Lisa Jackson, VP of environment, policy and initiatives at Apple
By Howard Wenger, president of business units for SunPower
Many companies have pledged to use 100% renewable energy, but Apple has gone further faster than any other company. Helping Apple blaze this trail is Lisa Jackson, vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives. With the support of her boss, CEO Tim Cook, this former EPA administrator has taken a proactive, innovative approach to ensure the company’s energy strategy reflects its core values and business goals. Consider their progress:
- As of January 2016, 93% of Apple facilities were running on energy from renewable sources. In 23 countries, including large emitters like the U.S. and China, that number is 100%.
- The company has decreased carbon emissions per product every year since 2011.
- Apple’s new corporate campus will be powered by one of the largest onsite corporate solar energy installations in the world.
Lisa is a champion of the environment and she thinks big. She believes that energy efficiency and renewable energy are the solution to climate change. I have had the pleasure of working with Lisa and Mike Petouhoff, Apple’s energy manager, as they have implemented solar solutions to run offices, retail stores and data centers.
Not content to just reduce Apple’s own carbon footprint, in 2015, Lisa and her team launched a new program to help their manufacturing partners run their operations on clean energy. Their plans call for 4 GW of clean energy projects driven by both environmental and business benefits.
Through her tenacity, vision and business acumen, Lisa, Mike and the team at Apple have demonstrated that it’s possible to run a global business on renewable energy. It’s a model other companies can and should emulate. As she told the Wall Street Journal in March 2015, “This is a core value for us, and we’re living it.”