Apple Park tree quota leaves local contractors scrambling for foliage

Posted:
in General Discussion
Apple's plans to plant 9,000 trees at its forthcoming Apple Park headquarters is putting pressure on the local market, forcing contractors working on other San Francisco projects to source trees from nearby states.


Apple Park landscaping. | Source: Matthew Roberts via
YouTube


Briefly mentioned in a San Francisco Chronicle profile of San Francisco's Transbay Transit Center, Apple's ambitious arboreal roadmap calls for the purchase of some 3,000 highly desirable trees, which the company is sourcing from local nurseries.

With Apple in the market for trees, arborists working on projects are having trouble finding quality specimens. For the upcoming transit center, which features a 5.4-acre garden rooftop with 469 trees, landscape architects Adam Greenspan and Patrick Trollip had to travel to Portland, Ore., to locate worthy plants.

By its nature, tree buying is a "surprisingly cutthroat" business, the report says. Apple's requirements for Apple Park are putting additional stress on local suppliers.
When Greenspan and Trollip found a tree they fancied they would "tag it" with a locking yellow tag, so that nobody else -- like Apple -- could get it. Eventually all the tagged trees were moved to a nursery in Sunol, where the transbay project team leased 4 acres.
To complete Apple Park, Apple had to demolish acres of buildings and asphalt parking lots on land previously owned by Hewlett Packard. The transformation from concrete jungle to green, environmentally friendly campus required forward-thinking architecture and a lot of plants. Apple itself said the final tally of trees to be planted at Apple Park is close to 9,000 specimens, most of which will be fruit trees.

It was the dream of late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs to fashion Apple Park's landscaping after the California in which he grew up. In a presentation video made public in 2013, architect Norman Foster said Jobs thought of California as "the fruit bowl of America," and wanted the new campus to reflect the landscapes he remembered as a child.

Along with a forest of drought-resistant varieties dotting the campus grounds, Apple is planting groves of apple, apricot, cherry, persimmon and plum trees in and around the main ring structure.

Today's report offers balance to recent estimates that Apple Park will provide more space for car parking than it does for offices. Most of the 11,000 parking stalls are contained within two large garages, each of which is covered with solar panels, while smaller above grade and underground lots will handle overflow.

Apple will begin moving 12,000 employees to Apple Park later this month. The move in process is expected to take six months to complete.
patchythepirate
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 35
    boboliciousbobolicious Posts: 1,139member
    As Apple & Jobs knew, patience, a fertile idea and good root stock can be a virtue...
    Propagation is one of the great miracles of nature:
    http://www.gardenguides.com/115475-propagate-fruit-trees-cuttings.html
    If every one of 12,000 employees perfected propagation of at least one cutting of the 9,000 trees,
    I might ask if the 'problem' might be more than solved...?
    To the best of my knowledge we can't eat our 'candy bar' iPhones just yet...
    ;)
    edited April 2017 brian greenclemynxtyler82
  • Reply 2 of 35
    EsquireCatsEsquireCats Posts: 1,268member
    All those trees will provide a lot of natural air conditioning for the campus.
    lostkiwipropod
  • Reply 3 of 35
    I think the trees and landscaping were one of the key points of the genius of Steve's design for Apple Park. Simply wonderful. This should serve as an inspiration for other corporations for their respective campuses.
    edited April 2017 lostkiwicaliStrangeDaysstantheman
  • Reply 4 of 35
    sflocalsflocal Posts: 6,092member
    This project was planned for years, along with its intention of planting thousands of trees.  Even with all this advance notice, why are people suddenly pressed for product?  I'm not sure how one goes about placing an order for thousands of trees, but I like Apple does with iPhone parts, the order would have been placed years ago and the trees set aside and cared for until the time comes to plant them.

    Is this article just stating there was a problem to generate web clicks?  This really sounds like a non-issue.

    caliteaearlegreyhotstantheman
  • Reply 5 of 35
    They don't grow on trees. Oh wait, they kinda do...
    clemynxneilmtyler82
  • Reply 6 of 35
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    sflocal said:
    This project was planned for years, along with its intention of planting thousands of trees.  Even with all this advance notice, why are people suddenly pressed for product?  I'm not sure how one goes about placing an order for thousands of trees, but I like Apple does with iPhone parts, the order would have been placed years ago and the trees set aside and cared for until the time comes to plant them.

