Environmentally Green Apple
Apple designs products with the environment in mind, taking a complete product life cycle approach in determining environmental impact. Their life cycle analysis accounts for all emissions associated with their products, including raw material extraction, manufacturing, packaging, transportation, a 3 to 4 year period of use, and recycling.
iMac includes a highly efficient power supply that reduces the amount of power wasted when bringing electricity from the wall to your computer. Lower power consumption reduces energy bills and lessens the environmental impact of greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The iMac uses energy-efficient hardware components that work hand in hand with the operating system to conserve power. Mac OS X spins down hard drives and activates sleep mode on already energy-efficient LED-backlit displays.
It’s also what iMac doesn’t have that makes it more environmentally friendly. It’s free of many harmful toxins, including mercury, arsenic, BFRs, and PVC. Apple engineers have worked hard to eliminate BFRs and PVC from iMac circuit boards, internal and external cables, connectors, insulators, and adhesives. And they’ve eliminated many other toxins that are a common part of desktop computer manufacturing — choosing, for example, mercury-free backlighting and arsenic-free glass for the iMac display.
Designing green products includes considering the environmental impact of the materials used to make them. From the glass, plastic, and metal in our products to the paper and ink in their packaging. Apple designers and engineers have integrated the entire iMac computer into an enclosure made from a single, solid piece of recyclable aluminum. The display is made of recyclable glass. Both the aluminum and glass materials are very desirable to recyclers, which means the raw materials used in iMac can be reused in other products. Because iMac is made from materials such as aluminum and glass, it’s more likely to be recycled and reused at the end of its long, productive life.
