As You Sow, on behalf of John Powers, a beneficial owner of 120 shares of Apple's common stock, intends to submit a proposal at the upcoming Apple Annual Meeting. The proposal is co-sponsored by Calvert Asset Management Company, Inc., a beneficial owner of 13,694 shares, and the New York City Office of the Comptroller, a beneficial owner of 2,809,446 shares of Apple's common stock. The proposal is listed as Proposal No. 6 'Shareholder Proposal Regarding Sustainability Report'.

These Apple shareholders request a sustainability report describing corporate strategies regarding climate change, specifically to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and address other environmental and social impacts such as toxics, recycling and employee and product safety.

Among industry peers, Dell, IBM, and Hewlett-Packard have taken leadership roles in these areas through publication of comprehensive sustainability reports that address their company’s impacts with regards to issues such as greenhouse gas emissions reduction, toxics, and supply chain working conditions. These companies have provided detailed assessments of greenhouse gas emission exposure and made reduction commitments. Apple, however, lags behind global industry peers on sustainability reporting. It has released some product specific information on greenhouse gas emissions but its usefulness is limited as nearly all other companies use aggregate emission estimates. Apple has not made public greenhouse gas reduction greenhouse gas reduction commitments.

Shareholders request that the Board of Directors prepare a sustainability report describing corporate strategies regarding climate change, specifically to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and address other environmental and social impacts such as toxics, recycling and employee and product safety. The report, prepared at reasonable cost and omitting proprietary information, should be published by July 2010. The report should include the company’s definition of sustainability and a company-wide review of policies, practices, and metrics related to long-term social and environmental sustainability. Taking early action to calculate emissions in a manner similar to peers and making emission reduction commitments could provide competitive advantage, while inaction risks exposing the company to regulatory and litigation risk and reputational damage. The shareholders concerned recommend that Apple use Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Guidelines to prepare the sustainability report and use the Carbon Disclosure Project as a means to specifically report on greenhouse gas emissions and reduction efforts. The GRI is an international organization developed with representatives from the business, environmental, human rights and labor communities. GRI guidelines provide guidance on report content, including performance on direct economic impacts, environmental, labor practices, and decent work conditions, human rights, society, and product responsibility. The guidelines provide a flexible reporting system that allows omission of content not relevant to company operations Read more at the As You Sow website.

The company, however, recommends a vote against Proposal No. 6.