The Man Who Stood Up To Apple

Apple has recently made changes to its policies of withholding any information about the environmental impact of its factories in China. That’s largely thanks to Ma Jun, who this week won the Goldman environmental prize for his work. As the founder of China’s Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE), former journalist Ma Jun spearheads an organization that has uncovered over 90,000 air and water violations by both local and multinational companies in China. The IPE most famously put out a series of reports about the IT industry’s environmental violations that led to meetings with Apple; now the electronics giant is taking steps to clean up its most polluted factories (in addition to working on human rights issues). This week, Ma Jun was named the Asia Recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize, a $150,000 award for grassroots environmental leaders. Co.Exist spoke to Ma Jun to learn more about what he’s currently working on. Image: goldmanprize.org. More…

News selected by Covalence | Country: China | Company: Apple, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. | Source: Fast Company