This has all the markings of an Apple product launch.
A comprehensive website. A video. “Better.” Even CEO Tim Cook’s voice. “It’s a powerful word.” (Via Apple)
A video. “Better.” Even CEO Tim Cook’s voice. “It’s a powerful word.” (Via Apple)
But Monday’s launch was instead an update on Apple’s efforts to reduce its environmental footprint. The site and video arrive just before Earth Day Tuesday and bring with them a lofty goal.
“Now, more than ever, we work to leave the world better than we found it.”
According to the site, Apple is working toward this goal in a number of ways. One it’s particularly proud of is its data centers.
In a letter on the site, Lisa Jackson, Apple’s VP of Environmental Initiatives and former head of the EPA, writes all of Apple’s data centers are powered by 100 percent clean energy sources. (Via Apple)
“So whenever you download a song, update an app, or ask Siri a question, the energy Apple uses is provided by nature.”
Add its corporate campuses in there and the company still runs on 94 percent renewables. But those stats don’t tell the whole story. (Via Wikimedia Commons / Joe Ravi)
Wired also released a one-on-one interview with Jackson Monday. It notes “Apple does not include the manufacturing, transport, and use of its actual products, which accounts for 98 percent of its carbon footprint. Still, its accomplishment on facilities, particularly data centers, is significant.”
Even so, the cleanest energy is that which isn’t used. Jackson says, the company has reportedly reduced its average total power consumed by 57 percent since 2008. (Via Apple)
It’s clear Cook and Jackson are proud of Apple’s environmental strides. But they always seem to frame it as progress.
The Verge writes, “The new video is not strictly celebratory. Cook and Apple's updated website repeatedly note that their efforts are still a work in progress.”
This comes just after Apple and few other tech companies were praised by Greenpeace for their efforts. (Via TechCrunch)
However, just two years ago Greenpeace staged a protest in front of the company’s Cupertino offices, drawing attention to Apple’s slowness to ditch coal-powered energy. (Via San Jose Mercury News)
But all should be quiet when Apple opens Apple Campus 2. The facility that's been dubbed a "spaceship" will be powered by 100 percent clean energy. (Via Apple)
“It’ll be one of the largest solar arrays in the world for a corporate campus.”
Many of Apple’s environmental efforts started under Steve Jobs, but Cook has pushed those ideas forward.
In a recent shareholder meeting Cook heard concerns about Apple’s environmental policies negatively affecting profits. (Via ABC)
The Next Web says the “Better” message builds on Cook’s comments during the meeting.”At the time [he] emphasized that Apple does things for reasons beyond profit.”
