When it comes to the aesthetics of the 21st century no company has been as pitch-perfectly in line with the public consciousness as Apple. That awareness extends beyond the style and efficiency of products like the iPhone to the process of their creation. For example, when you buy an Apple product, you get an estimation of the greenhouse gas emissions that specific product will generate from the time it was built to the end of its functional existence.
Apple has also been working actively to remove all toxic materials from the production of its electronics. The company has been systematically eliminating materials like bromine, mercury and arsenic since the early 1990s. Simultaneously, the company is making those products as energy efficient as possible — low power use is a benefit to both consumers and the environment.
The company’s environmental focus not only looks at the working lives of Apple products, but also what happens when those batteries inevitably quit charging. Apple has a massive recycling program that, according to its website, recycled over 30 million tons of electronics last year. It takes in its own products and cell phones of any brand free of charge.
Beyond what’s hip — and inherently attainable in design and production — Apple also engages in non-technology causes. In 2008, the company donated $100,000 to the campaign against California’s Prop 8, which banned same-sex marriage in the state.
Apple has also harnessed its technology to create innovative ways for charities to access the general public. In 2008 it teamed with a nonprofit record label to host the Afrobeat Sudan Aid Project album free of charge in the iTunes music store. The album climbed to the top thirty of iTunes’ sales rankings, with all profits going to charity.
Recently, Apple was lauded by the American Foundation for the Blind for making the iTunes music store and iPods accessible to the visually impaired. In fact, Apple.com has an entire section devoted to the ways the company has made its products and services accessible for people with disabilities, ranging from personal computers, to iPhones, to music players.
