At last week's launch of Apples new notebook line up Steve Jobs went out of his way to play up the green elements of the new MacBooks which include reduced toxics, more energy efficient and less packaging. He said that the new MacBook Pro, MacBook and MacBook Air - as well as the LED Cinema Display.
According to Greenpeace the new MacBooks are on a similar level of toxics reduction to the Sony Viao laptop series on PVC, and the Lenovo Think Vision in monitors. They said that the BFR free components represent an improvement from the bar set by the Vaio line.
Apple claims that the greatest achievement of their environmental challenges has been eliminating PVC and BFRs, which they claim many other companies have only promised to phase out of certain parts like enclosures or printed circuit board laminates.
In contrast Apple are removing all forms of bromine and chlorine throughout the entire product, not just PVC and BFRs. They say that Apple has qualified and tested thousands of components and mechanical plastics as bromine and chlorine free, and we are in the final stages of developing and certifying PVC-free power cables.
I'm proud to report that all of Apple's new product designs are on track to meet our 2008 year-end environmental goal: said Steve Jobs.
