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Apple Celebrates Earth Day with Full Page Advert in Newspapers Around the World

Apple apple newspaper ad eco-friendlyhas long been making a big deal about pursuing eco-friendly policies like renewable energy sources, but they undid much of their work today with their latest ad campaign.

22 April is Earth Day, and Apple decided that the best way to honor this day is to take out full page ads in major newspapers. There’s no word yet on just how many newspapers carried the ad, but I do know that it has shown up in at least NYC and a newspaper in Australia. (I would be willing to bet that the ad was placed in every city where Apple has a retail store.)

According to 9to5Mac, the ad pokes fun at Samsung for not imitating Apple’s eco-friendly policies:

There’s one area where we actually encourage others to imitate us. Because when everyone makes the environment a priority, we all benefits. We’d be more than happy to see every data centre fuelled by 100% renewable energy sources. And we eagerly await the day when every product is made without the harmful toxins we have removed from ours.

Of course we know we can continue to do better. We’ve set some pretty ambitious goals for reducing our impact on climate change, making our products with greener materials and conserving our planet’s limited resources. So the next time we come across a great idea that can help leave the world better than we found it, we look forward to sharing.

In short, Apple has taken out a full page ad to pat itself on the back for policies like reducing paper usage in packaging. And the ad ran in papers around the world.

Whose bright idea was that?

Hey Apple, I have a suggestion for a way to make the environment a priority: don’t buy full page ads.

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Comments


Paul April 22, 2014 um 10:17 am

On some levels, I think Apple is doing pretty good. http://www.mactrast.com/2014/04/new-greenpeace-report-gives-apple-high-ranking-green-internet-report/


Lance April 22, 2014 um 11:11 am

This is kind of silly. I seriously doubt all newspapers add a page to run these ads. It usually means Apple bought a page someone else would have. This is far from some eco disaster (and this is an area important to me). Disclaimer: I use OSX but not iOS.


Scott April 22, 2014 um 12:00 pm

Was this the site that was going to have less snark?

Nate Hoffelder April 22, 2014 um 12:02 pm

I don’t see any snark in this post.


Robin April 22, 2014 um 1:20 pm

How many ebooks do we need to read to offset the environmental cost of producing our ebook readers? 🙂


Tim Gray April 23, 2014 um 3:17 am

Worse still, Apple routinely promotes products that use electricity.

(Seriously, what’s your point? Other than "I really like to bash Apple.")

Nate Hoffelder April 23, 2014 um 7:59 am

Apple wasted natural resources to talk about how great they are at being eco-friendly. I really don’t understand why that doesn’t bother more people.


Q April 23, 2014 um 8:47 am

While I applaud Apple’s energy initiatives in the USA, it’s only scratching the surface of their environmental practices. The production is still done by companies like Foxconn–they don’t care about their own workers, let alone the environment–and they still make products that are anything but eco friendly.

You want to impress me? Enforce strict environmental guidelines throughout your manufacturing chain, build products that can be repaired and upgraded, produce your devices with more renewable resources, and quit being so pretentious about everything (really, a full-page add?).

The full page add bit is kind of funny (and a lil' sad) in an ironic sort of way though. 🙂

Paul April 23, 2014 um 9:03 am

Strangely enough, that’s exactly what they are doing. Every mac is now completely recyclable, unlike every other manufacturer, and you can drop off your equipment at any Apple store for recycling, which is also unusual. Plus their repair service is pretty first rate. I’ve used it three or four times over the year and each time my computer was repaired and useful again.

And a reminder that Apple was the first US company to insist on strict environmental and health guidelines for all its contractors in China, unlike HP or Samsung or IBM. So I think they have a right to crow a bit about that.

Q April 23, 2014 um 10:42 am

Paul, I’m not so sure about that. They still use liberal amounts of adhesive in attaching their batteries, they solder the RAM into place, and require specific tools (which Apple has) to take apart their machines.

While I know about the Apple recycling program, I also know that they adjust their manufacturing processes just a little bit to make these machines significantly greener. I took apart a Zenbook (ASUS) the other day. It’s just as thin and light as a MacBook Air, but was easy to take apart. The RAM wasn’t soldered in, and I could easily replace the HDD.

This is true recyclability because when something goes wrong with the machine, you can simply fix it, rather than sending it through Apple reclamation service. No amount of recycling where components are broken down into the baser materials is 100% efficient.

Also, as a reminder, Apple heads up the "oversight" company that checks in on those health guidelines. By all reports (except Apple’s), employees in China are still treated pretty horribly.

An interesting read for you regarding recycling: http://ifixit.org/recycling

More information regarding repairability: http://ifixit.org/products

Apple isn’t solving the problem, they’re just going for PR (and getting it).


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