Apple has hit back at criticism of its environmental record by outlining its green plans for the future.

Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, has written a document entitled ‘A Greener Apple’ in which he refutes claims by leading environmental action group, Greenpeace, and takes a few swipes at the green policies of rivals Dell, HP and Lenovo, among others. More importantly though, he has committed Apple to an ambitious series of measures to improve the company’s planet-friendliness.

Greenpeace recently ranked Apple last again in its quarterly ranking of environmentally friendly IT companies, based on Apple’s policies on recycling and use of toxic substances in its products.

Today, Apple set out to clear up any misconceptions and improve its image, by firstly pointing out that it stopped making CRT displays, which are filled with lead, back in 2006 – while certain rivals still do [Dell, HP, Gateway].

Apple plans to completely eliminate the use of arsenic in all of its displays by the end of 2008 and will stop using mercury in its displays when moving to LED backlighting becomes more “feasible”. It will also stop using PVC and brominated flame retardants, or BFRs, by the end of next year.

On the recycling front Apple is planning to extend its free recycling of people’s old iPods to all of its global stores this summer, not just the US ones. In addition, it will offer consumers a 10% discount on the cost of new iPod when they turn in the old one.

Jobs said: “It is generally not Apple’s policy to trumpet our plans for the future; we tend to talk about the things we have just accomplished. Unfortunately this policy has left our customers, shareholders, employees and the industry in the dark about Apple’s desires and plans to become greener.

“Our stakeholders deserve and expect more from us, and they’re right to do so. They want us to be a leader in this area, just as we are in the other areas of our business. So today we’re changing our policy.”

Read the full document here.

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