So I’m assuming my post tipped the scales on this one.
A tough choice for the hip but conscious consumer: choose Apple or be green?
It’s a damn shame that Apple has withdrawn its products from green certification by EPEAT - a standard the company helped to found and under which 39 of its products were certified.
Apple’s record on sustainability has always been a bit iffy, despite its efforts to counter criticism from Greenpeace and some pretty comprehensive documentation of environmental practices on its corporate website. With this formal withdrawal from EPEAT, some conscious consumers - like the city of San Francisco, and possibly even the Federal Government - will choose (or be forced by their own standards) to stop purchasing Apple products entirely.
But my experience suggests that the overlap between green consumers and Apple enthusiasts is large - and that for those who have a choice, their devotion to Apple tends to win out over any commitment to sustainable consumption. This is especially easy to rationalize as the company’s defenders claim that while Apple might not fit the industry’s green standards, its own independent standards/practices are just as legit.
This sort of rogue self-regulation might work for Apple, but it’s not a useful precedent to set for business in general. Just another reason why, as tempting as it is to use Apple as a model for innovation, design, strategy, etc., its successes are rarely applicable to companies that are not, well, Apple. As my friend (and Apple fan) Roy has put it “don’t be Apple - even if you could be.”
Will I stop buying Apple products as a result? Unlikely, in part because I’ve recently become even more deeply dependent on them via my work at Tumblr. I’d like to believe that, as Mike Daisey argued in his compelling if flawed call to action re: Apple’s questionable labor practices in China, questioning/encouragement from loyal Apple customers can have as positive an effect on company practices as criticism from the outside. But in this case I’m most interested in the business world’s obsession with emulating Apple in every way, an endeavor I believe is largely futile; in the case of sustainability, I believe it could be detrimental.
Zooey took a parting look at the page she had been reading, then closed the manuscript and dropped it over the side of the tub. “Jesus Christ almighty,” she said. “Sometimes I see me dead in the rain.”
“Yes, that is you dead in the rain,” Siri retorted plainly.
For some reason this commercial has elicited strong feelings from lots of folks. Bravo, HyperVocal, IMHO this is by far the best response yet.
“We need more people to care about sweatshops and girls’ education and human rights, and we need to tell more riveting stories that bring these urgent issues to light. But we can’t take shortcuts…. When we’re stirred by something that turns out not to be true, it feels a little like unrequited love—we want it to be so, but it refuses to be so. And each time our hopes are dashed, we’re less likely to risk falling in love again.
Sam Graham-Felsen @ GOOD.is on “Mike Daisey and the Danger of Truthiness”
Even if Mike Daisey didn’t SEE all this with his own eyes, you have to believe that his work is part of the reason Apple and Foxconn have come to this agreement, no? (Which is not to say that he shouldn’t stop lying about things…might want to see a therapist about that, man.)
Apple and its China manufacturing partner, Foxconn, agreed to improve wages and working conditions at factories accused of being sweatshops, a move that could set a new higher-cost benchmark for other Western users of Chinese labor.
Under Thursday’s landmark agreement, Foxconn will hire tens of thousands of new workers, eliminate illegal overtime, improve safety protocols and upgrade worker housing and other amenities.
This graphic looks at different aspects of the Apple-Foxconn workforce. See how many people work in the factories, some statistics about their background, the hours they work and their compensation.
READ MORE: Apple, Foxconn set new standard for Chinese workers
Twitter