Apple has been criticized by some environmental groups for not being a leader in removing toxic chemicals from its new products, but the company has pledged to mend its ways. It appears now that Apple will indeed live up to its promise as it is set to replace all the CCFL backlights in its MacBook range with energy-efficient LED systems by 2009.

This is according to Economic Daily News, a Taiwanese publication that spoke with Apple's main supplier of LED backlight units, Kenmos, which could ship as many 1.5 million LED backlight units this year alone. Since Apple has already made LED backlit displays standard on its 13-inch MacBook Air and offers them as a build-to-order option on the 17-inch MacBook Pro, such an update to the MacBook line seems like a no-brainer. LED backlighting not only provides a brighter display, it is also better for the environment, better for color reproduction, and better for battery life.