San Francisco officials plan ban on Apple Macintosh computers

PanARMENIAN.Net - City officials in San Francisco plan to block local government agencies from buying new Apple Macintosh computers, according to BBC News.

The move follows the firm's decision to pull out of a green certification scheme designed to identify which electronic devices pose the least risk to the environment.

CIO Journal reported the ban was designed to encourage Apple to reconsider.

It noted local officials spent $45,579 (£29,365) on Apple equipment in 2010.

The sum is a fraction of the firm's $65bn net sales the same year, but the fact that its Cupertino headquarters is about 70km away from San Francisco (43 miles) and many of its staff live in the city have helped the act gain attention.

The Wall Street Journal blog said letters would be sent to all 50 of the city's agencies over the next fortnight.

A statement from Apple suggested it had no plans to reverse its decision.

"Apple takes a comprehensive approach to measuring our environmental impact and all of our products meet the strictest energy efficiency standards backed by the US government," a spokeswoman said. "We also lead the industry by reporting each product's greenhouse gas emissions on our website, and Apple products are superior in other important environmental areas not measured by EPEAT, such as removal of toxic materials."

The organizers of EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) announced last week that Apple was withdrawing its products from the registry and would no longer submit new devices to receive ratings.

"We regret that Apple will no longer be registering its products in EPEAT," the organizers said. "We hope that they will decide to do so again at some point in future."

The news prompted speculation that government bodies, schools and some businesses would bar purchases of Apple computers as a result.

U.S. government rules dictate that 95% of all electronics bought by official agencies must fall under EPEAT's scheme. iPads and iPhones do not fall under the system's remit.

Apple has not explained why it abandoned the standard which it helped create in 2006.