Minority Report: A greener Apple

Apple is singing a new, greener tune - thanks in part to pressure from Greenpeace. A good result, says Seb Janacek, but how fair was the eco mud-slinging to the Mac maker?

"It's all psychological. You yell 'Barracuda' and everyone says 'huh?'. You yell 'Shark' and we've got a panic on our hands." -- From the original script for Jaws by Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb

The latest iMac unveiled this month by Apple is thin, shiny and green - if not in colour then at least in its environmental credentials.

Made from recyclable glass and aluminium the redesigned computer is "friendlier to the environment", according to Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Apple's recent and well publicised move to green computing follows a dogged PR war against the company's policy on green manufacturing and recycling.

The Apple brand has been under assault since 2004 by environmental action group Greenpeace. The lobby group has published damning reports that ranked Apple as the worst green offender when compared to 13 other PC makers. The lobby group produced a campaign website that mimicked the design of the Apple site. In another stunt earlier this year, some of its campaigners used coloured floodlights to turn the glass cube above the New York Apple store bright green.

Publicity stunts aside, there's been considerable debate about the veracity of Greenpeace's data on Apple's allegedly poor environmental manufacturing record. In comparison, a 2006 study by the US Environmental Protection Agency found Apple's hardware, and its laptops in particular, beat many of its competitors in the 'think green' stakes.

That didn't deter Greenpeace which stuck to its guns, updating its league table and keeping Apple as the worst offender.

Earlier this year, the company responded. An open letter from Jobs entitled 'A Greener Apple' set out the company's green agenda on manufacturing and recycling.

One of Greenpeace's key criticisms of Apple is that it is secretive about its hardware, as the environmental group bases some of its scoring on what companies state they intend to do about manufacturing materials rather than what they actually do.

While other companies make commitments - though do not necessarily act on them - on greener manufacturing and recycling, Apple keeps its future hardware under wraps, thereby failing a number of Greenpeace's criteria.

In his missive Jobs defended Apple's position and said the company will be measured on its performance. It has promised to cut out certain manufacturing practices by given deadlines and has already started to deliver. For instance, in June this year, the latest MacBook Pro laptop was the first of Apple's computers to feature 'greener' LED backlight technology.

Greenpeace has hailed its campaign a success. And why did it get so much change out of Apple? Because it laid siege to the company's precious brand.

Apple is perceived as the friendly, fashionable face of computing. And given the presence of environmental heavy hitter Al Gore on its board of directors, Apple had to be seen to respond to Greenpeace's criticisms and take the lead in green computing.

For a company that trades so much on its brand, it's not surprising it was prepared to do the unthinkable and give the world a small but significant view of its medium- to long-term product development plans. It must have been a bitter pill to swallow.

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Whether you agree with Greenpeace's modus operandi, it's been a savvy campaign by the lobby group. The argument has at least focused attention on the issue of safer, greener manufacturing processes and the recycling of e-waste. And Greenpeace has achieved its stated goal in getting Apple and its agenda-setting CEO to champion green computing.

Jobs has committed Apple to be a leader in green computing, and has promised to review the company's progress against its stated targets on a regular basis and in a transparent manner.

As an innovator in computer and device design, the green advances Apple has promised to champion are likely to have an influence on other manufacturers - and to bring about more open accountability on the manufacturing and recycling activities of the computer industry's agenda. If it achieves that much then the campaign has really been a success.

The PC industry, like every other manufacturing sector, needed a wake-up call. What better way to do this than to accuse the market of not taking proper regards to the environment - and to focus your marketing ire on the most stand-out brand in the PC industry. That the accuracy of the data that underpinned and justified its campaign is debated would matter little to Greenpeace.

If Greenpeace would have targeted their campaign against Gateway or Lenovo, for instance, would it really have made the headlines? Probably - but not nearly as much as it did by going after Apple.