Tag Archives: environment

What it is: Apple strives to be as environmentally friendly as possible while other companies don’t work as hard. The big question is why?

Look at companies like Samsung. Does anyone think they exist to make a difference in the world or to make money? Now look at Apple. Even if you don’t like Apple products, you can’t ignore the fact that the Macintosh helped make computers easier to use, the iPhone made smartphones commonplace, and the iPad made tablets convenient. The Apple Watch is slowly defining the wearable computer market while the Apple TV is tackling the problem of viewing content on a TV screen.

If you can believe the rumors, Apple is also working on Project Titan, a car project that might be an electric car, a hydrogen-powered car, a self-driving car, or just a car accessory of some kind.

Whatever the case, Apple is trying to make a difference in the world and that’s what separates Apple from most other companies. Nobody looks at Dell Computers as a company that’s making the world a better place. Dell simply pioneered the idea of made-to-order PCs to keep costs low. What has Dell done for the environment? For labor relations in Asian overseas factories that manufacturer their components?

On the other hand, Apple strives to develop user interfaces that are easy for anyone to use, even if you have physical disabilities such as loss of sight, hearing, or use of your fingers. Apple’s products are made form recyclable materials that are mercury-free in overseas factories that Apple is forcing to improve their worker conditions. While Apple gets attacked by critics for the actions of workers at Foxconn, few critics mention that Foxconn has been making components for other companies for decades including Microsoft, Samsung, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard. If Apple’s suppliers have a spotty labor and environmental record, so does nearly all the technology companies in the world. Yet Apple works to make their products environmentally friendly while other companies do not.

That’s because if you’re focused on making money instead of making a difference, you’ll always see everything through the prism of profits and expenses. If something doesn’t immediately contribute to the bottom line, it gets cut. That’s why companies like Dell focus on low prices and can’t afford to worry about worker conditions or environmental issues since these cost money without boosting profits right away.

If you’re happy just buying the cheapest products on the market even if they’re built by exploited workers in factories that pollute, then it’s easy to buy products from any other company not named Apple. But if you want to support a company that strives to make a difference in the world instead of just making a profit, then your choices get smaller right away.

In the computer industry, there’s one company that consistently leads the market that everyone else follows, and that company is Apple. Perhaps in the future another company will develop more useful products that help make a difference in the world for consumers and workers alike, but until that company arrives, the most socially responsible technology company so far seems to be Apple with other companies either not bothering to try or ignoring anything that doesn’t make them a profit.

You don’t want to support companies that just want to make money. You want to support companies that want to make a difference. If you just want to support companies that make money, you can choose from lots of different companies. However, if you want to support a company that tries to make a difference, your choices narrow considerably.

There’s a reason why Apple buyers tend to be so loyal. It’s not just the product they’re buying, but the company philosophy as well. If you don’t like Apple, then ask yourself what corporate philosophy you really want to support after all? Greed, profit, and selfishness that make more money for one company? Or change, environmental issues, and labor relations that helps change the world? The choice you make says more about who you are than the company you like or dislike.

What it is: Corporate environmental responsibility means making money and taking care of the environment at the same time.

Apple recently partnered with an environmental non-profit foundation to preserve 36,000 acres of forestland that can be sustainably harvested to develop packaging materials for Apple in the future. This not only gives Apple a guaranteed supply of materials, but also lowers their cost in the long run.

Apple also made a deal to purchase electricity from a solar farm as well as working to make an environmentally-friendly corporate campus that will recycle water and use energy efficiently. This simply lowers their own costs running and maintaining their buildings.

Apple builds computer products designed to be as recyclable as possible without harmful chemicals. Apple has also worked with contractors in the past to improve worker conditions and wages in other countries as well as in the United States.

The real question is why is Apple doing all this? There are two reasons. First, it’s good public relations. Second, and more importantly, it saves money in the long run. In the short-term, environmental initiatives often cost money, which is why so many companies avoid them, even if it promises long term savings in the future.

Saving money will allow Apple to compete more efficiently by funneling money towards research instead of throwing money away buying electricity from dirty energy sources or building products that become toxic to the environment afterwards.

Although saving money is the main goal of Apple’s environmental initiatives, the secondary and also crucial goal is to promote the company to attract the higher class of customers who care about the environment. This indirectly translates into reaching a wealthier class of customers.

When you buy an Apple product, you can feel good about yourself that your product is highly recyclable and the workers who made it were fairly paid under decent working conditions. When you look at products made by other companies such as Microsoft, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, or Samsung, you can assume the following in comparison:

• While Apple cares about the workers of its contractors, other companies don’t and have spent decades ignoring the problems just to lower their own costs. Unsafe worker conditions and unfair wages are just the cost of keeping the company’s own costs low enough so they can make a profit, regardless of the effect it might have on others.
• While Apple designs highly recyclable products, other companies don’t because they’re more concerned with keeping costs down so they use the cheapest materials possible even if they are toxic to the environment or the workers who assemble them. The bottom line of other companies is to keep their own costs down while polluting the environment since protecting the environment costs money and that’s the last thing other companies want to do.
• While Apple insures that their own buildings recycle water and use energy efficiently while purchasing electricity from clean energy sources, other companies don’t care because they just want to focus on making profits, regardless of the impact on others.

When you buy an Apple product, you can feel good that you’re getting a good product that minimizes the impact on the world. When you buy a rival product, you can pretend that it wasn’t made by underpaid workers in another country risking their lives to put together cheap materials that will pollute the environment after the product is no longer useful several years from now. Then you can also pretend that the company that makes the cheap product isn’t wasting electricity in their own corporate headquarters and polluting the environment because not polluting the environment would cost them money and risk lowering the company’s profits.

So the next time you see someone touting the benefits of a rival product, ask them if they’re happy exploiting workers in other countries, polluting the environment, poisoning workers, and wasting precious resources just so the company that made that product can squeak out another penny of profits at the long-term cost of wrecking the environment and condemning thousands of workers in other countries to a life of misery and poverty so others can buy a cheap smartphone or PC.

That’s why Apple cares about the environment because it saves money and it’s great for attracting customers. That’s why rival companies don’t care about the environment because they only care about their own profits right now and they don’t care about their workers or their customers.

If you like the idea of being ignored, exploited, and helping spread toxic waste to poison the environment so you can save a few bucks, then feel free to purchase products by other companies. Otherwise, you can always buy an Apple product.

About Apple’s environmental policies.