Last month, Apple made a rather startling announcement. Its global operations were now (and will be henceforth) run 100% on renewable energy sources.
What’s behind this? Apple decided, under Steve Jobs’ “Green Apple” initiative, to consciously focus on its environmental impact. This story, called “Why Apple was bad for the environment (and why that's changing)” from Macworld provides excellent background on the ‘sustainability evolution’ of Apple. It’s worth a read as context for this post, but you can read on if you wish.
As part of its evolution, Apple hired Lisa Jackson, the former EPA administrator in the Obama Administration, as its vice president for sustainability and government affairs, and early last year and issued a $1 billion bond to finance green energy products.
So what’s all this about ‘smelting’? It has to do with aluminum – a big part of Apple (and many other!) products.
Have a look at the old (130-year-old) process and a new process for smelting aluminum, using these ridiculously short videos:
… the classical process (of smelting aluminum) is viewed with some disdain by environmentalists, because it takes about half a pound of carbon to make a pound of aluminum, and half a pound of carbon converts to about a pound and a half of carbon dioxide,” explained Donald Sadoway, a materials scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has worked on aluminum.
“Even though Alcoa evidently had this technology for making aluminum without the greenhouse gas emissions, they were in such a situation with respect to profitability that they couldn’t afford to make the transition to the CO2-free process,” Sadoway said. “Because you know, nobody pays a premium for green aluminum.”
Until now, that is.
“Apple swoops down and says, we are prepared to buy aluminum made here in Canada to build our phones and our computers and whatever … if that aluminum is made in a sustainable manner,” he said. “So these two competitors sit down and say, let’s make a deal. It was fantastic.”
It’s a great example of how the mission and vision of a company – actually several companies - can drive project initiation decisions. This is at a large, sweeping level. However, I’m willing to bet that you can find microcosms of this scenario in your projects.
A lot of it has to do with connecting statements at the top level of the company – public statements, such as those found on the “About Us” sections of the organization’s web page or in their shareholder reports, and weaving a ‘golden thread’ through the organization so that everyone understands the priorities at that mission/vision level.
Here is one such statement from Apple:
"We strive to create products that are the best in the world and the best for the world. And we continue to make progress toward our environmental priorities. Like powering all Apple facilities worldwide with 100% renewable energy. Creating the next innovation in recycling with Daisy, our newest disassembly robot. And leading the industry in making our materials safer for people and for the earth. In every product we make, in every innovation we create, our goal is to leave the planet better than we found it."
For some of you, this may seem like fluffy stuff about saving the planet, subtracting from a for-profit’s goal to just go out and make stuff, sell stuff (and services) and generate cash for shareholders.
But is it really only about Planet? Nope. There’s a (valid!) profit motive here as well:
From an article on this topic from Metal Bulletin magazine:
“The aluminum industry currently generates 12 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per ton of aluminum at the smelter, analysts estimate. Environmental benefits aside, it will boost the anode life by 30 times plus cut operating costs by 15% and increase productivity by the same amount, something that no smelter is likely to turn its nose up at either.”
So this makes economic sense!
The article goes on to say:
Changes in aluminum production and suppliers transitioning to renewable energy have meanwhile already cut Apple’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2.6 million tons. Similarly, it has already prioritized aluminum smelted using hydroelectricity rather than fossil fuels, re-engineering its manufacturing process to reincorporate the scrap aluminum.
As a result, over the past three years Apple has reduced emissions associated with every gram of aluminum in its iPhones by 83%. For the enclosure of the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, it’s a 47% reduction compared to that of the previous-generation MacBook Pro.
It won’t be just Apple that will be interested. Automakers in particular are increasingly using aluminum and are looking to reduce their emissions through the supply chain as the result of government-mandated programs and regulations across the world.
From a People, Planet, Profit, and Projects perspective, this news cross-cuts all of those aspects, from the people brought into Apple to help guide it along its environmental mission, to the reduction in environmental (planetary) impact brought about by this investment, to the profit it will generate for those who are investing in the initiative, and of course to the initiatives – the projects – themselves.
How about you - and your organization? I realize you may not be involved in the smelting of metals. But as a project leader you can facilitate this connection between organizational aspirations (and public statements!) and how - and sometimes even :::if::: your project is connected to those aspirations. If you have done so or see some ideas as to how to do this - share those ideas and/or accomplishments here!
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