What Apple is doing is protecting its business model. It is a good thing what Apple is doing, but they are doing it only because it is aligned with its business model.
Apple is a for-profit organization. Same as Google. Same as Facebook.
Cook very publicly tangled with shareholders that argued against Apple's environmental & accessibility initiatives:
"'When we work on making our devices accessible by the blind, I don’t consider the bloody ROI,' Cook said, adding that the same sentiment applied to environmental and health and safety issues.
He told Danhof that if he did not believe in climate change, he should sell his Apple shares. 'If you want me to do things only for ROI reasons, you should get out of this stock,' he said.
Cook’s comments and visible passion over the issue are one of the strongest signals yet of his commitment to reducing Apple’s environmental footprint. He told shareholders that he wanted to 'leave the world better than we found it'."
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/mar/03/tim-cook-...
Apple chooses a business model that is aligned with what it thinks is right, not the other way around.