From its hardware to its data centers, Apple is known for touting its environmentally-friendly bona fides — but the company has modified that stance when it comes to its hardware. This past month Apple pulled its 39 products that were featured in the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) registry, telling the organization that it would not be submitting future items for consideration. EPEAT evaluates how much a given product impacts the environment, taking into account its recyclability, upgradeability, manufacturing processes, and energy consumption. Apple had previously touted EPEAT certification as a high point, with the company's most recent iMacs having received the organization's highest rating, EPEAT Gold. In fact, Apple is still touting the EPEAT Gold certification for the iMac on its own website, though the image of the EPEAT seal itself is strangely absent.

Apple has been moving steadily towards more compact products with less accessibility, starting with the original iPhone's non-replaceable battery, and culminating most recently with the MacBook Pro with Retina display, which features almost no user-serviceable elements whatsoever. EPEAT CEO Robert Frisbee told CIO Journal that Apple had informed the organization that the computer manufactuer's "design direction was no longer consistent with the EPEAT requirements." We've reached out to Apple for further comment.