There's some serious out of the box thinking. Apple is the world's most valuable company by market capitalization. Amazon is the world's biggest online retailer. The vastly different businesses share in common an epic scale, with immense impacts on natural systems and countless opportunities to lead markets in sustainability. Lately, each company is also more visibly accelerating its circular economy visions and practices. The GreenBiz Circularity 21 virtual event last week offered a rare glimpse behind their curtains, featuring separate conversations with Lisa Jackson, Apple's vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives, and George Bandy, Amazon's new head of worldwide circular economy. Although the companies are entirely distinct beasts, let’s make some Apple-to-Amazon comparisons. They are both technology leaders with colossal footprints in cloud computing, with innovative algorithms and an embrace of artificial intelligence. They have both become ubiquitous, commanding outsize loyalty from consumers. The similarities may roughly end there. Amazon is a relative youth, founded in 1994, next to the middle-aged Apple, born in 1976. Kara Hurst made headlines in 2014 becoming Amazon’s first worldwide leader of sustainability, about a year after Apple brought on former EPA chief Jackson. Bandy, former Mohawk Group CSO, came to Amazon in January. The Climate Pledge, which Amazon co-founded in 2019, attracting 108 signatories to date, is "to be net zero carbon across our business by 2040." It's directly connected to the company’s circular economy efforts, Bandy said. That's because minimizing waste, increasing recycling and providing options to customers to use, repair and recycle their products ultimately lowers Amazon’s carbon footprint as more material goes back into a circular economy rather than into landfills. Apple, whose operations are already carbon neutral, is on the path toward carbon neutrality in all... |