Lisa Jackson: 5 ways Apple aims to lead on environmental equity
What does it mean if racial equity is the top environmental issue for Apple's sustainability boss? Read More

Apple's Vice President
Lisa Jackson of Apple is moving social justice to the top of the list for protecting the environment. Coming from one of Fortune’s “most powerful women in business” at the world’s largest company, her view is likely to have a long-term global impact.
Apple’s big-ticket sustainability goals released for 2030 this year include becoming carbon neutral and achieving a net-zero impact in all operations. Apple also newly embraced an outward-facing leadership role on its social impacts, with a $100 million investment to create a Racial and Equity Justice Initiative (REJI), which CEO Tim Cook asked Jackson to lead in June.
It’s not new for Apple’s Vice President of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives to see racism and climate change as intertwined. She capped off her nearly 20-year career with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as its chief under President Obama. She recalled a key lesson from her New Orleans childhood to GreenBiz Co-founder Joel Makower during a VERGE 2020 virtual event Monday.
1. Identifying intersections
“I know what it means to be at the receiving end of our industrial society, whether it’s the air quality coming from petrochemical facilities, of wind, or the water quality coming down the Mississippi River, or the Gulf of Mexico’s health — and that ecosystem and diversity, all those issues, conflate to me around the place I call home,” Jackson said.
For example, she has seen the resources of the world flow upward to the people who make inequitable decisions around land use and then profit from them — but not flowing back to the people who become victims of flooding, fires or other consequences of poor planning. “Those are the questions we have to solve if we’re really going to solve the climate crisis,” Jackson said.
Fighting for equality and justice for my community has driven my career as an environmentalist. I’ll continue the work leading Apple’s Racial Equity and Justice Initiative. #BlackLivesMatter https://t.co/JKuaQP3I2r
— Lisa P. Jackson (@lisapjackson) June 11, 2020
Jackson’s passion for environmental equity deepened recently when she witnessed the combustive mix of poor air quality and poor COVID-19 outcomes within historically underserved frontline communities.
“It all comes together because we know that the co-pollutants of CO2 from fossil fuel, and from the fossil fuel-burning power sector and transportation sectors, are all part of that justice equation,” she said.
2. Empowering communities
As part of its REJI initiative, which centers around representation, inclusion and accountability, Apple describes using its voice and cash to transform systemic disempowerment into empowerment. One way is to hire more coders of color, and to build wealth in underserved communities by doing more business with suppliers owned by people of color.
“One of the things we did in the economic empowerment space is come up with this idea of an impact accelerator,” she said. “How can we grow some Black and brown-owned businesses that are working on the issue of climate change? Because we’ve always said that climate change is an economic opportunity, how can we make sure that opportunity is spread equally?”
Plus, Apple is also nurturing coding hubs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Apple’s $100 million toward REJI is nine to 10 times the investment committed by Amazon, Google and Facebook each toward racial justice causes.
3. Making the human factor material
It’s been two years since Apple planted the seeds to grow a circular economy by committing eventually to make all of its devices from recycled or renewable materials. Jackson described how the iPhone maker quickly found that its “moonshot” of shunning ingredients that need to be mined is not just about closing the loop on material resources, but on human resources as well. The company prioritized conflict minerals and rare earth elements early on because of their labor and supply chain difficulties.

4. Being first and bigger
5. Enabling the information
With Apple’s technologies in the hands of billions, their usage is central to so many crises of the moment, including climate change, a collective reckoning on racism and the coronavirus pandemic. Jackson mentioned the role that the company’s technologies, such as iPhones, have played in documenting human rights abuses such as the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
