A bit of a cheeky title I know, but in we talk about Apple quite a bit in our courses here at Sauder. From COMM101, to marketing, I’ve never stopped hearing about Apple. Even now in this class, I’m still about to talk about Apple.

You may all know that Apple has recently been in the news because of their fight against the FBI to protect consumer privacy. In case you don’t know, I won’t link an article but a brief summary is that the FBI wants Apple to create a backdoor to their iOS so that the FBI can access sensitive/protected information inside a terrorist’s phone.

Instead of complying to the court order, Apple is taking the fight to court again as they want to protect consumer privacy, since a backdoor could allow the government, or cyber criminals to access sensitive private information.

Apple is back at it again with Liam. Liam is a ‘robot’, or otherwise automated process that disassembles iPhones down to their parts. The purpose of Liam is to collect parts from iPhones so that they can be re-used in future products. This isn’t even just specific parts. Liam goes as far extracting raw materials from the parts themselves such as silver and platinum to be re-used.

Why is this so important?

Not only has Apple been a champion of social activism and human rights with their battle against the FBI, they have proactively sought out to create something amazing and sustainable on their own volition. Nobody asked them for it. Nobody expected them to do it. Apple already has a proven track record. They have already proven that they are great and nobody is skeptical of their ability as a company. And yet, they have gone out of their way to do something amazing yet again. Being great and green, Apple is surely a company for others to follow. Not only is this latest innovation green, it also helps them save costs by re-using raw materials and parts. Bravo Apple.

GMOs are a huge issue in current day society. There are always debates on whether or not they are a good thing. On one hand, it allows us to produce at much higher efficiency. On the other hand, their long-term effects have not fully been studied and observed. I personally support them. Even though we covered food waste in class (and in some class activities), we do have issues with poverty and feeding the masses. To reduce our production efficiency even more would make this worse (but I’m not going to argue this in this post). Despite supporting GMOs, I believe that they should be transparent. In this recent article, Monsanto and other large corporations have been lobbying for an act called the DARK act. Now this sounds eerie enough already, and it’s also kind of fitting too. The DARK act would block state laws that require the labeling of GMOs. This is where I say turn on the lights.

We talk a lot about transparency. A lot of the ‘success stories’ we see in class are about a company coming out and being transparent with their practices before they are discovered. With this in mind, it would be a horrible idea for this ‘DARK’ act to pass. While I may support GMOs, I also support the right for the consumer to know what goes in their product. To me, this is a step backwards from where we should be going.

In the internet age, once something is discovered, the information does not disappear. Companies should not be trying to hide things. Whether or not they try to be transparent may be another issue, but hiding things only serves to tarnish their reputation. This DARK act is a direct insult to consumer rights.

Instead of passing legislation blocking labeling, the government should be trying to pass legislation that enforces labeling.

We talk a lot about Patagonia in class. We mentioned their ad about not buying their jacket, we watched videos on them, and we even did a case with a client that was related to them (Zero Waste Market; Patagonia pop-up shops). They seem to be an amazing example of a sustainable business that wants to do good. Once again, they’ve popped up in another article, this time on the New York Times for the amazing work that they do to better our world.

Patagonia is working with four other companies to create a $35 million fund to finance installations of solar panels on the roofs of residential homes. They are installing solar panels on over 1500 homes in eight different states.

The article also mentions that they did the same thing for start-up businesses to help fund more sustainable energy options. Two years ago, they created a $27 million fund to install solar panels in Hawaii as well.

The article doesn’t go into detail about whether or not they are setting these solar energy systems for free, but even if they are not, it is just another prime example of the work Patagonia does to improve our planet.

We talk a lot about initiative regarding sustainability in class. Some of it is just with regards to social responsibility in improving our planet, but another part of it is in entrepreneurship. Patagonia takes both of these to a new level. By investing in solar panels for residential homes, they introduce the idea of solar energy to families who might not have had access prior, and show that it is an effective way to save on costs (after an initial large fixed investment) that is also good for the environment. Hopefully this will proliferate to larger communities as well. However, by also investing in these for start-up companies that are focused on the environment and sustainability, Patagonia invests in the future by helping these environmental start-ups save on costs.

This takes sustainable entrepreneurship to a whole new level and this only serves to see why we mention Patagonia so much in class. They really are doing an amazing job for our planet.