Apple's Green Up Manifesto  E-mail
Written by Hank Green   
Wednesday, 02 May 2007

Steve Jobs just broke one of his unbreakable rules. He's talking about what Apple will do, not what apple is doing. And he's broken that rule for us!

Apparently the GreenPeace campaigns have really gotten under his skin and he's putting a stop to it. Jobs' new green manifesto "A Greener Apple," recently appeared at apple.com and it's got some pretty juicy bits in it.

First, I'm loving the shape of that recycling graph. Those figures, while not ideal, are fairly impressive.

Second, I (along with the entire rest of the world) am extremely excited to hear that Apple will be releasing LED back-lit monitors in it's products starting this year. LED backlights mean brighter, whiter, longer-lasting and less power-hungry monitors.

It's exciting to see Apple responding to criticisms. Especially since my wife really wants that new MacBook Pro.


Comments (5)add
Greenpeace
written by Andrew , May 02, 2007
Whats ridiculous is the way Greenpeace is claiming in a big hoohaa they have affected Apple's policies here:
http://www.greenpeace.org/inte...ws-020507

Whereas reading Jobs' note explains that the policies were already in place. In reality Greenpeace were ignoramus' who did no actual investigation of the issue, made a big fuss out of nothing and then claimed to have changed everything for the better.

I'm a huge supporter of the environmental movement but in my eyes Greenpeace is the same as it always has been - a self-aggrandizing political movement that achieves nothing of actual worth and then claims it has made a difference.
I honestly agree
written by Hank , May 03, 2007
I would never give money to GreenPeace, I'm pretty sure all they do is say "Hey Look Over Here" and then when you look, their philanthropy people take your money.

But, that doesn't change that Apple is doing something it almost never does...and the pressure is from a lot more places than GreenPeace. Mainly...Dell and HP and their constant Enviro-PR campaigns.
LED's more efficent
written by Adam , May 03, 2007
Maybe I’m missing something here but when did LED efficiency surpass that of the cold cathode tube that is currently used in backlighting? I thought LED’s still weren’t up to the point of florescent bulbs, although florescent do contain a lot of icky stuff and can’t be dimmed nearly as easily as an LED. Plus I know that LED’s have this super long life span but in practical use the bright ones never seem to really get there, I think it’s mainly due to problems with heat management and power management. Maybe someone can add some more knowledge to this topic.
...
written by Anu , May 15, 2007
Does this mean they'll stop calling the Macintosh and start calling them Granny Smith? ;>)
LED efficiency
written by Lance , August 08, 2007
LEDs passed fluoro (at least CCFL) efficiency some time back in fact. CCFL efficiency seems to be around 45 lumens per watt for most tubes, some are a lot less than this. Good quality white LEDs (Cree, Nichia etc) have bins going up to over 100 lumens per watt now, making them as efficient as regular T5 strip fluoros, which are currently the most efficient fluoro you can buy (but are not used in LCDs of course).

Nichia has demonstrated LEDs of around 150 lumens per watt in the lab, and I expect we will see commercially available units next year of at least 120 lumens per watt, probably better.

Also, remember that a CCFL tube throws light in all directions, not just where you want it, whereas LEDs are very easy to make in directional versions.

So, in short, the best white light source, and especially the best compact white light source, is LEDs.
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Hank Green
About the author:

Hank Green is the founder and chief geek at EcoGeek.org. Aside from being obsessed with saving the planet with technology, he loves to write and make videos. If you want to find out more about him, visit hankgreen.com

 
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