Apple Seeks Environmental Manager for China Operations

Apple is advertising more than 200 positions in China, including an environmental program manager who will be responsible for ensuring the tech company adheres to regional and national regulations.

Apple’s search for an environmental manager follows an investigative report released last month that accuses one of the company’s major suppliers of dozens of environmental, safety and labor violations.

The position, which will be based in Beijing, is posted on LinkedIn, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Apply environmental manager will work with the company’s Asia Pacific and Japan Environmental Affairs Team, which supports the company’s corporate environmental groups to deliver programs on reducing its carbon footprint, elimination of hazardous substances, energy efficiency, design for recycling, product recycling and take back solutions, according to the job posting.

Apple has been criticized for environmental violations and unhealthy working conditions at several of its China-based suppliers. The July 2013 report by workers-right group China Labor Watch found incidents of environmental pollution at three of supplier Pegatron Group’s factories.

In 2011, a coalition of 36 environmental groups ranked Apple last among 29 tech companies for its responsiveness to health and environmental concerns in China.

Another report (Chinese only) by the Beijing-based non-profit Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE) condemned Apple for its response to worker suicides at Foxconn as well as an incident at Wintek, a touch-screen factory where plant workers became ill from n-hexane exposure.

Last year, Apple told the IPE it would allow independent environmental reviews of at least two suppliers’ factories in China. The independent environmental reviews would examine toxic waste discharges into the water supply and soil, evaluating at least two of the 14 suppliers that Apple did environmental audits on last year, but could expand to additional suppliers.