Apple and other large companies met at a round table and let it be known that shareholder value, i.e. fulfilling the wishes of the company’s shareholders, is not everything.
What this means is that profit and the actions necessary for it should not stand above everything else. Instead, a company should also take care of the community and the country. The findings of companies come at a time when financial inequality is growing and many employees are working under precarious conditions.
However, it remains to be seen whether the companies really want to change and adjust their structure so that more people actually benefit from the good promises or whether it is just a nice marketing campaign. This is the view of Nacy Koehn, who in the original New York Times article also shows herself to be waiting and see. The enterprises could serve also simply only the Zeitgeist. The extremely many comments on the New York Times side see that just as critically: nearly nobody believes in the made statements of the enterprises.
The essential points of the round table can be read in full on the official website .
Under the heading “Statement for the purpose of a company” the following two points are listed among others:
- Delivering value to our customers. We will further the tradition of American companies leading the way in meeting or exceeding customer expectations.
- Supporting the communities in which we work. We respect the people in our communities and protect the environment by embracing sustainable practices across our businesses.
The fact that companies such as Walmart and Boeing also signed this agreement may make the whole action appear in a dubious light. It is hard to imagine that customers would want aircraft that would fall from the sky despite being operated by professional pilots. Walmart, too, is not exactly known for taking extremely good care of suppliers or employees.
But let’s confine ourselves to Apple here: It’s true that Apple is working hard to work with renewable energy and to promote diversity and sustainability. In addition, products are supplied with software for quite a long time.
Is that really serious?
However, sustainability refers only to the production process. For example, as soon as a MacBook has a keyboard error, not only is it replaced, but also the top case and battery – that’s not sustainable. In addition, the repair of older devices of a certain age is denied and the free repair of these devices is hindered and sometimes even combated. This respects neither the environment nor society.
So, as usual, you can be curious whether anything will actually change. Our somewhat pessimistic attitude: pffff. But you can do something: Just take care of keeping old devices running or upgrading them yourself. This is especially environmentally friendly and sustainable. Just have a look at our Upkeep pages!
