Corporate Social Responsibility at Apple: Initiatives and Challenges

This study examines the corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives of Apple, focusing on their efforts towards environmental sustainability, employee safety and health, gender equality, energy consumption, waste reduction, and more. It also discusses the challenges faced by Apple in implementing CSR practices and highlights the need for stakeholder engagement and transparency.

CSR

Abstract:
CSR is a business approach that is contributing towards sustainable growth by focussing
on social, economical & environmental payback to different stakeholders. There are some of the
issues that are associated with corporate social responsibility process at Apple that includes
problems because of overtime compensation, safety risks, health risks, communication gaps that
is leading to widespread unsafe working conditions amongst its employees. For this apple is
working towards effective CSR approaches that is towards being more energy efficient and
recyclable. The CSR activities of Apple are directed to be more reactive then proactive in the
environmental sector because of environmental groups.

Table of Contents
Abstract:...........................................................................................................................................2
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCE.................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Corporate social responsibility is a business model that is helping business to be more
socially accountable to public and other stakeholders. It is also regarded as corporate citizenship
as organisations have to deal with aspects of society and other environment frameworks that may
have affecting in social, environmental and economic way. Corporate social responsibility is a
medium to enhance worker morale at the workplace. Organisations are working towards
undertaking specific corporate social responsibility projects and various programmes as part of
CSR committee of the business. Generally these efforts are revolving in terms of promoting
education, employment enhancing, environment sustainability, women empowerment and
promoting of better healthcare (Abbas, 2020). Corporate social responsibility at Apple is based
on initiatives that are talent by Lisa Jackson, who is the vice president of environmental
initiatives. There are approx more than 1 million people who are working in apple supplier
facilities. The overall operations of the organisation have a considerable implications on the
society.
In UK, Apple has partnered with blue stone natural farms for the purpose of
transformation of compostable materials that are generated on-site in form of organic material to
be used on farm. In tech giant there has been launching of 100 kilowatt rooftop solar project at
learning premises for special children in Philippines. There has been addition of 50 Kilowatt
solar power system and 260 kilowatt hour battery to supply clean electricity to off grid fishing in
communities at Thailand (Sharma, 2019). The multinational technology is providing various
training course to 4 million people since year 2008. Apple has also attained competitive
advantage by offering additional benefits to their employees such as expectant mothers can take
off for weeks. Apart from this there has been enforcement of seller code of conduct that is
claimed to be most difficult in electronics industry. In 2018 apple has removed some of the
mineral suppliers from the overall supply chain for not being able to pass. They have interview
approx 52000 supplier employees to share their workplace experiences. Presently the report there
is analysis of various aspects of corporate social responsibility principles that are helping
organisations for achievement of higher competitive advantage in the external environment.
Corporate social responsibility initiates are not just limited to one segment but they are parted
across various functional areas that may include environment sustainability, human rights

responsibility and economic responsibility depending on the requirements of organisation. It
leads to achievement of higher competitive advantage in the changing dynamic environment.
There are different aspects of corporate social responsibility policies in large sector organisations
that have to be taken into consideration in order to be more socially accountable and responsible
for their functioning to society. In context of organisations like Apple Steve Jobs was a man not
known for his philanthropy as there were assumptions about not being enough socially
accountable towards society. But with time and change of leadership in Apple that is when Tim
cook acquired leadership position in year 2011 there was more focus on CSR activities as there
was not emphasis on sustainable business practises in Apple.
MAIN BODY
Types of CSR:
As per view points of schooley (2021), Corporate social responsibility is a business self
regulation that is aimed at business being more socially accountable. There is no one right way
of practising CSR so organisations are working on developed of Corporate CSR initiatives for
striving positively to contribute towards economy, public and environment, in the present
socially conscious environment customers and employees are having premium working towards
prioritizing CSR.
Employees, customers and stakeholder are prioritising CSR while selecting a organisation or
brand. Different types of CSTR facilities in context of organisation are mentioned below:
Environmental efforts: Primary focus of CSR is towards environment. Organisation is working
towards having large carbon footprints. Organisation is willing to take steps to reduce the overall
carbon footprint that is beneficial for both society and company.
Philanthropy: Businesses can practise social responsibility by donating products, money and
services towards social causes and non profits. In this CSR efforts organisation are working to
the organisation by asking them their specific needs, time, money or any other resources that can
help them in better practises of practising social responsibility.
Ethical labour practises: In this aspect employees have to be started ethically and fairly so that
organisation can demonstrate better CSR (McCarthy, Oliver and Song, 2017). It is true for
business to operate across international locations with effective labour laws that might differ
from those in United States.

