Apple has come back to the EPEAT certification program following a public appeal on its past decision to withdraw products from the program’s archive.

EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) is a foundation that promotes recycling of leftover products and Apple was noted to have assisted in organizing it, thus, when the firm announced that it is removing all its authorized products from the foundation registry, it brought extensive criticism seeing that the firm appeared to have abandoned the organization, as well as its objectives.

It seemed that the firm’s move brought a negative impact on its marketing operations, aside from the criticisms it received. The city government of San Francisco declared that it would no longer be able to purchase Apple products due to its EPEAT-only policy.

The late Steve jobs presenting an Apple MacBook Pro with EPEAT Gold certification in 2008. Image: Engadget

Apple’s SVP for hardware engineering Bob Mansfield commented that removing all of its authorized products from EPEAT’s archive were a mistake and that that the firm’s commitment “to protecting the environment has never changed”. He also stated, “Our relationship with EPEAT has become stronger as a result of this experience, and we look forward to working with EPEAT as their rating system and the underlying IEEE 1680.1 standard evolve.” As a resolution, all removed products will be re-registered on EPEAT’s archive.

According to EPEAT CEO Robert Frisbee, “The outcome must reward new directions for both design and sustainability, simultaneously supporting the environment and the market for all manufacturers’ elegant and high-performance products.” He specified that the organization must highly consider gratifying innovation that goes beyond the normal standards.

Apple’s false move was unexpected given that the firm has high standards in terms of good decision making and didn’t push on problems such as Antenna gate. It only goes to show that Apple must know who the boss is. That is, failure for bulk-buying companies to acquire expensive toys due to purchasing policies can even make the largest companies, such as Apple, to look back, listen and humiliatingly do a back down.

However, this is not a first for Apple, which had been into several public errors in its plan of attack to the product environmental performance space.

In 2006, Greenpeace’s Green Electronics Guide rated Apple the lowest marks in the industry due to its frigidity about any of its product and corporate environmental performance features or plans of action. The company also resisted to make any visible progress. Apple eventually changed state and its ratings improved after its environment web page was born.

MacWorld 2009 saw Apple as it plastered San Francisco and other places with ads that claimed it offers the greenest notebook computers. The company based its claim on the fact that its products received EPEAT Gold certificates. Dell, however, filed a complaint against Apple for its false green claim and won. The ads vanished into thin air, never to be seen again.

About Francis Rey Balolong

A coffee junkie who spends most of his time writing about the latest news on social media and mobile technology. I would definitely consider myself a nerd (in the coolest most hipster way possible). That being said, I love technology, music, writing, and all things mobile. Follow me: Google+ Twitter

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