Apple Returns to Eco-Friendly Registry After San Francisco Boycotts Tech Giant

By Suzanne Stathatos Fri., Jul. 13 2012 at 3:48 PM

Categories: Environment, Tech

Earl Wilkerson via Flickr

Apple cowers to SF's green might

Say what you want about how crazy San Franciscans are, but it appears we do have some pull. The recent city boycott of Apple products seems to have worked. After a brief two-week hiatus, Apple announced today that it would go back to adding its products to EPEAT -- the green electronics registry.

Although Apple rejected the eco-friendly list on June 29, saying that it did not plan to submit its products for future ratings, today, the Bay Area tech giant admitted that it was remiss in doing so, and quickly jumped on the chance to work with EPEAT again.

Bob Mansfield, Apple's senior vice president of hardware engineering, posted a letter on the company's website saying that he had "heard from many loyal Apple customers who were disappointed" in Apple's pulling of its 39 products from EPEAT.

Surely, you can guess that some of these loyal Apple customers were right here in foggy San Francisco. On Tuesday, San Francisco city leaders pledged to boycott Apple products in an effort to show how green our city really is.

The list requires that electronics are designed so that they can be recycled easily. Some of Apple's products, including the iPhone, iPad, and the new Macbook Pro, do not meet EPEAT standards, but Apple will register products that do meet the registry's requirements.

Apple has seen quantitative success after rejoining EPEAT. According to the press, "shares of Apple rose $7.66, or 1.3 percent, to $606.56 in afternoon trading."

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