A New Slice of the Apple – The Apple Ring aka Apple Park
A look at the Apple Ring aka Apple Park, from an ethical point of view
With a company as well-known and prestigious as Apple, you would expect they would consider all ethical boundaries when building their new campus. After the construction of the Apple Ring, the company’s second campus was built in Cupertino, California, with around 175 acres of land, 2.8 million of the main building, and the main office worth $4.17 billion(4). There were a lot of opinions and criticism on how the new building failed the consideration of many ethical issues and did not benefit the city of Cupertino as much as it promised it would. Continue reading this article to discover how Apple disappointed the locals and other parties of Cupertino and what future businesses should avoid when constructing or opening up a new campus, building, or facility.
Downfall of Outsourcing
Around 90% of the employees working in the Apple ring were outsourced and not from the area and therefore had to commute using different means of transportation, which increased traffic and pollution and harmed the environment(5). Instead, the company should have hired the local population, which would have killed two birds with one stone. First, it would have decreased the people and given the local economy of Cupertino a chance to strive by providing more job opportunities.
Zoning Laws would have helped.
Moreover, many criticize the benefits Apple provided the city of Cupertino as a little stingy compared to the company, which has $250 billion in cash. Some say Apple did not do much to help or improve the Bay Area city of Cupertino and ended up building a work campus that only exacerbates the ongoing problem of transportation, housing, and economics in suburban areas. Apple overstates the supposed benefits and development of the Apple ring, but in reality, it is only an unstimulating sprawl of an idea that’s taking up too much potential land. What they do mention is how more housing and residents will only cost more as the city will have to build schools and hospitals to accommodate the needs of the increased population(2). In addition, many locals argue that remodeling an old building in the middle of the city would have been better for Cupertino’s economy than taking away precious land that could have been used for other advantageous projects(6). Therefore, by properly following the zoning laws, Apple could have avoided all these problems stated above, and the locals of Cupertino blamed the Apple Ring for increasing the noise level, car traffic, parking, air quality, and wasting potential land(1).
Shareholder Value Criticism
Another factor many people had a problem with, specifical shareholders, was how the building was unnecessarily extravagant. Due to building one of the most high-tech and fancy buildings, Apple could not issue more corporate dividends, which upset the shareholders. This was unethical of Apple as they did not consider their implicit contract with the shareholders and therefore disappointed them. It is essential for a shareholder to feel valued, secure, and confident in a company(3). Especially when it’s a billion-dollar organization such as Apple, you wouldn’t think maximizing shareholder value would be an issue or struggle.
Therefore, even though The Apple Ring is known as one of the most state-of-the-art campuses ever to be built, many critics believe that many decisions were unethical and should be avoided by future organizations.
References to read further about the Apple Ring from an Ethical Point of View:
- FindLaw. (2018, February 16). Commercial zoning. (URL)
- Howarth, D. (2017). Apple Park New Campus Foster Partners Sucks Wired Magazine Review. (URL)
- Insead Knowledge. (2008). Retrieved from Maximising shareholder value: an ethical responsibility? (URL)
- Inside ApplePark. (2021). (URL)
- Winters, D. (2017). If You Care About Cities, Apple’s New Campus Sucks. (URL)
- businessethicsopenstax. (n.d.). Workplace Campuses. Opentextbc.Ca.
- Balance Between Remaining Profitable and Paying a Decent Salary
- Corporate and Personal Choices Regarding the Environment of the Future
- Unilever Enhancing Livelihoods – Project Shakti
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