I’m not a huge trend follower. When it comes to how I spend my money, for clothes or tech gear, I look for function over form. But even I have my weaknesses and a few years ago I wanted to be one of those hip, beautiful people I saw plastered on city streets and on television ads and in order to do that I needed to have an ipod, so I got one. Now comes the iphone, and my oh so stylish and computer savvy friends swear by their Apple computers. A recent article posted on AlterNet questions the environmental policies of the mega tech company.

In December of 2006, Greenpeace released a report ranking the overall environmental policy of major technology companies. Dell was at the top but Apple found itself at the bottom. While top companies like Dell and Nokia have made great strides to eliminate the most toxic chemicals from their products and offer strong recycling programs, Apple has not.

Apple, of course, defended its reputation and its environmental policies.

Apple spokesperson Kristin Huguet provided the official Apple response to the Greenpeace ranking and campaign: “We disagree with Greenpeace’s rating and the criteria they chose. Apple has a strong environmental track record and has led the industry in restricting and banning toxic substances such as mercury, cadmium, hexavelent chromium, as well as many brominated flame retardants. We have also completely eliminated CRT monitors, which contain lead, from our product line. Apple desktops, notebooks, and displays, each score best in class in the new EPA ranking system EPEAT, which uses new international standards set by IEEE.”

None of the big computer manufacturers have a great record on the environment in general actually so my question to you, the readers, is how important is a company’s environmental policy? Do you think about this before you buy a product? It’s honestly not something I’ve really thought about before reading this article. Is there such a thing as “green” technology?

Via / AlterNet

Image Via / Silicon Valley Sleuth