Hardly any other company understands as much about marketing as Apple. Marketing suspicions also arise when environmental goals are announced. CEO Cook believes greenwashing is reprehensible.
Apple boss Tim Cook has an impressive economic record. Since he succeeded Steve Jobs in August 2011, the company’s stock market value has increased eightfold. But Cook, the numbers cruncher, has set his sights on two other goals that are not directly related to stock market prices, but rather concern the group’s environmental friendliness.
On the one hand, Cook has ordered the company to become climate neutral with its offices, shops and production facilities. According to Apple sustainability boss Lisa Jackson, this value was already achieved in 2020. The second goal, however, is much more demanding: the iPhone manufacturer wants to be completely climate neutral by 2030.
This promise not only covers Apple’s operations itself, but also the entire supply chain and the ecological footprint of Apple products. The power consumption of the devices that occurs during daily use is also taken into account. The first products to achieve this goal are the two new Apple Watch models, at least in combination with certain environmentally friendly bracelets.
No bigger crisis than climate change
In an interview with the German Press Agency, Cook justified Apple’s environmental policy with the negative consequences of global warming. “There is probably no bigger crisis than climate change. You don’t just have to look at the droughts, the forest fires and the heat this summer,” said Cook in Thisted in the Danish region of Nordjylland. The US group operates a solar park there together with a Danish partner.
“All of these events constantly remind us of how important climate protection is.” It is therefore in the best interest of shareholders that companies like Apple address climate change. Cook emphasized that his company’s environmental policy was not a marketing measure or so-called greenwashing, i.e. an attempt to give itself an environmentally friendly and responsible image to the public without there being a sufficient basis for it. “I think greenwashing is reprehensible. If you look at what we do, it’s hard work.”
As an example of Apple’s climate protection activities, Cook cited the solar park in Thisted, which supplies Apple’s European data center in Viborg with electricity. Cook also emphasized that Apple already makes 30 percent of Apple Watch components from recycled materials and that the company is reducing its packaging and will remove all plastics from packaging by next year.
These efforts are also recognized by environmental organizations. That wasn’t always the case: after the introduction of the first iPhone in 2007, Greenpeace experts complained that Apple had used the controversial plastic PVC at the time. The Greenpeace chemists also discovered bromides, which can release toxic dioxins when burned. Apple has been avoiding these environmentally harmful ingredients for over twelve years.
In 2014, Apple’s climate goals for 2020 and 2030 were also formulated. In the most recent study of the climate promises of large corporations by the think tank New Climate Institute and the environmental organization Carbon Market Watch, Apple achieved the best marks behind the Danish shipping company Maersk, well ahead of companies such as Amazon, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Deutscher Telekom and Samsung. However, the authors of the “Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor 2023” study were unable to understand all of Apple’s calculations in detail. In addition, the major Apple supplier Foxconn gets bad marks.
CO2-neutral data center for Europe
According to Apple, cloud services such as iCloud, the App Store, iMessage, Maps and Siri in Europe, which are hosted in Viborg in Jutland, Denmark, are now climate neutral. The data center, which opened in 2020, is located directly next to a large power grid node that is supplied, among other things, from the Thisted solar park. Since the node is also connected to green electricity from Norway and Sweden, the Apple data center does not require the usual emergency power supply from large diesel generators. When the sun doesn’t shine on the solar panels in Thisted, hydropower from its Scandinavian neighbors and, in an emergency, electricity from Germany are used.
Apple’s current environmental efforts are not just about minimizing CO2 emissions, but, like 25 years ago, about raw materials. At the presentation of the new iPhone 15, the company advertised the use of recycled materials. The battery of the Apple smartphone contains 100 percent processed cobalt. Apple’s sustainability manager Lisa Jackson announced that the iPhone 15’s housing is made from 75 percent recycled aluminum. In the Pro model, the internal chassis is made only of recycled aluminum.
Treasures in the drawer
In order to increase recycling rates, Apple relies on even more consumers to get rid of old smartphones that they have previously left collecting dust in the drawer. Apple CEO Tim Cook wants his customers to trade in their old phone when they buy a new iPhone. “If the old device still works, we will refurbish it and resell it.” The customer also has an economic advantage if he trades in the old phone. “When it stops working, we take it apart and recycle the materials.”
In the interview, Cook also addressed the accusation that Apple was making it too difficult for its customers to repair the products themselves. When it comes to the “right to repair,” Apple has “already done so much.” “We have so many people who are certified to do repairs. And if you want to do a repair yourself, we provide you with tools and procedures so you can do the repair at home.” But a lot of people didn’t want to do that. “You want to go to someone who is used to fixing things. And so we try to make finding a service provider as easy as possible.”
Source: Stern
