Apple VP of Environmental Initiatives Lisa Jackson spoke at Fortune’s recent Brainstorm Green conference, talking about her role at Apple, and the company’s environment-related initiatives.
MacRumors notes that Jackson joined Apple’s executive team last year and formerly served as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency.
In addition to a brief discussion of Jackson’s background and Apple’s green achievements, Jackson was questioned by Patagonia’s environmental chief Rick Ridgeway. He asked how Apple could brag about reducing its carbon footprint on individual products, even as its overall footprint increases as Apple’s business grows. Jackson responded:
Listen, if all of us sustainability professionals have to resort to “make and sell less stuff” as the answer to the problem, then we are suffering from an extraordinary lack of imagination. And innovation. One of the things that your company — certainly I think Apple — is about is trying to understand where the technology innovations and other innovations are that help us to reduce carbon intensity. We’re not advocating for less people to have access to our products. That’s not the answer we’re looking for.
Apple has reduced its carbon footprint over the past years by making moves to power most of its facilities entirely with renewable energy. Greenpeace recently recognized Apple for “the most innovative and most aggressive” company in Silicon Valley for finding ways to feed its power-hungry datacenters with renewable energy.
