“We regret that Apple will no longer be registering its products in EPEAT,” the organisers said. “We hope that they will decide to do so again at some point in future.” Following this, rumors pulled in that government bodies, schools and some businesses would block purchases of Apple computers in order to show their discontent. The rumors took the face of reality as San Francisco officials have decided to ask the local government bodies to stop buying new Apple Macintosh computers. City officials in San Francisco have made it clear that they have taken this decision following Apple’s decision of pulling out of the green certification scheme designed to identify which electronic devices pose the least risk to the environment. Chief information officer, San Francisco justified his decision on BBC by stating that his decision was in line with a long running policy to opt for equipment listed on the EPEAT registry. “San Francisco has reached out to Apple and is hopeful that a solution to this challenge can be found in the future,” said Jon Walton. However, sources reveal that Apple is in no mood of rolling back its decision. “Apple takes a comprehensive approach to measuring our environmental impact and all of our products meet the strictest energy efficiency standards backed by the US government,” a spokeswoman said. “We also lead the industry by reporting each product’s greenhouse gas emissions on our website, and Apple products are superior in other important environmental areas not measured by EPEAT, such as removal of toxic materials.” Nevertheless, if analysts are to be believed then Apple has taken this decision in order to protect its long-term interests. Colin Gillis, senior technology analyst at BGC Partners said, “Apple has a long history of being a cutting-edge design company and some of these processes involve state of the art components and manufacturing techniques. Its entire credo is to be pushing the envelope forward, and in our opinion it’s better to lose some sales rather than risk not having any at all.”
