Apple's vice president of environment, policy, and social initiatives Lisa Jackson is being awarded the 2018 Environmental Award from the Environmental Law Institute "in recognition of her visionary leadership and outstanding environmental stewardship over a most distinguished career.
Jackson has worked at Apple since 2013, and as head of environmental initiatives, she spearheads Apple's efforts to minimize its environmental impact through the use of renewable energy, the introduction of more energy efficient manufacturing processes, the deployment of greener materials, and the invention of new ways to repurpose resources, such as through Apple's recycling robot Daisy.
Under Jackson's leadership, Apple achieved a milestone goal in April, announcing that its global facilities, including retail stores, offices, data centers, and more are powered by 100 percent clean energy, and she has also led the company to make a pledge to work towards a closed-loop supply chain that would allow Apple to stop mining the earth for rare minerals and metals.
Prior to working at Apple, Jackson served as Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency under Barack Obama.
Honored to do this work. Thanks. https://t.co/RLq494MurC — Lisa P. Jackson (@lisapjackson) May 14, 2018
In a statement, Environmental Law Institute president Scott Fulton lauded Jackson for her work "greening Apple's supply chain."
"Lisa has exemplified leadership, innovation, and commitment to sound science and rule of law at each step of her remarkable career. She has been a tireless champion for both sustainability and environmental justice, and has left an enduring mark on both the private sector and the public sector. Her work in greening Apple's supply chain and in reducing the company's carbon and natural resource footprint has been exceptional, reflecting the power and reach of business leadership in advancing environmental performance and stewardship."
The Environmental Achievement Institute plans to present the award to Jackson on Tuesday, October 23 in Washington, D.C.
Top Rated Comments
Absolutely. A company that makes computers and phones that are unrepairable for sure should get this kind of reward ...
https://www.macrumors.com/2012/10/16/epeat-verifies-retina-macbook-pro-eligibility-for-environmental-registry/
https://www.extremetech.com/computing/138015-apple-bullies-epeat-into-greenwashing-its-impossible-to-repair-macbook-pro
I remember this was a point of contention when the MacBook Pro with Retina Display was awarded EPEAT Gold status in 2012, shortly after Apple withdrew from the EPEAT program, only to have their products re-added later when the assessment criteria was revised.
The laptop worked perfectly fine but it just needed a new battery. Apple wouldn't help her, thankfully her MacBook Pro was one with a removable battery (not glued in, just screwed in) and we were able to source such a battery for her online which I installed for her.
Now the same situation with the 2012+ Retina MacBook Pro's and MacBooks where the battery is glued in so tightly that removal may cause the batteries to puncture causing a fire.. those are batteries I wouldn't even consider changing and yet if you contact Apple after the 5 years are up you'll be in the same situation with a machine that works perfectly but has a busted battery and no easy way to replace it yourself.
And there's something common that happens with these batteries when you cannot remove it and continue to use the laptop they tend to balloon up like a puffer fish causing the trackpads to push out of the top of the case and deform the laptops metal not to mention spontaneous combustion.
Apple glueing batteries in is a huge issue. Not only does it cost way too much to have them replace the batteries due to them needing to change the entire top cover of most of the notebooks (incredibly wasteful by the way) but they quickly won't change them after its been 5 years since they sold the machine you bought which is a part that often fails before anything else in these systems.
Not very green is it? Buy a new laptop just because the glued in battery fails even if the rest of it works fine.
Gluing the batteries in isn't ensuring that the batteries are recycled or delivered back into Apple's closed-loop supply chain. It's ensuring that when the battery dies, and Apple refuses to service the machines once they've entered obsolete status, that the entire computer ends up shredded or in landfill somewhere.
And newsflash - a great deal of defective batteries that are handed into AASPs, either standalone or within a computer, don't make it back to Apple either on account of their technician guidelines instructing technicians to "dispose of batteries in accordance with local ordinances and recycling programs".
This includes batteries that are expanded, leaking or damaged in some form, but also batteries that are otherwise fine, but extracted from machines considered "vintage" or "obsolete" by Apple because returns can only be processed if a repair is opened in GSX and an exchange part is delivered. The defective battery is returned to Apple in the box the replacement part came in. However if a replacement part couldn't be ordered in GSX, such is the case with a vintage product, then there's no method of returning the defective battery to Apple, and the repairer is instructed to dispose of the battery locally instead.
The only method of returning a defective battery from a vintage or obsolete product to Apple is to recycle the entire computer at an Apple Retail Store, and of course, why not purchase a new machine while you're there?
It's greenwashing. It looks excellent in press releases, but it's technically meaningless as long as they continue to both instruct repairers to the contrary, and fail to provide the means of delivering those EOL parts back.