“Mother Nature” took this week’s fall Apple event by storm. She appeared in the form of actress and producer Octavia Spencer, playing the role of a sardonic inquisitor who cross-examines CEO Tim Cook on his company’s climate promises. Luckily, Cook knew how to win her over: with a new product. He presented the latest version of the Apple Watch, the company’s first offering that’s said to be completely “carbon neutral.”
The phrase “carbon neutral” is the rare bit of marketing speak that says exactly what it means: no extra carbon. No extra harm to our troubled planet. The label will be slapped onto a subset of 9th-generation Apple Watches with a particular combination of casing and wristbands. They will come in packaging emblazoned with a wreath of electric green leaves.
Kudos to you, buyer-to-be. You get to show off your new gadget and occupy the green moral high ground too. The company says it intends to use the Apple Watch as a model for making its entire product lineup carbon neutral by 2030.
That approach is a little confounding, says David Ho, a climate scientist at the University of Hawaii, because more stuff always has an impact. “There is no such thing as a carbon-neutral product,” he says. “It’s kind of silly. It gives consumers the idea that there are ways out of these problems that don’t involve consuming less.” Unless the new Watch has been designed to suck CO2 directly from the atmosphere, he jokes, it’s not actually carbon neutral.
Apple appears to have taken many good steps along the road to its puzzling claim. The company is carrying out a deep clean of the Apple Watch supply chain, minimizing the use of airplanes to move around materials in favor of more fuel-efficient boats and trains, and using recycled materials for casings and batteries.
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