After withdrawing its portfolio from the Electronic Product Environment Assessment Tool (EPEAT) last week, Apple is once again amongst its fold.
Part of that consideration no doubt came from the extremely swift reaction of the city of San Francisco, which put the kibosh on Apple products one day later, due to non-compliance. Federal government agencies are also not allowed to use non-EPEAT compliant products, which would have compounded the problem.
All eligible Apple products are once again part of EPEAT Gold registry, including the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. Interestingly, the MacBook Pro with Retina Display also gets the EPEAT Gold tick — it was originally speculated that its difficult-to-disassemble nature was what lead to Apple pulling out of EPEAT in the first place.
On its website, Apple's sSenior Vvice Ppresident of Hhardware Eengineering referred to the initial move as "a mistake":
We've recently heard from many loyal Apple customers who were disappointed to learn that we had removed our products from the EPEAT rating system. I recognize that this was a mistake. Starting today, all eligible Apple products are back on EPEAT.
Robert Frisbee, EPEAT CEO, welcomed Apple back to the fold in an open letter on its website, but highlighted that there's room for the certification to evolve:
An interesting question for EPEAT is how to reward innovations that are not yet envisioned with standards that are fixed at a point in time. Diverse goals, optional points awarded for innovations not yet described, and flexibility within specified parameters to make this happen are all on the table in EPEAT stakeholder discussions. And, of course, timely standards development, as with newly created Imaging Equipment and Television standards, and the current refresh of the PC/Display standard, is critical as well.