Blog

So, how green is Apple? Yes, you guessed it right, we’re not talking about the fruit, it’s about the phenomenal Apple Inc. Back in April, the renowned environmental activist group Greenpeace ranked Apple to be a ‘not very environment friendly tech company’. The technology giant received three Ds and an F in the report card issued by Greenpeace. Last week, the report was revised again on the news of Apple’s plan of using 100% renewable power in it’s new iCloud data center. But, is Greenpeace convinced yet?

Apparently, Greenpeace is still skeptic about Apple’s commitment at being green. Together with this rescoring report, the organization has expressed skepticism towards Apple’s plans of turning its maiden facility in North Carolina fully green. The fact that the tech giant backed out of the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) registry last month, and then rejoined under consumer pressure might have added to Greenpeace’s skepticism.

Apple has, however, iterated the company’s commitment for going green in its official website. It says, “Our goal is to meet the needs of the Maiden facility using 100 percent renewable energy by the end of 2012. We have major projects under way to achieve this goal—including building the nation’s largest private solar arrays and building the largest operating non-utility fuel cell installation.”

However, Greenpeace believes that it is nearly impossible for Apple to achieve this goal by the end of 2012. Because, there seems no definite strategy in place to make this happen, “despite a welcome commitment by Apple in May that its data centers will be coal-free and powered by 100 percent renewable energy, the analysis reveals that Apple still lacks a plan that outlines a realistic path to eliminate its reliance on coal to power its iCloud.”

Currently, the power supplied to the Apple facility in North Carolina largely comes from coal which is very environment unfriendly. And there doesn’t seem to be a very significant improvement in this which may suggest that Apple may indeed be able to make this facility completely green-powered by the end of 2012. Hence the contentions of Greenpeace.

Source: Greenpeace

Courtesy: Eweek