Roger Fingas
The White House on Monday announced that Apple will be among a group of 13 companies appearing alongside Secretary of State John Kerry and other senior White House officials, as they launch the American Business Act on Climate Pledge.
The pledge calls on participating companies to eliminate just shy of 6 billion tons of carbon pollution through 2030. Other companies involved include Alcoa, Bank of America, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Cargill, Coca-Cola, General Motors, Goldman Sachs, Google, Microsoft, PepsiCo, UPS, and Walmart.
In all the Pledge is expected to entail $140 billion in investments, and the creation of 1,600 megawatts in renewable energy. The White House added that a second set of pledges should be announced in the fall.
Apple, at least, does not appear to be making any new investments. Echoing's Apple's own official line, the White House remarked that the company is already running its U.S. operations entirely on renewable energy, and worldwide is working to put 280 megawatts of green power online by the end of 2016. Carbon emissions from global offices, stores, and datacenters have allegedly dropped 48 percent since 2011.
Critics have noted that Apple still consumes vast amounts of resources in shipping and production, and that much of the company's carbon pollution is actually generated by suppliers. In May the company promised to reduce manufacturing emissions as well as expand a managed forestry program, but said that the former would take "years" to accomplish.
Charles Martin
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
Wesley Hilliard
100 Comments
Ugh. And what are these companies getting in exchange? The majority of companies listed is a "who's who" of crony capitalists.
[quote name="SpamSandwich" url="/t/187376/apple-joins-white-houses-american-business-act-on-climate-pledge#post_2753048"]Ugh. And what are these companies getting in exchange? The majority of companies listed is a "who's who" of crony capitalists.[/quote] You'd think ObamaCo would at least get the FTC to back off with this. Probably not though.
Now after 30 years, this is the first thing that has indicated to me that Apple has lost its way.
Kowtowing to bad science. Global Warming was disproven in the 1980s, but it's great for stealing peoples money, which government loves to do.
Apple should stay out of it.
[quote name="SpamSandwich" url="/t/187376/apple-joins-white-houses-american-business-act-on-climate-pledge#post_2753048"]Ugh. And what are these companies getting in exchange? The majority of companies listed is a "who's who" of crony capitalists.[/quote] I guess we shouldn't be surprised. Lisa Jackson did work for Obama and Cook is giving her more and more power. But yes crony capitalism sucks and it's amazing to me that so many liberals don't seem to have a problem with it.
Now after 30 years, this is the first thing that has indicated to me that Apple has lost its way.
Kowtowing to bad science. Global Warming was disproven in the 1980s, but it's great for stealing peoples money, which government loves to do.
Apple should stay out of it.
"Lost it's way"? Oh, do shut up. Apple has cared about this stuff for a long time, and SJ made a huge point to talk about these kinds of things when unveiling new products in the last few years of his life. I love how you rightwing trolls always come up with some new mind-numbing reasons for Apple "losing it's way", when when that thing is absolutely the logical thing to do, both from a business perspective and from others. It's hilarious that people actually pretend to be shocked by these headlines, then make ridiculous proclamations like you just have.