Volunteering: It is important for organisations to participate in volunteering the time, in various
community events. In this organisation are voluntarily participating in good deeds without any
expectations so that they are able to deal with the specific issues & social causes.
Leadership and Corporate social responsibility at Apple: Lisa Jackson is apple vice president
who is working towards policy, environment and social initiatives. She is timely reporting to
CEO Tim Cook about the achieving initiatives towards proper CSR practises in Apple. There is
general focus on environmental efforts in Apple (Yasser, Al Mamun and Ahmed, 2017). Lisa is
overseeing efforts for minimizing of its negative contact on surroundings by timely address of
climatic change issues. There is use of renewable energy and energy efficiency by use of greener
materials by investing in new ways of conserving precious resources.
In Apple there is emphasis on making 100 million dollar investment toward racial equity
and justice initiatives that is focussing on economic opportunity, education and criminal jutice
reform. The main responsibility of apple is towards building up of apples education policies and
the government affairs across world and their related functions. Since, 2009 to 2013 Lisa has
served as an administrator of US environmental protection agency.
She was selected by then leader Barack Obama and she had her main focus on reduction of
greenhouse gases, protection of water and air quality, dealing with various environmental issues
by various communities (Lisa Jackson, Vice President, Environment, Policy and Social
Initiatives, 2021).
Employee safety and health at apple:
Apple as a multinational brand has launched many health clinics such as AC wellness for
families and employees (Kraus, Rehman and García, 2020). In 2019 Vietnam there has been
employee health education program. This program is in practise in Asian countries like china and
India.
In year 2020 second time this company has been awarded for its efforts towards CSR. Safer
chemicals, health families have awarding Apple A+ rating for elimination of toxic chemicals in
production.
Gender equality and minorities:
As per view points of Dudovskiy (2021), Tim cook in apple is has been CEO of fortune 500
corporation working for strong champion of workforce diversity. The brand reached equal pay
for workers in year 2016. 53 percent of newly hired employees across UK connected Apple in

2020 are from in the past under-represent group in tech. It includes people & women who are
from a diverse range of backgrounds such as Hispanic, Black, Native American and Native
Hawaiiam & other Pacific Islander.
Energy consumption by Apple: Apple is parsed for its ecological work that includes decreasing
total-power of utilization of apple product by 57 percent. There has been introduction of Mac
mini that is world’s energy efficient desktop computer that may lead to energy star guidelines.
APPLE has been emerging as the brand that is award with clean energy index that is ranging at
100 % as per green peace's clicking clean report. They are using presently power of 100 percent
across its operations across globe with 10 percent of renewable energy.
Water consumption at Apple:
Apple is using 1.2 billion gallons of water in year 2019. It includes proportion of recycled water
and temporary fresh water (Zhang and et. al 2020). Supplier is conserved to have 30.5 billion of
gallons freshwater up to date and 9.3 gallon of water has been preserved in year 2019. There can
be reuse of water up to 35 times.
Apple Park is a campus in Cupertino that is using 75 percent of recycled non portable water.
Further apple campus in Texas, Austin and Irrigates are using drought tolerant plants that are
based on use of 600,000 gallon of rainwater cistern.
Waste reduction and recycling by Apple:
Apple is offering various recycle schemes that are 99 percent of country are operating & have
diverted 508 million pounds of different electronic waste from landfills since year 2008. Supplier
sites are also dedicated towards achievement of nil waste that has increased by 53 percent in year
2019 (Feng, Wang and Kreuze, 2017). In 2016, Apple organisation has introduce Liam that kine
of robots for disassembling of the iPhone in every 11 seconds which can further be recycled.
Carbon emission by Apple:
Apple carbon footprints reached to25.1 million metric tons in year 2019 and there has been 75
percent of emissions that are generated in the product manufacturing. The organisation is
managing towards reduction of its carbon footprint by 35 percent since the emission peaked in
year 2015. The tech giant is dedicated towards reaching of neutrality by year 2030.
Apple and sustainable sourcing: Apple is using merchandise wrapping that is being 100 percent
accountable sourced (Park, Lee and Kim, 2018). Their suppliers that include suppliers of Tin,
Tantalum and gold, tungsten & cobalt smelters are participating in third party audits. Apple has

