Apple’s Lisa Jackson says environmental regulations are essential

Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives

At the climate conference, Apple’s chief environmental officer Lisa Jackson said the company believes in regulation and that sustainable design requires direct collaboration with communities.

As vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives, Jackson is one of several Apple executives tipped to succeed Tim Cook. During Climate Week in New York, she talked to business leaders from all industries and by Inc. magazine, advised them all to work with their communities.

“If you design a response in a vacuum, away from the community it affects and away from the people who have to live with it and use it, it won’t be a solution,” she said. In reference to Silicon Valley, she added that “we are very smart (there), but the communities also know what they need.”

Jackson also said regulation on environmental issues is both welcome and necessary. She said this would level the playing field for all businesses.

“For companies that are trying to do more, to do things that they’re not required to do by law,” Jackson said, “they shouldn’t be at a disadvantage because another company isn’t doing even the bare minimum.”

“I believe deeply in the role of regulation (and) in the idea that equality, justice, health depends on someone enforcing extremely important regulations on air, water and land, pesticides, toxic substances and all the things that (the so-called Environmental Protection Agency) ) is obliged to perform in accordance with the law,” she added.

When asked about career advice for people who want to follow her example in working for the environment and sustainable development, she simply replied: “Do science.”

“But I also say that you don’t have to be someone ‘organic’. I was a chemical engineer,” she added, recalling Tim Cook saying during her interview that he liked that she was an engineer.

Jackson said that to be able to change people’s minds, you have to be able to think like them and understand complex topics.

Lisa Jackson doesn’t do many interviews, but in a separate one from 2023, she also touched on how Apple views “education is the ladder, the path to equality” in her role in the company’s Racial Equality and Justice Initiative.