Jobs suffers weak green conversion

HAS STEVE JOBS finally got the message? Greenpeace has excoriated Apple in recent months for lagging behind all of Dell, Nokia, Hewlett-Packard, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Sony, LG Electronics, Panasonic, Toshiba, and Fujitsu Siemens in their commitment to and practice of sustainable environmental policies. The environmental group has won an award for best activist website.

The materials that Apple has used in its products do not contribute to a happy iLife. The statement outlines how they no plan to phase out the use of such poisons as arsenic and mercury, used in LCD screens, and cadmium, hexavalent chromium and decabromidiphenyl ether, which are used in creating some metals and plastics.

Jobs' statement also details Apple's plans to be recycling more than Dell or HP by the year 2010. Little is said about manufacturing practices to date, other than to say that other manufacturers have also used these poisons. Apparently if everyone else does it, it's not so bad.

I have written recently in both Eureka Street and The Big Issue on the inbuilt obsolescence of Apple products, an issue neatly sidestepped in Jobs' statement. While not the only 'guilty party', Apple is particularly good at locking people into its products and services.

A case in point is the Ipod. When Apple released its fifth generation Ipod, it made a small change that had big implications. Formerly, most after-market accessories plugged into the top of the Ipod. For generation five, all accessories had to plug into the bottom of the Ipod.

This may not seem like a big change. It was. In one fell swoop, anyone who bought a new Ipod (perhaps because the difficult-to-replace-battery had expired) was unable to use their old accessories. Before you ask ‘so what?' bear in mind that, according to CNET.com.au, the accessories market for Ipods was worth $1.05 billion dollars last year, excluding web sales. That's quite a (re-invigorated) cash cow.

Steve Jobs' statement is a pleasant piece of Ispin. Little is said in the statement about Apple's philosophy of locking people into its 'ecosystem.' Apple may well be on the way to being the best recyclers in the world. However, building products with limited lifespans and severely limiting ‘backwards compatability' is counter-intuitive to idea of recycling and being environmentally responsible.

Having Al Gore on board as the token eco-warrior board member will only go so far. What is needed is systemic change, and a new manufacturing philosophy. Apple is not the only company that builds obsolescence into its products. For a company that prides itself on being forward-thinking, however, its environmental and manufacturing policies are quite backwards. µ