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Recently Apple released the Corporate Responsibility Report for 2021~2022 (Apple, 2022). In addition to what we can all guess, there is one detail that deserves attention.

That is Apple’s rapidly advancing goal of becoming a “closed-loop manufacturer”. Nearly 20 per cent of the materials used in Apple products shipped in fiscal 2021 come from recycled sources (Apple, 2022).

Apple wants to build new phones and computers entirely from materials recycled from e-waste. To do this, Apple has embarked on a radical re-engineering of its underlying materials supply chain. In order to become a “closed-loop manufacturer ” (Gonios, 2021), Apple needs to create a “closed-loop supply chain of materials” and work with its wide range of suppliers and partners to increase the proportion of recycled materials used in Apple products. Theoretically, if Apple could close its “closed-loop supply chain” tightly enough – by recycling the products it sells – it could also reduce the impact of raw material price fluctuations.

However, the reverse logistics required in principle by the “closed-loop supply chain” – i.e. Apple’s mass recycling of its own products and their use in the production of new products – is not yet well developed. The progress Apple has made so far has been unsatisfactory. There are still many barriers to building the logistics of product recycling that have not been overcome (Wijayasundara, 2022). So the company is still a long way from being a strictly “closed-loop manufacturer”. Many observers believe that Apple’s ‘closed-loop manufacturing’ is still at a superficial stage. This is why many critics argue that Apple’s “closed-loop manufacturing” is a sham and that “greenwashing” is the real deal (Ragay, 2021).

However, we can also assume that Apple has contributed. Apple has also provided a model for the integration of electronics manufacturing into the circular economy. And It has technically explored the applicability of recycled materials in electronics manufacturing.

References

Apple, 2022. Annual Report on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Activities FY20/21. [Online]
Available at: https://www.apple.com.cn/job-creation/Apple_China_CSR_Report_2022.pdf
[Accessed 15 10 2022].

Apple, 2022. Apple expands the use of recycled materials across its products. [Online]
Available at: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/04/apple-expands-the-use-of-recycled-materials-across-its-products/
[Accessed 15 10 2022].

Gonios, N., 2021. How Apple Is Transforming Into a Closed Loop Product-As-A-Service Provider. [Online]
Available at: https://www.circulist.com/insight/apple-slow-journey-to-becoming-a-closed-loop-product-as-a-service-provider
[Accessed 15 10 2022].

Ragay, L., 2021. Apple’s 2030 Plan: Greenwashing or a Genius Plan?. [Online]
Available at: https://www.alittlebithuman.com/apples-2030-plan-greenwashing-or-a-genius-plan/
[Accessed 15 10 2022].

Wijayasundara, M., 2022. 5 barriers to using recycled materials to boost the circular economy. [Online]
Available at: https://igsmag.com/features/5-barriers-to-using-recycled-materials-to-boost-the-circular-economy/
[Accessed 15 10 2022].

5/5 (2)

Walmart Inc. has taken its first step into the metaverse.

On 27 September 2022, Walmart announced that it would be joining Roblox with two new experiences for young users: “Walmart Land” and “Walmart Game World” (Walmart, 2022).

This is another major company “in” Roblox, following giants such as Nike, Samsung, VF, Gucci and Spotify (Bradley, 2022). Walmart has chosen Roblox as its first stop in the meta-universe, and the reason is not too complicated – Roblox has a huge number of users, and that number is growing fast.

With the epidemic, the online gaming platform Roblox has grown from 32.6 million daily active users in 2020 to over 53.3 million in June 2022, most of whom are children and teenagers, in their mid-25s or younger (Landsberg, 2022). They can create their own games on Roblox, play other users’ games and interact with each other. “Roblox is one of the fastest growing and largest platforms in the virtual world, and we know our customers are spending a lot of time there.” William White, chief marketing officer of Walmart US, said in a statement (Walmart, 2022). In addition to Roblox, Walmart has also entered TikTok and Twitter aggressively and has hosted shoppable live events (Aghadjanian, 2021).

With this move, Walmart wants to attract more young people of the Z generation and from what we can see Roblox is a good choice. With Nike’s virtual world Nikeland reportedly receiving 21 million visits and VF’s Vans World receiving around 81 million visits (Webscrypto, 2022), Roblox becomes a great channel for large brands to reach out to the younger generation.

However, while Roblox has a huge number of users, several Roblox players said that the current metaverse products are still relatively poorly made. Similar to playing Sandbox before, the UX of Roblox is pretty rough (de Mello, 2022). This may have something to do with the fact that historically it was focused on the gaming experience of kids.

I think the future of the metaverse will offer a variety of possibilities for companies with various business models. But there is still a lot to do before the metaverse becomes a mainstream market. Metaverse projects in the next phase should focus more on the evolution in terms of UX design, graphic design and, of course, decentralization.

Aghadjanian, N., 2021. Twitter Announces New Live Shopping Platform With Walmart. [Online]
Available at: https://www.alistdaily.com/social/walmart-cyber-deals-live-shopping-twitter-platform/
[Accessed 29 9 2022].

Bradley, D., 2022. How brands like Chipotle and Duolingo are driving brand love on Roblox. [Online]
Available at: https://www.campaignlive.com/article/brands-chipotle-duolingo-driving-brand-love-roblox/1792603
[Accessed 29 9 2022].

de Mello, D., 2022. How Roblox works: the UX of the Metaverse. [Online]
Available at: https://uxdesign.cc/how-roblox-works-the-ux-of-the-metaverse-d2ca42bc4ae8
[Accessed 29 9 2022].

Landsberg, N., 2022. 55 Amazing Roblox Statistics Revenue, Usage & Growth Stats. [Online]
Available at: https://influencermarketinghub.com/roblox-stats/
[Accessed 29 9 2022].

Walmart, 2022. Walmart Jumps Into Roblox With Launch of Walmart Land and Walmart’s Universe of Play. [Online]
Available at: https://corporate.walmart.com/newsroom/2022/09/26/walmart-jumps-into-roblox-with-launch-of-walmart-land-and-walmarts-universe-of-play
[Accessed 29 9 2022].

Webscrypto, 2022. Nike’s Virtual Store Nikeland Has More Than 21 Million Visitors. [Online]
Available at: https://webscrypto.com/nikes-virtual-store-nikeland-has-more-than-21-million-visitors/
[Accessed 29 9 2022].