Apple, which made news in environmental circles recently with its new approach to environmental accounting, took another high-profile action on climate change Monday when it resigned its membership in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over the group’s environmental policies.

Apple became just the latest defection from the business lobbying group. And given that Apple’s every move generates buckets of publicity, the action may serve to thrust the climate change issue into greater focus for the buying public.

Last month three big power utilities — Exelon Corp, PG&E Corp and PNM Resources Inc — said they were leaving the Chamber over its stance on global warming legislation. Nike last week resigned from the board of the Chamber, which has pushed for public hearings to challenge the scientific evidence of manmade climate change.

Apple made its resignation in a letter to Chamber CEO Thomas Donohue:

“As a company, we are working hard to reduce our own greenhouse gas emissions … We have undertaken this unilaterally and without government mandate, because we believe it is the right thing to do. For those companies who cannot or will not do the same, Apple supports regulating greenhouse gas emissions, and it is frustrating to find the Chamber at odds with us in this effort.”

“We would prefer that the Chamber take a more progressive stance on this critical issue and play a constructive role in addressing the climate crisis. However, because the Chamber’s position differs so sharply with Apple’s, we have decided to resign our membership effective immediately.”

The iPhone and Mac maker last month unveiled a new method for assessing its environmental impact. It now calculates what it calls its entire carbon footprint-–from design to production to the emissions generated by those who use it products.

With the documentary “No Impact Man” out in theaters, it’s little surprise that others want to show their support for improving the environment through “no impact” projects of their own. The Huffington Post joins this round of advocacy journalism with Colin Beavan as they launch “No Impact Week,” starting on Oct. 18.

The idea, as expressed in a paperless press release:

The Huffington Post, a leading social news and opinion website, and the No Impact Project, a nonprofit project founded by Colin Beavan, author of No Impact Man and subject of the film by the same title, today announced that the “No Impact Experiment,” an eight-day program encouraging individuals to learn about and implement lifestyle changes to lessen their impact on the environment, will have its inaugural run on the Huffington Post.

Here’s my favorite part:

No Impact Week will feature a daily regimen for users to follow; for instance, Sunday’s focus is on reducing consumption, on Monday the spotlight will be on reducing trash, Tuesday they will commute without adding carbon to the environment - ie, encouraging bike riding and walking; and Wednesday will be about eating foods grown locally and/or sustainably.

The release doesn’t offer an agenda for Thursday, Friday and Saturday so I will: Cut your Internet connection, turn off your computer and read no media, on or offline for the rest of the week (You can tell how hardcore I am, because I’m betting you’ll even get by without MediaFile for a few days). That will help cut your electricity consumption, contributing to your no-impact status. Of course, it would have an impact on The Huffington Post, but that’s another story.

But seriously: Events like this raise the biggest problem with all media — never has it been the most ecologically friendly medium. Freedom of the press means freedom to cut down a lot of trees, burn a lot of oil and if you’re online or in broadcast, suck up a lot of juice, brought to you by coal, nuclear power, the sun or what-have-you.

So I have to ask: Will there ever be a no-impact press? (Stop laughing, you know what I mean.)

(Photo: Reuters)

In a relatively short time, the EPEAT system (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) has become the green standard for computer products in the U.S. And now the rating program — which ranks PCs and displays based on 51 environmental criteria and compiles the information into a searchable database — is expanding its reach internationally.

With the expansion, buyers in the U.S., Canada, Europe, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and Mexico will be able to assess products based on environmental performance in their country. Jeff Omelchuck, EPEAT’s executive director, said the program’s rapid progress is a sign of the growing importance of green in the consumer electronics industry.

“When the registry launched in 2006 on opening day we had 3 participating manufacturers…we had 30 or 40 products,” Omelchuck said. “Today we have the participation of all leading multi-national manufacturers: HP, Dell, Apple, Lenovo, Toshiba Fujitsu, Acer, Asus, really anybody you can name. And a larger number of small local manufacturers.”

EPEAT’s registry features roughly 1,300 products and more than 30 manufacturers. Omelchuck said more than $60 billion worth of purchase contracts now require that the products be EPEAT-registered. U.S. federal agencies are required to buy EPEAT-registered products for at least 95 percent of their needs.

EPEAT rates products “gold,” “silver” or “bronze,” and Omelchuck said progress in the industry can be seen by the improved ratings. When the standard launched, he said it was a roughly 50/50 split for silver and bronze rated products, with no gold. Now, he said, around 25 percent of products carry the gold rating.

EPEAT, which is looking to eventually expand its coverage to products such as printers, servers and smartphones, is managed by the Green Electronics Council, a nonprofit based in Portland, Ore.

Nokia has retained the top spot in Greenpeace’s latest ranking of 17 consumer electronics companies over their environmental practices, while Philips and Apple made strides up the list.

