So what took so long?

Apple refused to comment for this story but referred to all the information on its Website. A spokesperson highlighted CEO Steven Jobs’s statement that “Most companies are focused on the emissions produced by their offices or perhaps their factories, but we have found that this accounts for just a small fraction—less than 5 percent—of the greenhouse gases associated with consumer electronics. We decided to measure the emissions produced at each stage of a product's life cycle,... No other company in our industry provides this much detail at a product level.”

Ironically, one problem may be the very fact that the tech industry is so innovative. “The electronics sector since day one has had the highest average scores of any sectors that we score” on the ClimateCounts site, Turner points out. “People that are early adopters of tech are typically the leading edge of thinking on issues, whether it be the gadget they’re using or how business should be focusing on sustainability.” That has had the unintended side effect of squelching any activism on Apple’s part, Turner speculates. “They have to be the first, and once they’re not the first, I think they fight tooth and nail to be pressured into doing anything,” he explains. In short, IBM, Dell, and the others got green first, and Apple refused to go second.

For a long time, Apple was able to slide on its general reputation, without pressure from those devoted customers who assumed it was already doing good things for the earth. “I think [the relative lack of environmental activism has] been a surprise for people who have been big fans of their products,” Kron says.

If anything, customer and shareholder pressure may have hurt, not helped. “Apple tends to be resistant to the whole idea of anyone outside of Apple telling them what to do,” Berry of the ICCR points out.

Carol Holding, president of Holding Associates in Seattle, a branding consultant, has one more theory: “Their whole thing is design. If a battery is made in such a way as to be less power-consuming but is not as attractive or doesn’t fit in an Apple product as sleekly, they won’t do it.”

Moreover, fans and investors shouldn’t get carried away swooning over green Apples. It still ranks last among electronics companies on the ClimateCounts site.