Environmental Leader

Yesterday Apple showed off the new generation 17-inch MacBook Pro, the latest edition of  “the world’s greenest family of notebooks.”

The notebook is less than an inch thick, is made of highly recyclable aluminum and glass, and contains no hazardous chemicals, like arsenic, BFR, mercury, and PVC, reported a blogger directly from MacWorld.  The packaging is 34 percent smaller than previous models.

The lithium-polymer battery, however, drew the most interest: It allegedly has 1000 recharges and will run for up to eight hours on a single charge. Moreover, it is built in to the laptop, making the energy-storage design more like the MacBook Air, iPods and iPhone than that of the smaller MacBook Pros.

No one is really sure who is the supplier of the battery, though some speculate it could be a major manufacturer like Toshiba, Sanyo, or Panasonic. But it may be a startup company, like Boston Power, Actatell, or Mobius Power. Then again, Apple may have worked on the battery in-house, writes Earth2Tech.

In October, Greenpeace knocked Apple off its throne, giving it a 4.1 out of 10 on its Guide to Green Electronics, well below Sony, Toshiba, Dell, Acer, HP, and Panasonic. Consumers, however, still believe Apple to be the No. 1 eco-friendly consumer technology brand.