Sustainability Strategy

Apple, a company that uses a beyond compliance sustainable strategy because the company does not brand itself as green nor does offer green-premium products, has five different materiality ESG issues: data security, employee engagement, diversity, and inclusion, product design and life-cycle, supply chain management, and materials sourcing and efficiency. The company has invested in those issues by implementing security features to its products such as random identifiers and two-factor authentication, by installing practices to hire diverse employees and increase the well-being of its supplier’s employees, by using strategies to reduce environmental and social externalities in its product life-cycle, and by creating the Material Impact Profile report. Nevertheless, the company still has further problems related to its most material ESG issues. For example, Apple has created end-to-end encryption that is efficient only between Apple ecosystems. This feature can assist non-Apple users to track and hack Apple users’ information on iCloud. Also, in 2021 Apple lost $6 billion in supply constraints caused by many manufacturing disruptions in Asia and the shortages of computer chips due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. This occurred because Apple was not able to find substitutes for its raw materials quickly or efficiently enough. Finally, in 2021 some of Apple’s employees started a movement called #ApleeToo to gather and share experiences of intimidation, abuse, and inequity inside Apple. The initiative obtained hundreds of stories from Apple’s workers that complained about racial discrimination and sexual harassment. Furthermore, Apple’s employees protested about their reports being dismissed by Apple's human resources team. 

ESG Issue	Apple Approach	Further Issue
Data Security	Apple has created features such as intelligent tracking prevention, password monitoring, private browsing, end-to-end encryption, encrypted data, random identifiers, unique device account number, and two-factor authentication.	End-to-end encryption only between Apple ecosystems; hence, non-Apple users could track Apple users’ information on iCould.
Employee engagement, diversity & inclusion	Installment of practices such as inclusive hiring and diverse representation, initiatives for enduring change in research and development, and equity pay for everyone and everywhere.	#AppleToo movement with more than a hundred complaints about racial discrimination, sexual harassment, and reports being dismissed by Apple human resources team.
Product design & life-cycle	Apple is using three different levers to reduce environmental and social externalities: sourcing and efficiency, product longevity, and product end-of-life.	Apple has been producing more and more waste over the past years. 4.8 million pounds in 2012, 13 million pounds in 2015, and 36.5 million pounds in 2018.
Supply chain management	Apple has created programs to increase the well-being of its supply chain employees such as Supplier Responsibility Standards, suppliers’ diversity programs, and supplier programs to promote education and professional development.	Apple has been accused of using forced labor and violating Chinese labor laws. Furthermore, former Apple employees stated that the company did not take major actions to not delay product launches.
Materials sourcing & efficiency	Apple collaborated with Oeko-Institute e.V. to develop a report named Material Impact Profiles (MIPs) to analyze the environmental, social, and supply impacts of different mined materials.	Apple lost $6 billion in supply constraints caused by many manufacturing disruptions in Asia and the shortages of computer chips due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.