How Do You Like Them Apples?

Will Hunting uttered that famous line in my favorite movie of all time, "Good Will Hunting". It's a great line, delivered with acerbic authority and wit, and I'm using it here today with the same biting force and exuberance... with one change necessary: I want to replace the word "them" with the word "green". For those of you that know the emotion and cadence Will uttered the line with, you can keep it similar and just add in the word "green".

How do you like green apples!?

Why?

Because Apple has announced it's going green! Yes, for all the naysayers, critics, and Apple curmudgeons out there, it is now not necessary to view Apple as the lowly environmentally unfriendly company. They're taking baby steps, I'll admit, but that's the way to improvement.

The thing that impressed me the most about the article was that they used the word "stakeholders". It's a word not seen too much in the discourse of big picture analysis, or when speaking of the interests of others when weighing economic or political concerns. The word stakeholder has a weighty definition, one that most people fail to consider when they hypothesize about cause and effect.
Stakeholder is defined as, "One who has a share or an interest, as in an enterprise" by Answers.com. In my humble opinion, this encompasses everyone and at all times when dealing with the environment and "being green". Don't we all have an interest or stake in the condition, control, use, misuse, and correction of the environment? Most times, corporations only consider "shareholders" and their own junta when deciding on their actions and expenditures- you know, the people with stock options and an economic interest in the proceedings.
It's refreshing to see an official press release from one of the biggest corporations in the world mention the little man- because we all matter when dealing with Mother Earth. No matter if you're an Apple fan or not, or if you even care if computers are made more environmentally friendly, you stand to benefit from a more stewardship-minded company.

Many years ago I read a book called, "Culture Jam". This is where I was first introduced to the ideas of caring for and considering the welfare of all "stakeholders". Basically, the idea being put forth was that if this world became more interested in the wellbeing of all "stakeholders" rather than only and always "shareholders", we'd all be better off. I liked this idea from the time I read it, and I try and live my life in that vein. It's again comforting to see an ideal like this being perpetuated in everyday life, for it's too easy to track and follow the daily acts of greed and pernicious vitriol on behalf of conglomerations.

So, good on ya Apple!! It's a start, and I hope (as a Mac owner) that it's a trend that will pick up great steam...