by Dan Moren
Apple environmental chief says the company wants to end mining
Apple vice president of environment, policy, and social initiatives Lisa Jackson spoke to Vice News about the company’s latest environmental report, which came out today, and the company’s commitment to upping the amount of recycled material used in its products and stop mining altogether:
The announcement, part of Apple’s 2017 Environment Responsibility Report released Wednesday, will commit the company to making devices entirely from recycled materials such as aluminum, copper, tin, and tungsten. But there’s one hiccup: Apple doesn’t know exactly how it’s going to make that happen.
Apple’s really worked hard to become not just a leader in environmental responsibility over the last decade, but in most respects also a vocal leader. Talk is generally cheap, which is why Apple tends to put its money and its actions where its mouth is. It’s invested heavily in renewable energy (including powering the vast majority of its U.S. facilities with it), worked to reduce packaging waste, and tried to push cleaner standards from its suppliers worldwide.
Stopping all of its mining for rare earth minerals is a laudable goal, even if Apple doesn’t have a concrete plan to put in action. By putting it into words, it opens the door to being held accountable for that goal, and if it doesn’t, people are certainly going to remind the company of it.