• by Emily Burg , May 7, 2007

Responding to last month's Greenpeace technology report ranking it last in its quarterly guide of the technology industry's environmental practices, Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs has written an open letter outlining ways in which the company has, is and will bring its environmental practices in line, which it posted on a sub site of its Web site at apple.com/hotnews/agreenerapple/.

In the letter, Jobs attempts to minimize the findings of the April Greenpeace report, which ranked Apple at the bottom of the tech barrel, as well as the effects of Greenpeace's concurrent 2007 Webby-award winning activist campaign "Green my Apple."

Never one to shirk the opportunity to boast, Jobs flouts the Greenpeace reports findings--without citing it by name--writing: "I was surprised to learn that in many cases Apple is ahead of, or will soon be ahead of, most of its competitors in these areas." He goes on to apologize for failing "to communicate the things that we are doing well," and then outlines how Apple is removing toxic chemicals from its products, recycling e-waste and made a statement about the company's future intentions.

Greenpeace's "Green my Apple" campaign made explicit the disconnect between the Apple brand's socially conscious image and its environmental fallibility.

The language across the Greenpeace site showed its affection for Apple and its disappointment with its environmental record. Greenpeace.org/apple is rife with user-created parodies of Apple ads rewritten to have pro-green messages, many appropriating Apple's "Think Different" slogan to read "Think Green." This accompanied a letter-writing campaign on the Greenpeace Web site that said "Steve, green our Apple in 2007," urging Greenpeace members to participate by stating: "If you love Apple like we do, don't you wish it came in Green?"

Greenpeace responded very positively to Jobs' letter, saying: "Steve Jobs has decided to bring us closer to the greener Apple that Mac users all over the world have been asking for," while adding that Apple's changed policy still falls short of what Greenpeace would ultimately like to see, declaring the next level of the "Green my Apple" mission to be "making Apple green to the core."