Apple’s climate claims deserve scrutiny

Apple Inc.’s true specialty isn’t consumer technology. It’s marketing. Few other enterprises in human history have managed to efficiently separate people from their money at such scale.
So when this marketing juggernaut turns its prowess to selling its own green credentials, you should expect nothing less than, say, Oscar winner Octavia Spencer playing Mother Nature in a slick viral video. But the credibility of Apple’s environmental claims is a little fuzzier than the razzle-dazzle would have you believe.

Tuesday’s Apple Event, the company’s annual celebration of mass consumerism, featured not only Spencer’s Mother Nature but a barrage of promises about all the ways Apple is looking out for her:

• A new watch lineup Apple calls its first “carbon neutral” product, a label Apple vows will apply to all its products by 2030
• No more leather in watch bands or accessories
• No more plastic in packaging by 2025
• Shipping more products by sea rather than by air
• Using more recycled materials
• Using renewable energy for some watch manufacturing, along with corporate offices, data centers and retail stores
• A vow to cut carbon emissions by 75% from 2015 levels by 2030
• A promise to use only “high quality” carbon credits to make up for whatever emissions Apple can’t eliminate
• A new tool in the Home app called “Grid Forecast” that alerts users when green power is available

These days, corporate “wokeism” attracts conservative backlash faster than sound draws the monsters in A Quiet Place. Apple deserves kudos for making as much noise about its social values as possible. In this, at least, the company is on the right side of history, setting a good example for its peers. Apple also knows its target audience, of course; its user base leans