Apple rejoins EPEAT after withdrawal ‘mistake’

A few days after the City of San Francisco announced that it would ban departmental purchases of Apple products over environmental concerns, Apple has reversed its decision to withdraw from the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) green standards program.

"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. It’s important to know that our commitment to protecting the environment has never changed, and today it is as strong as ever," writes Bob Mansfield, Apple's senior veep of hardware engineering.

Today Apple re-joins the environmental rating system, and is putting all of its eligible devices back on the EPEAT list.

“Our relationship with EPEAT has become stronger as a result of this experience,” Mansfield said, adding that the company would be working with the group to help the current rating system “evolve.” Robert Frisbee, EPEAT’s chief executive officer, said the group “looked forward to Apple’s strong creative thoughts on ongoing standards development. Our relationship with Apple is based on our natural alignment. As Apple drives innovation in product design, EPEAT drives innovation in standards design.”