As You Sow challenged Apple Inc. to match the performance of its peers in a shareholder proposal presented at its annual meeting in May. HP, Dell, IBM and Intel have made public commitments to greenhouse gas reductions; Apple has not.
As You Sow challenged Apple Inc. to match the performance of its peers in a shareholder proposal presented at its annual meeting in May 2009. HP, Dell, IBM and Intel have made public commitments to greenhouse gas reductions; Apple has not.
The proposal asked Apple to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and address other environmental and social impacts such as toxics and recycling, as well as employee and product safety. After the filing of our proposal, Apple released a series of product-based greenhouse gas emission estimates last October. But this data was inadequate to address our concerns. The company did not report GHG emission data in a way that makes it comparable with peers. Apple has received low scores in several studies evaluating the quality of its public GHG disclosure.
“It’s disappointing for Apple to have one of the world's foremost authorities on global warming, Al Gore, on its (Apple's) board but to lack a clear commitment to reduce greenhouse gases,” said Conrad MacKerron, director of the Corporate Social Responsibility Program. The proposal received the support of about 9% of shares voted. Click here to read an article in GreenBiz on Apple and Climate Change by As You Sow's Program Director.We were able to secure agreements by three mid-sized IT companies to participate in the Carbon Disclosure Project process in 2009. As You Sow withdrew proposals at Broadcom and Novell, and Jabil Circuit agreed before a proposal was filed.
