If you've ever looked at the price of a brand new Apple Watch Series 9 and wondered if you're subsidizing Apple's environmental efforts, you can now rest easy. You aren't — those prices are all components, manufacturing, and profit.
That's according to the person that would likely know. Apple Vice President Lisa Jackson is behind Apple's environmental initiatives (she's president of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives, to be precise) and in a new interview, she confirmed that the company doesn't "factor in a premium" to cover the cost of the work it does to help save the world.
Turns out that making and then selling the best Apple Watch to date just costs a lot of money and that's why Apple charges what it does.
Just 'because they’re Apple'
Jackson was speaking to Reuters to discuss Apple's initiatives around how it can help the environment and whether or not other companies should follow suit.
Jackson said that Apple's focus on doing good in terms of the environment is an initiative that starts with CEO Tim Cook, but that she wants to make sure that the example it sets can be followed by others.
"I want to do it in a way that other businesses can say this isn't because they’re Apple," said Jackson. "It's because they understand how to make clean energy and (recyclable) materials work in the manufacturing chains and drive emissions down."
Jackson also confirmed that Apple is working with smaller companies to recycle materials, adding that "that's somewhere Apple can invest and then help to scale and bring (other) businesses along,"
Apple appears to be putting its money where its mouth is — the Apple Watch Series 9 is the company's first-ever carbon-neutral product, depending on which model and band you choose. And now we know that the work to make that happen isn't factored into the $399 starting price, too.
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