Tim Cook interview: Is Apple’s sustainability PR just greenwashing?

THISTED: Few other global corporations have mastered the art of marketing quite as well as Apple. So when this tech giant announces ambitious environmentalist goals, is it just another PR drive? Apple boss Tim Cook says he thinks greenwashing is “reprehensible.”

Apple’s chief executive has an impressive business record. Since he took over from Steve Jobs in August 2011, the company’s stock market value has increased eightfold.

But Tim Cook, a numbers man, has also set his sights on two other goals that are not directly related to stock market prices, but instead concern the company’s performance for the environment.

For one thing, Cook has ordered the company’s offices, retail stores and production facilities to become climate-neutral. According to Apple’s head of sustainability Lisa Jackson, this value was already achieved in 2020. The second goal, however, is much more ambitious: The iPhone manufacturer wants to be completely climate-neutral by 2030.

It’s a promise that covers not only the operations at Apple itself, but also the entire supply chain and the ecological footprint of Apple products. It also takes into account the power consumption of the devices that is generated during daily use. The first products to achieve this goal are the two new Apple Watch models, at least in combination with certain environmentally-friendly wristbands.

‘There’s no greater crisis than climate change,’ says Apple’s Tim Cook.

Cook: “There’s no greater crisis than climate change”

In an interview with dpa, Cook said Apple’s commitment to the environment is rooted in the negative effects of global warming. “I think arguably there’s no greater crisis than climate change. You don’t have to look beyond the summer at the droughts and the wildfires and the heat,” Cook said during a visit to Thysted in the Danish region of Nordjylland where Apple is operating a solar park with a Danish partner.

“All of these things are constant reminders of how important this is. So, I think it’s in shareholders’ best interest that companies work on climate change,” he said. Cook stressed that the environmental policy of his company is not a case of so-called “greenwashing,” the name given to companies’ attempts to present themselves to the public as being environmentally-friendly and aware without there actually being sufficient grounds for such a claim.

“I think greenwashing is reprehensible. If you look at what we’re doing, we’re doing the hard work,” he said, pointing to the solar park in Thisted which supplies the company’s European data centre in Viborg with electricity. “We’re standing in a field of solar panels right now as a proof point of what we’re doing.” Cook said 30% of the content of the Apple Watch now comes from recycled materials. “We shrunk our packaging, and we’re taking all of the plastics out of the packaging by next year.”

These efforts are also recognised by environmental organisations. This was not always the case: After the first iPhone was unveiled in 2007, Greenpeace experts complained that Apple had used the controversial plastic PVC. Greenpeace chemists also discovered bromides, which can release toxic dioxins when burned. However, for more than 12 years now Apple has refrained from using these environmentally harmful ingredients.

In 2014 Apple’s climate goals for 2020 and 2030 were newly-formulated. In the latest study of the climate promises of large corporations by the New Climate Institute and the environmental organisation Carbon Market Watch, Apple achieved the best marks behind the Danish shipping company Maersk, and was well ahead of corporations like Amazon, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and Samsung.

However, the authors of the “Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor 2023” study noted that they were unable to confirm all of Apple’s calculations in detail. Also, the major Apple supplier Foxconn received poor marks.

Carbon dioxide-neutral data centre for Europe

By Apple’s account such cloud services as iCloud, the App Store, iMessage, Maps and Siri in Europe, which are hosted in Viborg, are now also climate-neutral. The data center, opened in 2020, is located right next to a large power grid node that is supplied from the Thisted solar park, among other sources.

Apple says its European data centre in Denmark is powered entirely by renewable energy.

Since the node is also connected to green electricity from Norway and Sweden, the Apple data centre can manage without the usual emergency power supply provided by large diesel generators. When the sun is not shining on the solar panels in Thisted, the centre can operate on hydroelectric power from the Scandinavian neighbours and electricity from Germany if necessary.

Cook says that Apple’s current environmental efforts are not just about minimising CO2 emissions, however, but about raw materials, just as they were 25 years ago. When unveiling the new iPhone 15, the company played up its use of recycled materials.

The battery in the Apple smartphone now contains 100% recycled cobalt. Jackson, Apple’s sustainability manager, announced that the iPhone 15’s body is made of 75% recycled aluminium. In the Pro model, the chassis inside is only made of recycled aluminium.

There’s treasure in your desk drawer

In order to increase recycling content, Apple is depending on even more consumers to part with old smartphones that have been gathering dust in a drawer. Cook urges customers to trade in their old phone when they buy a new iPhone.

A solar farm in Hanstholm, Denmark, is part of renewable energy sources that power Apple’s European data centre in Viborg.

“What we do with that phone is, if it’s still working, we’ll clean it up and resell it,” the Apple CEO said. “And the customer will also enjoy an economic benefit of trading their phone in. If it’s not working, we’ll take it apart and recycle the materials. And so they can be assured that their iPhone lives on in another new iPhone. It’s a great virtuous cycle.”

In the dpa interview Cook was asked about accusations that Apple makes it difficult for customers to repair its products themselves.

“On the right to repair, we’ve done so much already. We’ve got so many people that are certified to do repairs. And we also, if you want to do a repair yourself, we’ll supply you tools and procedures for you to do the repair at home,” he said. But many people don’t want to do so, Cook believes. “They want to go to somebody that is used to repairing things. And so we try to make it very widely available to find a service provider.” – dpa