M. Thipthorpe
Apple has been accused time and again of not being ‘green’ enough. This is nothing new and Apple Inc. isn’t the only target of environmental rights groups like Greenpeace. Lisa Jackson. The vice president of Apple’s environment, policy and social initiatives has stated that Apple wants to change the world for the better, and they think there is no greater challenge in the world that climate change. Jackson, who was also the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency spent considerable time extolling Apple’s recent environmental goals and achievements. According to their press release Apple is powering a 100 percent of its US and Chinese offices with renewable power which adds no new carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Worldwide, 93 percent of the companies facilities are run on renewable energy, these figures however do not reflect on the third party manufacturers which apple uses to produce and supply its products. These companies are estimated to contribute 24. 8 million of the 34.2 million metric tons of the company’s total waste.
This effort to help change the declining state of the Earth is nothing new on the part of Apple. Steve Jobs first began talking about the company’s sustainability efforts in 2007, which was followed up by Apple CEO Tim Cook. The rest of the industry has not sat by idle either. Google says that its data centers use half as much electricity as typical facilities around the world. It has also invested in moon shot projects like energy kites which promote renewable energy sources like solar and wind energy.