Michal Marek Four months ago a new employee, Lisa Jackson, joined Apple and she became head of the department in charge of environmental protection in the company. The qualifications of this woman are undeniable due to her previous professional experience. Previously, Lisa Jackson worked directly in the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
These days, the VERGE conference on sustainability was taking place, where Lisa Jackson also spoke. It was practically her first public appearance since Apple hired her, and Jackson certainly didn't hold back. She stated that Tim Cook did not hire her to quietly maintain the status quo. Apple is said to feel its responsibility and is interested in the natural environment. Jackson said she wants Apple to use energy more efficiently and also to rely more on renewable energy in its data centers and office buildings.
Of course, Apple was interested in the environment and its protection even before Jackson joined the company. Significant resources have already been invested in the use of renewable resources and the overall reduction of the carbon footprint created by this technology giant. Apple has been rated very positively in recent years for environmental protection, and the days when the company fought with Greenpeace due to toxic substances in its products are long gone.
Nevertheless, Lisa Jackson is a clear asset to Apple. Due to his previous employment, he has insight into the politics and various regulatory processes behind the United States government. Apple needed such a knowledgeable person to be able to deal effectively with the federal authorities and successfully engage in the protection of the planet.
Now Apple is focusing primarily on its huge farm of solar panels and fuel cells to power a data center in North Carolina. SunPower supplied the solar panels and Bloom Energy supplied the fuel cells. The energy potential of the entire complex is huge, and Apple even sells part of the produced energy to the surrounding area. Apple will also use solar panels from SunPower for its new data center in Reno, Nevada.
Jackson talked about Apple's renewable energy projects and clearly sees them as a big challenge. She says that honest collection of real data is important to her, so that the real success of these projects can be easily assessed and calculated. This data primarily includes the calculation of energy consumption and the amount of the carbon footprint that is created during the production of products with the bitten apple logo, during their distribution and during their subsequent use by customers. During her speech, Lisa Jackson also mentioned the product life cycle analysis that Steve Jobs introduced in 2009. It was then one of the efforts to change Apple's image and point out its significant efforts to protect the environment and, above all, its focus on sustainable resources .
Jackson currently leads a team of seventeen people, and one of her task force's tasks is to recruit new employees with an interest in the environment who are interested in helping the company with sustainability projects. There is also a kind of association within Apple called Apple Earth. Of course, Jackson was intrigued by the initiative and joined it on her second day at Apple. People inside the association are quite busy with their primary work, but they are interested in the environment and try to be active in the field of its protection.
Of course, Apple's use of renewable energy creates positive publicity and boosts the credit of the entire company. However, this is not the primary purpose of these measures. Increasing the efficiency of energy consumption is the most important thing for Apple. Apple is not limited to its own resources, and in addition to creating its own clean energy, it also buys others. However, work is already underway to ensure that all of Apple's data centers and office buildings use only solar, wind, hydro and geothermal energy.
In short, protecting the environment is important today, and big technology companies are aware of it. Even Google, for example, invests big money in more efficient use of electricity, and the largest auction portal eBay also boasts of ecological data centers. The "green" efforts of non-technological companies are also significant, of which Walmart, Costco and IKEA are worth mentioning.
