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Apple
November 9, 2007Answering the call about the iPhone protest that never was
Now anyone who follows technology news knows the Apple rumour phenomenon well. Sometimes they are true, occasionally they have some basis in fact but more often they are completely made up. This week there was a "Greenpeace to protest at iPhone launch" rumour that despite being repeated widely belongs firmly in the 'completely made up' category.
Watching it develop this week was a bit like an amusing version of Chinese whispers online. Last Sunday Zeina gave an interview to the UK newspaper The Sunday Times with this quote about the UK launch:
"The iPhone is a unique product and for us it is a missed opportunity for Apple to combine the innovation of the product with a green performance."
The EETimes then took the same story and headlined it "Greenpeace tries to gatecrash Apple's Euro iPhone party" (nice and attention grabbing headline but in the article nothing about gatecrashing). Next up was MacNN who made it into "Greenpeace to show up at Euro iPhone debut" stating "Greenpeace is planning a rally during Apple's launch of the iPhone in Europe to protest the use of alleged toxic chemicals in the device.." Even Macworld UK reported it.
Bromine industry lets out the attack poodles
A full week after the release of our report on toxic chemicals in the iPhone, a chemical industry group has released a press release attacking our report. The story is doing the rounds on a few big blogs so here’s our response.
iPhone's hazardous chemicals
When we released our iPhone testing results that revealed toxic chemicals in the iPhone, chemicals that other phone makers have removed, we expected the news to travel. Two days after the release there's been loads of coverage, especially online, varying of course from the factually accurate in wired to the predictable ranting, like this on gizmodo.
Dell to go "carbon neutral"
Dell has stepped up the ante in the computer industries competition to show how they are becoming greener by announcing this week plans to become carbon neutral by 2008. It's certainly had the intended effect to generate a good amount of positive media.
Leaving aside the dubious nature of 'carbon neutral' marketing speak and the definitely less than perfect option of carbon offsetting (especially by planting trees) it is good that they are looking to increase the use of renewable energy in their operations and making their products more efficient.
Much ado about nothing: Apple's new iMac
I feel a little bit ashamed but, as I have already said, I can't resist to have a look at the Apple rumours sites when there is a Steve Job's Keynote.
For those who are not Mac fans, it may be useful to know that Apple doesn't stream live the conferences when they launch new products, so all of us good folk meet in chats and in rumours web pages where we crave to read some reports of Steve's speech.
Last Thursday I decided to stay a couple of hours longer in the office and from 7 pm (central Europe time) I was ready to read some news from the Steve's keynote that was taking place in the Apple headquarters.
After 10 minutes MacObserver reported:
"Steve says that recycling has been kept in mind from the ground up. Says iMac is great in this area."
As I understood later he was speaking about the new iMac case and screen: the display is now made with glass, and they replaced the plastic at front side with aluminium (the back side is still in plastic). Ok, it's nice to hear Steve saying something about the environment, but to be honest these updates are not revolutionary at all. So I was quite surprised when the morning after I found out on my RSS reader that so many Mac Blogs were reporting it as a great announcement for the environment.
Room for a Green View?
I'm always very excited when the Apple store goes offline and Apple is presenting its new products but on Tuesday I was even more since I was really curious to see what Apple would have offered after the Greener Apple statement. They disappointed me last May 15th when they updated the MacBook without adding anything relevant for the environment, but I was sure that this time Apple would not have failed to show that they really care to change their environmental policy.
At nearly 14.30 Apple Store went on line, I ran to the Apple site and at the front page I saw the new wonderful MacBook Pro. WOW. Have they launched the first toxic free laptop on the market? Are this new MacBook PVC free or BFRs free? Are they using the mercury free LED display?
Dell vs Apple: Eco-Rumble in the Electronic Jungle
Get the popcorn folks, it's the computer industry's heavyweight championship fight of the century.
Michael Dell led with an uppercut to the chin when he announced Dell's free worldwide recycling policy and challenged the industry to match it. Steve jobs staggered back to the ropes, dazed, then came back with a surprise left when he declared a phase-out of the worst toxic chemicals in the Apple product line (and a deadline to do so sooner than Dell's), along with a new commitment to eco-transparency. Yesterday, Dell shook it off and sucker-punched Jobs when he laid down his plans to become the greenest computer company in the world.
