Several us of have been following Randy Pausch since we heard (or heard about) his final lecture at Carnegie Mellon. In the May 3, 2008 Wall Street Journal, Jeff Zaslow, Randy Pausch’s co-author on a new book called The Last Lecture, tells the story about how he met Randy and how they wrote the book together. According to traditional media, some people have been critical of the authors for “exploiting the situation” by writing this book, I disagree. Watch the lecture (or read an excerpt from the book) before you decide.

No, I’m not writing about Apple just because they are an apple and we highlight good apples on the PosiPeople blog. Rather, I am writing about Apple because it is taking a leadership role in its industry in producing products and protecting the environment at the same time.

Not only does Apple recycle any iPod or cell phone, regardless of manufacturer, for free, but it also has consistently created products that have low energy consumption, and have little use of harmful chemicals.

In addition, Apple is setting a tremendous precedent by publishing a environment impact report that, I hope, will be published annually and will force competitors to publish annually. Before you dismiss it as a poor attempt at quantifying its environmental impact, you should read it closely. This report is pretty in depth and broad. It covers topics such as responsible manufacturing, energy efficiency, recycling, and product design.

Apple has a list of chemicals that they have banned from products and manufacturing such as Arsenic and Brominated Flame Retardants. In addition, many of Apple’s products exceed Energy Star efficiency ratings. (Did you know that Apple was a founding member of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program?) Furthermore, Apple generates less waste by limiting the amount of packaging used in delivering its products to consumers.

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