The City of San Francisco will no longer be buying Macs following Apple's withdrawal of its products from the eco-friendly EPEAT registry. Officials from San Francisco's Department of Environment confirmed the move to the CIO Journal on Tuesday, saying that purchases of Apple's MacBooks, iMacs, Mac Pros, and other products would no longer be allowed among the city's 50 agencies because they "no longer qualify" for city funds.

EPEAT is a national registry of environmentally sound electronics, including desktops, notebooks, and displays. The standard used by EPEAT was developed by participating electronics manufacturers in conjunction with green groups and requires a certain level of recyclability. One of the standards is the ease of disassembly using common tools. Although Apple has increasingly touted its green efforts in recent years, some of its products—including the current third-generation iPad and Retina MacBook Pro—have received criticism for being particularly unfriendly to end user repairs.

Membership in EPEAT is voluntary, but numerous schools and government agencies require the products they buy to meet EPEAT certification. When it came out last week that Apple had withdrawn all of its 39 products from EPEAT's list, various city and local governments began examining their pending Apple purchases. Observers have pointed out that a tiny percentage (around 1-2 percent) of municipal PC purchases are Macs, and the number of governments that require 100 percent EPEAT compliance is also relatively small, so the impact on Apple's bottom line may end up being minimal.

Still, the City of San Francisco has apparently already decided not to use its funds on non-EPEAT-compliant products. As such, Apple's new products won't be appearing in city offices anytime soon. Several universities—University of California-Berkeley and Cornell included—said they are reviewing their impending purchases as well.

“We are disappointed that Apple chose to withdraw from EPEAT, and we hope that the city saying it will not buy Apple products will make Apple reconsider its participation," Department of Environment Director Melanie Nutter told CIO Journal.