Apple a laggard in climate-change plans, report says

Correction at 8:10 a.m. PDT: Nike's score has been fixed.

IBM, Google, and Microsoft apparently are model citizens when it comes to reducing their carbon footprint, while Apple has a long way to go.

(Credit: Climate Counts)

Climate Counts, a nonprofit funded by yogurt maker Stonyfield Farm, released on Wednesday its annual assessment of corporations' actions related to addressing climate change and whether they live up to their "green" marketing claims.

Climate Counts uses public information to rank companies in all industries.

The electronics and IT industry had the best industry ranking with a score of 56 on average out of a possible 100 points, led by a score of 77 from IBM, which edged out consistently high performer Canon.

The industry does well because most vendors have done a lifecycle analysis of their carbon emissions, examining energy and consumption of its supply chain partners, and the impact of waste from their products.

Apple, which has come under fire for the use of toxic materials, scored at the bottom of the electronics sector list with an 11.

According to its individual scorecard, Apple's ranking was hurt by incomplete reporting and because it hasn't set goals to reduce its own or its partners' greenhouse gases.

(Credit: Climate Counts)

In the area of Internet/software, Google has become the new standard-bearer. Google got the top spot because it has a program to measure its carbon emissions and because of its program through Google.org to invest in clean-energy ventures.

The overall leader across all industries was Nike, which scored 82. Click here for PDFs of the results and the press release.

[mmichaels]

I have gained more respect for Apple. AGW - What a crock.

[MyRightEye]

Well, so what you're telling us is that Apple employs people that can discern fear-mongering propaganda from scientific reality. Is it so strange for a computer company to know the difference between computer simulated forecasts that scream AGW and the actual scientific data that screams "settle down young children, its all ok"? Not really.

[pking13]

Some good news from eBay today about their new solar installation in San Jose, CA. Apparently I can't post links to other news sources -- so go check out the Mercury News web site yourself.

I simply can't imagine that Apple's environmental record is as bad as this story claims. We're talking about a single study funded by a yogurt company. I'm not sure why this study is trustworthy, or if this single study's findings are really newsworthy.

[chad.armstrong]

"funded by a yogurt company" - I almost spit water all over my screen

[Nicholas Buenk]

If every desk had an iMac instead of your average PC box. It would do a lot to prevent climate change, it's the Prius of desktops. Apple's computers are far more efficient with power than your average computer. Largely because they use many laptop components, to fit a computer into a monitor. And more than half of macs sold are actually laptops too.
Perhaps this is why Apple loses, they are confident already that they're environmentally sound and hence haven't looked carefully into their logistics systems.

[Orion Blastar]

Al Gore is an environmental adviser to Apple, how come he missed those violations?

[greeny73]

I have trouble believing this at first glance. On another green news site - http://www.cutyourfootprint.com - they have evaluations of how green companies are and they don't seem to fit with these results.

[histerius]

Climate Counts' report is an example of very bad PR. You may read my analysis here: http://www.poandpo.com/business-as-usual/how-climate-counts-got-it-all-wrong/