Green my Apple has won the Webby Award for best activist site of the year. This means we need to figure out some way to divide the goofy springy award thingamawhatsit between all the Apple fans around the world who have donated their time, their creativity, their blogs, banners, ads, and t-shirt designs asking Apple to become the Green leader we know they can be.
The winners were chosen from nearly 8,000 entries from 60 different countries.
The judging panel consisted of: David Bowie, Harvey Weinstein, Matt Groening, Jamie Oliver, Internet co-inventor Vinton Cerf, RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser, The Body Shop president Anita Roddick, and R/GA CEO Bob Greenberg.
It's a victory that has a bittersweet taste, in that the Webby Awards celebrate a world made possible by the very electronics industry which our e-waste campaign is challenging, and which our Green my Apple project is but a part.
As the world buys more and more products with shorter and shorter lifespans with which to access the web, the mountains of e-waste in Asia and India grow larger. And until the worst of the toxic substances those computers, telephones, and other gadgets use are phased out, more and more people -- many of them children -- will endanger their health when they scavenge for parts and material.
So as we join the bragging parade of Webby Winners, we also take a moment to think about who bears the cost of our digital lifestyle, and how much we look forward to the day when we can buy our gadgets secure in the knowledge that they don't contain poisons, and that they'll be recycled responsibly. And we hope that the day comes soon when all of us who have advocated for that future can share in the button-popping pride that comes from winning not just an award, but a campaign.
Ask Steve Jobs to make Apple Green.