also joined with the preservation fund for protecting of 36000 acres of sustainable forest on
North Carolina & nmaine that is additional than 13000 metric tons of woods have to be harvest
responsibly.
Apple has aimed to contribute towards transition that is up to 1 million acres of forest, across
five southern provinces that is part of responsible management in year 2020.
Apple supplier responsibility:
Apple is world’s largest IT Company by assessment of cost recent that is 1142 suppliers across
49 countries in year 2019 (Waldron, 2021). They are having high performing dealer facilities that
have enlarged by 13 percent in 2019.
As per the annual report of Apple CSR programmes are outlines in the CSR policies as published
on the website of Apple. The CSR policies of Apple are obligating the organisation to take
specific CSR projects and programmes that is changed from time to time by the CSR committee
of Apple. It has to be accordance with the CSR policies that are part of pre established
categorises.
Present contribution of Apple towards CSR: Presently Apple is working towards helping society
in dealing with the overall consequences during COVID 19 pandemic. There has been a survey
where 72 percent of customers across UK have been disappointed with the way big brands are
showing support towards communities during this crisis. Technology brands have become
essential and significant in many profound and small ways (Okafor, Adusei and Adeleye, 2021).
In year 2019, Apple has also announced that they have doubled their present number of supplier
by using of clean energy products that includes iphone manufacturing at giant Foxconn. Lisa
Jackson is also working towards ensuring policy, environment and social initiatives so that
organisation can have proper commitment towards various environmental policies.
Issues:
Right to repair: Apple has been working towards repairing of their products, but since many
years they are not concerned about the overall impact on their existing products. The
organisation has to deliberately making difficult to repair its products over years. Finite and
expensive resources are wasted or there is no proper utilisation that is taking place across these
new products (Krasodomska and Cho, 2017). Many customers are reporting issues of hypocrisy

for the brand because of less favourable product to third party repairs. This is mainly arsing
because of eco friendly proclamations.
Allegations: Apple has been found guilty as per charter quality institute between year 2017 and
2018. In which they have been responsible for violating forced labour laws 10 times, violation of
child labour laws 27 times and also violate human being right laws 54 times. In year 2019 there
has been issues of supplier responsibility report where apple has claimed that there have been
improvement in labour conditions across their supply chain while it has been calculated aging
their personal metrics. Apple is working towards labour relation standards.
Use of plastics: The energy empowering Apple factories, stores and offices are making extensive
use of plastic through their product line up. In present scenario, the speaker enclosed cover glass
frame in iPhone XS are finished from 35 percent & 32 percent of recycled and bio plastics that is
commendable efforts on part of Apple. But two third of the components are also made from
using new plastics.
Lack of stakeholder engagement strategy: Apple does not have proper engagement strategy.
They have been not making proper response towards questions related to issues in their supply
chain (Hou, 2019). They have been committed to drive the maximum principles of social
accountability with their supply chain base, it leads to a summary that Apple is highly engaged
with stakeholders.
Lack of triple bottom line thinking: Apple has not followed some aspects of triple bottom line.
People have been working towards addressing of social and environmental issues but there have
been issues related with their code of conduct.
Lower transparency: In apple there has been no proper transparency that is organisation is not
able to properly depict or disclose the suppliers name and report about various issues that are
taking pale inside the organisation. There is high amount of ambiguity that is reported in the
overall functioning of TESCO (Apple’s Half-Hearted Commitment to Social Responsibility,
2019).
Dated approach: In some of the aspects of having proper corporate social responsibility there is
a dated approach that is being adopted by TESCO. Such as there has been separate page for
supplier responsibility and footprint (Tolmie, Lehnert and Zhao, 2020). But there is no proper
division between environmental and social aspect that is out of date.