Philips leaped to 4th place from 11th and Apple moved up to 10th place from 14th — best among the top 5 PC makers — in Greenpeace’s latest “Guide to Greener Electronics” report. Companies are ranked based on a number of criteria related to chemicals, e-waste and energy, and Greenpeace uses the report to help pressure companies to change.

Samsung moved up to second place from fourth, while Sony Ericcson dropped a spot to third. Sony rounded out the top five.

Greenpeace said it penalized Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo and Dell for “backtracking” on their commitment to eliminate toxic vinyl plastic (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) by the end of 2009. The environmental group said only Apple and Acer are sticking by pledges to phase out the substances.

Todd Tod Arbogast, director of sustainable business at Dell, said Dell scores well on other portions of the Greenpeace scorecard but that doing away with PVCs and BVRs is challenging.

“Dell continues to commit to eliminating those materials, however as many in our industyr have also acknowledged, its challening to find viable, scaleable substitutes.”

Acer ranked 11th on the overall list, with Dell 13th, Lenovo 14th and HP 16th.

“For decades HP has been a leader in environmental responsibility and has adopted practices in product development, operations and supply chain that are transparent and help to reduce its environmental impact,” HP said in an e-mail statement. “The Greenpeace report confirms that the electronics industry as a whole continues to make progress bringing more environmentally friendly products to market.”

Greenpeace said many consumer electronics companies have shown improvement in the area of climate change. Samsung and Philips have publicly demonstrated support for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, while Dell, Nokia, HP and Philips have committed to “substantial” cuts in greenhouse gas emissions from their operations.

As part of the ongoing battle among PC makers to out-green each other, Dell says it will now take your unwanted gadgets off your hands and give you something for the privilege. Most of us are familiar with the concept of trade-ins in some form – cars, mainly – but under the program launched today, the company will exchange Dell gift cards for your e-junk.

Dell Exchange covers all sorts of products, from phones to cameras to PCs to media players. It’s partner in the program, Dealtree, will refurbish and resell the gear it can, and items with no trade-in value can be recycled for free. The program is similar to services already offered by third-party sites such as Gazelle, which pay you in cash.

A 2-minute test drive of the new Dell program turned up predictable results. An 80GB iPod classic in good shape could land you a $116 gift card from Dell — but a rickety and slow 5-year-old laptop will get you little more than an exceptionally clean conscience.

Dell has been very aggressive in pursuing its stated goal to become the greenest IT company around, vying with arch rivals Hewlett-Packard and Apple for the mantle of most eco-conscious. As part of its announcement, Dell also said it’s expanding its electronics recycling partnership with Goodwill, bringing the total number of participating stores to more than 1,000.

According to the EPA, in 2007, only 18 percent of the 2.25 million tons of TVs, cell phones and computer products tossed out was collected for recycling.

Several exhibitors took up the “green” theme at CES 2009 as the “Pre” party continued. Any chance Dell had to upstage Palm disappeared in a cloud of secrecy with the “Adamo” laptop it briefly presented, but gave no details about.

Fuji said its EnviroMAX alkaline batteries were made of more than 90 percent recycled materials, had no mercury, cadmium and were PVC free.

Singapore-based Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies said their “HydroPack” water-activated and portable power system HydroPak could provide 4 to 5 hours of 50 watt emergency power without pollution or noise.

Design conscious Areaware showed off a retro and playful radio called “Magno”, that it said was made in Indonesia with sustainable harvest timber.

And Greenpeace held a press conference praising gadgets by Lenovo, Sharp, Samsung, Nokia and Toshiba in its 2008 Green Electronics Survey.

Intel rolled out the next generation of its netbooks aimed at the education sector and emerging markets. The third generation Classmate PC netbook is actually a netbook tablet, adding a touch screen and powered by Intel’s Atom processor.

Check out this slideshow for a look at some of the shiny new toys in various shades of green and grey featured at CES 2009.

(Photos: Fuji’s EnviroMAX batteries, HydroPack system by Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies)

Going “green” is all the rage now in corporate America, including at Dell Inc, the world’s No. 2. maker of personal computers.

The company said last September that its goal was to become “carbon neutral” by the end of 2008. The company said on Wednesday it had reached its goal five months ahead of schedule.

The Round Rock, Texas computer maker put in place a worldwide energy-efficiency campaign and boosted its purchases of green power, verified emission reduction and renewable energy certificates. Since 2004, the amount of electricity that Dell gets from utility providers including wind, solar and methane-gas sources has grown nearly nine-fold to 116 million kilowatt-hours from 12 million kilowatt-hours.

It’s also saving a pretty penny — more than $3 million yearly – and has avoided nearly 20,000 tons of carbon dioxide going up into the atmosphere through improvements at its plants and other offices and through what it says is a global power-management effort.

Dell isn’t alone in announcing green initiatives. A slew of companies, both inside and outside the technology business, has announced plans to boost energy efficiency and purchases of renewable energy. Investment banks, too, are seeking to capitalize on the trend.