A few days back, EPEAT announced that Apple had pulled all its products from the group's green certification registry over design decisions that conflicted with EPEAT's requirements.
Many government institutions and corporations require all their electronic product purchases to be EPEAT certified, and since the announcement of the withdrawal, many companies had even issued notices disallowing the purchase of Macs.
The change in decision was announced in an open letter by Apple's SVP of Hardware Engineering, Bob Mansfield:
Perhaps realizing that it would be losing a lot of potential market to PC OEMs, Apple has rolled back its decision and all of its products from today are back on EPEAT's registry.
It’s important to know that our commitment to protecting the environment has never changed, and today it is as strong as ever. Apple makes the most environmentally responsible products in our industry. In fact, our engineering teams have worked incredibly hard over the years to make our products even more environmentally friendly, and much of our progress has come in areas not yet measured by EPEAT.
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.
In the letter, Mansfield lays out various efforts undertaken by Apple to make its products more friendly to the environment including the removal of toxic substances, reporting greenhouse gas emissions of each product and using materials that are more recyclable and longer lasting.
He concludes the letter with a renewed support towards EPEAT:
Our relationship with EPEAT has become stronger as a result of this experience, and we look forward to working with EPEAT as their rating system and the underlying IEEE 1680.1 standard evolve. Our team at Apple is dedicated to designing products that everyone can be proud to own and use.
Over at EPEAT's website, CEO Robert Frisbee writes:
We look forward to Apple’s strong and creative thoughts on ongoing standards development. The outcome must reward new directions for both design and sustainability, simultaneously supporting the environment and the market for all manufacturers’ elegant and high-performance products.
Our relationship with Apple is based on our natural alignment – as Apple drives innovation in product design, EPEAT drives innovation in standards design. EPEAT has pioneered voluntary standards, after-market verification, optional criteria and tiered product certification as ways to keep pace with a fast-paced industry.
The rollback is rather curious, as Apple isn't known to do a 180 on its decisions, that too in such a short span of time. Seems as if Apple's calculation with regard to the aftermath of the withdrawal were severely underestimated.
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.
EPEAT's CEO's post on the topic suggests that the group will amend the requirements of the EPEAT certification to take into account some, if not all, of Apple's design decisions.
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