InfoWorld Does Apple’s abandonment of EPEAT mean it’s going less green?

New MacBook is difficult to disassemble for upgrades, repairs, and recycling — and could force the green-minded to rethink Apple loyalties

Apple’s decision to abandon EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) has generated a wave of speculation as to what the move means for the future of the hardware maker’s green endeavors. At the heart of the controversy is the company’s newest MacBook Pro with Retina Display, which Apple designed in such a way that it’s difficult to disassemble for the sake of repairs, upgrades, and recycling.

A bit of background: EPEAT announced late last week that Apple was removing all 39 of its existing entries from the EPEAT registry. The statement simply said that Apple had been a founder and a longtime supporter of the program and that EPEAT hoped the company would return. Robert Frisbee, CEO of EPEAT, later elaborated to CIO Journal: “They said their design direction was no longer consistent with the EPEAT requirements. They were important supporters, and we are disappointed that they don’t want their products measured by this standard anymore.”

Apple has remained mum on the move, at least to the public, but is almost certainly receiving inquiries from federal and local agencies, schools, businesses, and consumers that use the EPEAT registry as a guideline for choosing which computers and monitors they’ll purchase.  More