So, there is need to focus on having a more transparent approach by TESCO towards having
proper stakeholder engagement and communications system.

Conclusion
From the above mentioned aspects it can be conclude the CSR has become one of the
most crucial aspects for smooth business functioning across different parts of the world. Many
organisations are now beaconing aware of the way there is evolution of ethical customers
(Lundberg, 2018). The organisation is working towards creation of long term value so that there
can be building up of stronger relationship with various stakeholders that include partners,
employees and customers. It can help in revealing empowering of new business opportunities.
There is need to focus on CSR initiatives of Apple that is their ethical responsibility is focused
towards four major areas that is legal, economic, ethical and philanthropic. Organisation has to
focus on having proper assignment of responsibilities so that there are no operational failures that
are sometimes roots of pollution problems and environmental disasters (Friske, Nikolov and
Hoang, 2020). The main aspects for having CSR practises is to deal with overall operational
failures for this there is need consider different important aspects of Corporate social
responsibility while making significant business decisions. Sustainability is a concept that is
obtained from environmentalism that is referred to as ability of society or a organisation to work
without making compromises towards environmental condition of the coming future time period.
Sustainability is a challenging goal that has to be achieved for higher suitability.
It is important for the purpose of having a proper CSR strategy in order to develop solutions and
strategies. Further for the purpose of enhancing CSR reporting there is need to ensure that Apple
is having higher transparency in terms of proper stakeholder management and communication. It
requires organisations to deal with overall operational failures and proper corporate governance
structure (Li, Zhang and Sun, 2019). There is need to direct towards achieving of higher
sustainable growth by evolving of corporate values by promotion of responsible corporate
conducts and actions Apple success in CSR is based on engaging their stakeholders to perform
their responsibilities (Yamoah and Acquaye, 2019). Apple is working towards addressing
interests of the stakeholder groups for the purpose of improving overall organisation functioning
and contribution towards society. Major stakeholders include customers, employees, investors
and suppliers.
Corporate social responsibility is to focus on infusing of sustainability with technology so that
there can be building up of capacity for coming time period and future generations (Singhand
Misra, 2021). Corporate social responsibility is regarded as strategies that can be used by

organisations to put it into action and is part of corporate governance strategy that is based on
overall operations and is beneficial for society. The changing times has lead to changes in the
overall definition and meaning of corporate social responsibility practises for various business
organisations. Now it has been perceived as a concept that is associated with greater public
awareness and adherence to environmental and ethical issues. The institutionalisation of CSR
practises has lead to a strong impact on development of a socially conscious based of customers.
Further evidence is suffering of highlighting the various responsible business practises that
endows a organisation with getting a higher competitive advantage from such ethical and
sustainable business practises.

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Online
Lisa Jackson, Vice President, Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives, 2021 [online],
Available through<https://www.apple.com/uk/leadership/lisa-jackson/>
Apple Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), 2021 [online], Available through<https://research-
methodology.net/apple-corporate-social-responsibility-csr/>
Apple’s Half-Hearted Commitment to Social Responsibility, 2019 [online], Available
through<https://tech.co/news/apples-social-responsibility-2019-04>