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Apple just announced that it has hired former EPA chief Lisa Jackson as its top environmental advisor. Jackson, a bona fide green champion, spearheaded Obama's now-stalled effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions nationwide. She implemented tough mercury pollution controls on power plants, enforced clean water standards, and staked out the framework to regulate carbon.
By hiring her on as its "vice president of environmental initiatives" Apple is sending a not-so-subtle message to consumers, environmentalists and the tech community at large: We are so green we just hired the baddest EPA chief out there.
Apple, you'll recall, caught some serious flack from the environmental community after a Greenpeace investigation revealed that it was running most of its data farms with dirty coal power. Greenpeace then staged a series of demonstrations at Apple stores across the country to drive the point home.
To its credit, Apple responded by vowing to shift its power supply to renewable energy. Its most recent status report claims that it now runs all of its data centers on solar, wind, geothermal, or hydro power—and that 75% of its corporate operations are now clean powered as well. It has vowed to eventually meet 100% of its demand from renewable sources.
Time and again, Apple has shown it doesn't take criticism idly; in this case, that means the largest tech company in the world is still eager to prove that its operations are environmentally friendly. It also probably means that environmental groups like Greenpeace played a crucial role in keeping the industries of the future on a sustainable path.
Thanks to their prodding, Apple has not only vowed to be fully reliant on clean energy, it releases public reports of its annual carbon emissions, and, now, gets its green orders from the most accomplished EPA chief in at least a decade. This is great—that the most successful tech company in existence is still striving to minimize its impact and clean up its act in a very visible way won't go unnoticed in the business community. Far from it. By hiring Jackson, Apple is helping to green up the entire industry.