This is the kind of prize fight we love.
What Apple needs to do to become Green to the core
The Apple Annual General Meeting is on May 10th, the Green my Apple site just won a webby, and now is the time to for everyone to join hands, chant OMMMM in harmony, and send karma waves toward Cupertino asking Steve Jobs to announce that Apple has gone green to the core, and won't be generating anymore poisoned e-waste.
Ever the busy bees, Zeina here in Amsterdam and her Toxoid team had a thought that maybe Apple could use a handy schematic of just what the company needs to do to leap out of last place in our Electronics Ranking and rocket into that superhero zone that they're so comfortable in: the lead.
So here it is, Apple, the recipe for a perfect 10 out of 10. The Think Different ticket to environmental sainthood.
And for the rest of us, after we've finished chanting, let's write to Steve to ask him to do the right thing, hug our macs, and create some kick-ass content between now and May 10th to let the Apple Board of Directors know WE LOVE OUR MACS, WE JUST WISH THEY CAME IN GREEN!
Bittersweet: Green my Apple wins the Webby Award
Green my Apple has won the Webby Award for best activist site of the year. This means we need to figure out some way to divide the goofy springy award thingamawhatsit between all the Apple fans around the world who have donated their time, their creativity, their blogs, banners, ads, and t-shirt designs asking Apple to become the Green leader we know they can be.
The winners were chosen from nearly 8,000 entries from 60 different countries.
The judging panel consisted of: David Bowie, Harvey Weinstein, Matt Groening, Jamie Oliver, Internet co-inventor Vinton Cerf, RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser, The Body Shop president Anita Roddick, and R/GA CEO Bob Greenberg.
It's a victory that has a bittersweet taste, in that the Webby Awards celebrate a world made possible by the very electronics industry which our e-waste campaign is challenging, and which our Green my Apple project is but a part.
Upcoming: Apple Annual General Meeting, Webby award for Green my Apple?
From our Green my Apple E-zine. Want to join in the fun? Sign up for your copy here.
(Thanks to Hugo for this month's Greenmyapple News image)
You've been nominated for a Webby Award!
Congratulations to all of you who have contributed material to Green my Apple. Your collective efforts have been recognised by the Webby Awards: we're finalists in the Activism category!
Winning the campaign is, of course, much more important than winning an award. But winning a Webby would put even more pressure on Apple to do the right thing. And the "People's Voice" awards (the one we can vote for) will be announced May 1st, one week before the Apple Annual General Meeting!
Click here to cast your vote for Green my Apple. Let's make sure we're on the red carpet for the "Oscars of the Internet." After all, Gore went to the real Oscars, and look what happened to the debate on climate change! ;-)
Let your voice be heard! And tell others to use theirs. We want to see the iBuzz page covered in blog links and del.icio.us tagged encouragement to vote for the website you've helped build with your t-shirt designs, banners, blogs, and posters: and which is dedicated to reducing the e-waste mountains of Asia and Africa.
Put on the pressure: Apple AGM is coming up!
On May 10th, the Apple Annual General Meeting will take place at 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino, California. Two environmental resolutions filed by investors calling for Apple to improve their policies on take-back and the use of hazardous chemicals have already been nixed by the Apple board of directors. But that doesn't preclude the great, wise, and good leadership of Apple taking their own measures to improve. Apple didn't budge from last place in our recent Green Electronics ranking, in which Chinese manufacturer Lenova leapt into the lead.
The time is now, Apple fans! Let's turn up the pressure by hitting the blogs, storming technorati, and getting the word out far and wide that we want to hear about a new, green Apple on May 10th.
Green my Mela, Steve
Greenpeace Italy didn't miss the opportunity of the grand opening of continental Europe's first Apple store to ask Steve Jobs to make Apple more eco-friendly. They staged a "Steve and Eve" tableau outside the store in Rome and at various monuments in the city, riffing on the biblical temptation story to try and entice our favourite computer company to create a better recylcing programme and stop including toxic chemicals that other manufacturers have agreed to phase out in their product line.
