenwash”
• Discover how to calculate the energy and money your gadgets consume

Get moving and start living green with this informative guide to environmentally and wallet-friendly gadgets!

From the Back Cover
Think green, save green, love Mother Earth, and have your gadgets too

No doubt about it, we’re a society of gadget freaks. But if you love your gadgets and the planet and saving money, here’s where it all comes together. Discover new environmentally friendly gadgets, ways to use the ones you have more efficiently, and steps to safely recycle or dispose of out-of-date or broken gizmos. You’ll even find out how being green saves green!

• Start thinking green — learn the “four Rs” of green gadgetry, understand carbon footprints, and starve energy vampires
• Save energy now — by using rechargeable batteries, monitoring power use, adjusting settings on TVs and video game consoles, and more
• Control your computer — discover how to adjust power conservation settings for Macs and PCs
• Know green from greenwash — find out how to choose electronic devices that are truly environmentally friendly
• Recognize when it’s time to say goodbye — know what you can donate, how to erase your personal information, and how to find reputable recyclers

Visit the companion Web site at www.dummies.com/go/greengadgetsfd to find more online resources and information about green gadgets!

Open the book and find:

• How many dollars you can save with energy-saving settings
• Sneaky ways your gadgets steal energy
• The six sins of greenwashing
• Safe ways to dispose of dead batteries
• How (and why) to deauthorize iTunes before donating your PC
• Steps for wiping Windows or Mac hard drives
• Greener gadgets for your home, car, and outdoor activities
• What EnergyStar ratings mean

Foreword

The very idea of “green gadgets,” to many, might seem an oxymoron. After all, it is a fundamental tenet of the environmental movement that less stuff is better, and that consumerism – the thing that makes us want to have that snazzy new cell phone, or to covet that nifty new digital camera – is at odds with maxims like “reduce, reuse, recycle.”

There’s some truth to this paradox – but it is hardly the only way to frame the contribution that technology can make to a greener, cleaner world. Setting aside the efforts underway to develop large-scale, clean-energy technologies like wind and solar power, which promise to address the steady march of climate change, there remain myriad ways for ordinary consumers to make simple adjustments in how they live – and what they buy – to generate substantial environmental gains.

In many cases, gadgets can help. Sure, we could all do better to manage our electricity consumption at home – but what if there were a product that could provide detailed data on when and where we were being most wasteful? What if there were “greener” versions of the technologies – like computers and cell phones – that we use frequently, and upgrade regularly?

Of course, such technologies do exist, and that’s part of what Joe Hutsko has assembled here: A guide to green gadgetry and how you can best deploy it to your own personal environmental advantage.

But this is not just a buying guide, and there’s a key point in that: Making better, less wasteful use of the gadgets you already own, and finding sensible ways to reduce, reuse and recycle those things you no longer need, are first-order strategies for consumers seeking to limit their overall footprint.

So, too, is learning to understand the increasingly complex eco-friendly and energy-efficient labeling systems used to keep consumers informed. You’ll find guidance on these matters here as well.

There is no magic wand – no magic gadget – that will neutralize consumers’ impact on the planet. But I think few green advocates would quibble with the idea that every consumer can make simple, informed choices about the technologies they buy and the energy they use – and that these decisions, factored collectively, are an indispensable part of any environmental movement.

Tom Zeller Jr.
Editor, Green Inc.
The New York Times

Consumers Want, and Are Skeptical About, Eco-Electronics – Green Inc. Blog – NYTimes.com

By JOE HUTSKO

Among other findings from a survey released today by the Consumer Electronics Association, an industry group representing computer and gadget manufacturers, 89 percent of consumers said that energy efficiency would be a factor in choosing their next television — even as less than half of the 960 people surveyed said they’re generally able to make sense of the environmental attributes attached to electronics on the market.

Read the full story here: Consumers Want, and Are Skeptical About, Eco-Electronics – Green Inc. Blog – NYTimes.com.

Looking to give the gadget fan in your life something green this holiday? While the environmental credentials attending most electronics are forever a work in progress, there are plenty of gadgets on the market that at least make an attempt at reducing their footprints — or yours. They can be as inexpensive and thoughtful as a rechargeable battery kit, or as costly and eye-popping as an eco-friendlier HDTV.

Following are a few gift ideas that should keep giving well after the holidays.

Read the full story: Holiday Gadget Gifts in Shades of Green – Green Inc. Blog – NYTimes.com.

In a new study about how much energy video game consoles consume, the Natural Resources Defense Council found that consoles in use today consume “an estimated 16 billion-kilowatt hours per year,” which, the report goes on to translate, is “roughly equal to the annual electricity use of the city of San Diego.”

Link to full story: Consumption Study Takes Aim at Game Consoles – Green Inc. Blog – NYTimes.com.

By JOE HUTSKO

The Powerstick by Ecosol charges your gadgets and keeps an eye on its own energy consumption.

Link to full story: Recharging More Efficiently – Green Inc. Blog – NYTimes.com.

Link to full story: The New MacBook’s Green Credentials – Green Inc. Blog – NYTimes.com.