Apple Hires Former EPA Chief Lisa Jackson to Oversee Environmental Efforts

While talking with AllThingD's Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg at D11: All Things Digital, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that Apple has hired former Environmental Protection Agency chief Lisa Jackson to lead the company's environmental responsibility efforts.

Lisa Jackson is joining Apple. Lisa was running the EPA for the last four years. She's going to be coordinating a lot of this activity across the company.

Although Cook said he forgot what her official title is, he said that she would report directly to him. Cook announced the hire after talking about how Apple has gotten more attention from governments as it has grown larger and while he was talking about how environmentally friendly Apple is.

apple_100_renewable

As a part of its commitment to being environmentally friendly, Apple revealed in March that it had achieved 100% renewable energy use at its data centers, with its corporate facilities using 75% renewable energy. Cook's full commentary can be found in our coverage, available here.

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Mactendo

71 months ago

Apple hires Lisa

Rating: 12 Votes

Mebsat

71 months ago

At what cost?

At best, a questionable hire with significant PR risk for Apple:

-Jackson created false identities (non-government email accounts) while Secretary of the EPA to carry on communications with outside groups. Some presume this was to avoid discoverability and/or compliance with the Freedom of Information Act. She abruptly resigned as Secretary of the EPA just as this investigation was getting started. This was not just using personally identifiable non-government accounts, but creating false identities to conduct official business (one name used was Richard Windsor).

-She also oversaw the EPA during the contentious raids on Gibson Guitars, where EPA regulations were selectively used to confiscate $5M worth of inventory from Gibson (while other guitar companies using the same wood had no action taken against them). This incident is being reexamined in the light of the current IRS scandals and evidence of political targeting by the IRS (Gibson's CEO is a donor to right-wing causes).

-Apple is already an industry leader in the area of environmental responsibility in manufacturing. Hiring a lifelong government employee is not likely going to bring a significant skill set beyond what Apple already has in house. It has the feel of a hire made to generate buzz. Hopefully, for Apple, none of the issues above will turn into full blown scandals, but if they do, Apple will find itself cast on one side of the ideological fence (something SJ always wisely avoided).

-Her compensation package will need to be justified to shareholders.

-This makes Cook look even more impulsive regarding high-level hires than he already did in light of the Browett decision. Not confidence inspiring.

Rating: 6 Votes

szw-mapple fan

71 months ago

Apple hires Lisa

Image (http://www.simpsoncrazy.com/content/pictures/lisa/LisaSimpson8.gif)

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7017/6706011397_5820764411_z.jpg

Rating: 5 Votes

dankedieter

71 months ago

Hopefully she´ll be more concerned with actively reducing apple´s impact rather than just making apple look like they´re more eco-friendly.

Rating: 5 Votes

xionxiox

71 months ago

This article has been up for a while and not a single comment. People only care about drama, not this so called "Environment" :rolleyes:

Rating: 4 Votes

star-affinity

71 months ago

Big story, Apple fell for the hoax too. Big deal.

And you fell for the hoax that it's a hoax. ;)

Rating: 4 Votes

caligomez

71 months ago

It's a dog and pony show..

Rating: 3 Votes

D-a-a-n

71 months ago

Apple hires Lisa

Image (http://www.simpsoncrazy.com/content/pictures/lisa/LisaSimpson8.gif)

Rating: 3 Votes

clayj

71 months ago

So will she use her apple.com e-mail address, or create another fake gmail.com address to use?

Rating: 3 Votes

clayj

71 months ago

I never knew about this "scandal". What exactly did she do with those fake profiles? Have to google this, I'm very curious.

She used Gmail accounts with fake names (e.g., "Richard Windsor") to communicate with environmentalist groups about EPA policies and actions. Essentially, it was a way for her to coordinate with them "off the record", since FOIA requests wouldn't cover Gmail accounts.

Crap like this is why all Federal systems need to be blocked from accessing third-party e-mail systems -- there is no reason EVER why any Federal employee needs to have access to Gmail, Outlook.com, Me.com, or any other external e-mail system. Any employee caught using such a system (on their phone or tablet) for anything at all related to work should be terminated on the spot.

Rating: 3 Votes

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