They launched a version of the Green my Apple site in Italian at the same time. If you parla italiano, check out their blog.
Kathy Sierra loves her Mac. She just wishes it came in green.
Kathy Sierra is a visionary among web and applications developers, who includes gratuitous puppy pictures in her presentations. She claims they induce a chemical response in the brains of her audience that make them pay better attention. I think she's just got a soft spot for puppies.
She delivered the keynote address at the SxSW conference here in Austin, Texas, where Greenpeace has been nominated for a Web award for the Green my Apple site.
She wrote an appreciation of the campain at her must-read blog, Creating Passionate Users, calling it a "novel, inspiring approach" to helping Apple create a cool, green product with the help of its fans.
I had a chance to talk to her after the speech, thanked her for the blog mention, gave her a button, and lamented that I had really hoped to get a picture of her hugging her Mac for our Green my Apple Flickr group, but it was all packed up. With a long line of folks still wanting to get their 30 seconds of face time, she said she'd love to, and unpacked it!
When the gal who wrote the book on creating passionate users is one of your passionate users, you know you´re doing something right.
Come on Apple -- if you won't introduce a 100% take back policy or phase out of hazardous chemicals in your product line for us, then do it for Kathy! And all your users like her who say "We love our Macs, we just wish they came in green."
Z heads North Northwest to get to South by Southwest
Zeina, our E-waste campaigner, writes:
Two months ago like today, I was queuing at the entrance of the Moscone north in San Francisco with the rest of the APPLE aficionadas hoping to hear that Steve would be revealing the NEW green APPLE products. Disappointedly that day, we ONLY got this cool new phone BUT nothing on a greener product from the Master of Innovation and Design within the electronics industry.Today I am on the plane heading north west from Amsterdam across the ocean then going South aiming to land in Austin Texas so I can attend and participate in the South by South West (SXSW) Festival where the grenmyapple.org is a finalist for a web award...
New Austin Apple store
Well how about that. Austin, Texas had a brand new Apple Store open up today just as some members of Team Green My Apple hit town to (hopefully) collect the SXSW Web Award for the Green my Apple website. I reckoned I should drop by and make friendly.
I helped out with the Grand Opening by making sure this image from the Green my Apple website was on a few of the machines.
For our Hug Your Mac campaign, you're supposed to download the campaign wallpaper onto your mac and take a picture. But looky: this mac wanted to join the campaign so bad that it was already displaying the campaign message when I walked up to it:
Hugging the tree huggers
Every morning I have a quick browse of the news on Greenpeace and a specific search for news on Greenpeace and Apple to see what's being reported about Green my Apple. Often there's something interesting or amusing but occasionally there's a gem hidden in the assorted articles. This mornings gem comes via Business Week - "Hugging the tree huggers" - that details how many corporations are now working with green groups.
The Infinite Loop response that never was
For our Green my Apple campaign I've been watching the online buzz on blogs about the campaign closely. An influential blog on Apple is Infinite Loop.
Back at the start of January, Infinite Loop ran an article claiming that "EPA information should make GreenPeace red-faced" about our information on Apple. Being an Apple blog it was pretty one sided and of course it was lapped up online by some Mac fans eager to prove Apple is completely green after all. Even though the EPEAT ranking had been around since July 2006, the story spawned many more blogs some with even more over blown headlines like "EPA proves Greenpeace wrong" just right before the opening of Macworld. What followed was an interesting peek in to the world of Apple blogs.
Green my Apple gets SXSW nomination
Good news reached the web team here in Amsterdam on Friday - our Green my Apple website has been nominated for a SXSW web award. South by Southwest is a very cool interactive, film and music festival that takes place every year in Austin, Texas. They are pretty prestigious awards for the best websites of 2006.
Even better many of the SXSW festival attendees are Mac users. The news gave us a welcome excuse for a Friday afternoon toast in the office. You can help by voting for us in the people's choice awards.
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