Apple’s Quick Study in Sustainability Matters

Last week when Apple withdrew from EPEAT, I felt deep pain. I love Apple products. For personal use, I’ve been buying Apple computers for some 20 years. But, capital S Sustainability is my world view, my organizing principle, my bottom line – triple or otherwise. I started to think, “My MacBook Pro is almost 4 – it won’t last forever – what will I do?” I thought, “If this is Apple’s stance, I won’t be able to buy another Mac.” Thank God, Apple changed its corporate mind and changed it quickly.

Perhaps it was EPEAT’s Sarah O’Brien’s pointing out that flaunting environmental considerations would be a “sales limiting move” as, by law, the federal government, this single biggest IT consumer in the country,  can spend no more than 5% of its IT budget on non-EPEAT compliant electronic purchases.

Perhaps it was harsh lessons learned from the outraged response to the Foxconn allegations.

I’m happy to see Apple’s proclamation about its commitment to the environment and apology for its mistaken withdrawal from EPEAT. However, withdrawing from EPEAT was no typo. Call it what you will, it was a flagrant dis of environmental standards, and that, we can agree, is a mistake.

In those tortuous hours when my favorite technology brand was at odds with my core values, my extremely astute colleague, Jeff Kramer said, “This will be a great opportunity to see if sustainability actual matters to the market.” None of us expected such a rapid proof point. Yes, Apple, sustainability matters.

I’d like to hear your proof points. Post them here or drop me a line. The climate clock is ticking.

 

 

Comments

[Sheila M.]

Carol, I totally agree with your friend: this episode was a great change to test the market feelings on sustainability. I am happy that it finally ended well but still, since my MacBook Pro is also turning 4, I am as worried as you as to how long will Apple take to finally adopt a serious and sustainability practice... and start addressing the various episodes we read on papers every other day...