    Is this article just stating there was a problem to generate web clicks?  This really sounds like a non-issue.

    I don't understand your point. This is effectively no different than Apple buying up the majority of NAND in advance, which leaves other customers with less supply and at higher costs from vendors. This is why other projects that have come up are now looking for these "components" in other areas to complete their projects.
    edited April 2017
  • Reply 7 of 35
    Quote... "Apple itself said the final tally of trees to be planted at Apple Park is close to 9,000 specimens, most of which will be fruit trees."

    I wonder what percentage will be Apple trees?
  • Reply 8 of 35
    clemynxclemynx Posts: 1,552member
    Buying and transporting grown trees across towns let alone across states is terrible for the environment. Those things grow. Plant new ones and wait 20 years and boom. 
  • Reply 9 of 35
    Quote... "Apple itself said the final tally of trees to be planted at Apple Park is close to 9,000 specimens, most of which will be fruit trees."

    I wonder what percentage will be Apple trees?
    100% of them will be Apple trees, not sure which fruit they will bear though ;)
    Solifotoformatradarthekatcalirandominternetpersonxzustantheman
  • Reply 10 of 35
    sflocal said:
    This project was planned for years, along with its intention of planting thousands of trees.  Even with all this advance notice, why are people suddenly pressed for product?  I'm not sure how one goes about placing an order for thousands of trees, but I like Apple does with iPhone parts, the order would have been placed years ago and the trees set aside and cared for until the time comes to plant them.

    Is this article just stating there was a problem to generate web clicks?  This really sounds like a non-issue.

    Listening to the radio this morning: Apparently, Apple is looking for certain size trees: they need to be about 9 years old. And apparently, the global housing recession meant that tree planting in CA came to a halt 9 years ago and didn't resume until 2012. So, there is a real lack of trees of the right size.
    patchythepiratewelshdog
  • Reply 11 of 35
    radarthekatradarthekat Posts: 3,842moderator
    Quote... "Apple itself said the final tally of trees to be planted at Apple Park is close to 9,000 specimens, most of which will be fruit trees."

    I wonder what percentage will be Apple trees?
    14%, to match its worldwide smartphone share.  
    patchythepiratexzu
  • Reply 12 of 35
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    Does this mean Apple is doomed?

    I can't wait until a copycat attempts this campus and claims they care about the environment too...
    revenant
  • Reply 13 of 35
    It's just Apple being disruptive agin.  Seriously, the whole topic seems like click bait to me.
  • Reply 14 of 35
    neilmneilm Posts: 985member
    It's just Apple being disruptive agin.  Seriously, the whole topic seems like click bait to me.
    It does, doesn't it?

    I remember reading several years ago, at the start of this project, that the scale of Apple Park's planned landscaping would require sourcing trees from adjacent states. No surprises here.
    teaearlegreyhot
  • Reply 15 of 35
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    Also in the news, Greenpeace has named Apple the most environmentally friendly corporation in the world. Not a word in the general media.
    randominternetpersonStrangeDayswatto_cobra
  • Reply 16 of 35
    sflocal said:
    This project was planned for years, along with its intention of planting thousands of trees.  Even with all this advance notice, why are people suddenly pressed for product?  I'm not sure how one goes about placing an order for thousands of trees, but I like Apple does with iPhone parts, the order would have been placed years ago and the trees set aside and cared for until the time comes to plant them.

    Is this article just stating there was a problem to generate web clicks?  This really sounds like a non-issue.

    Listening to the radio this morning: Apparently, Apple is looking for certain size trees: they need to be about 9 years old. And apparently, the global housing recession meant that tree planting in CA came to a halt 9 years ago and didn't resume until 2012. So, there is a real lack of trees of the right size.

    That's the stupidest thing I've heard today.  (Not your post, the story.)  I would have thought tree farming would be an industry with a very long time horizon.  Did they think the recession was going to last forever?
  • Reply 17 of 35
    Wow, 9000 fruit trees are going to produce a hell of a lot of fruit… Any word on what Apple is going to do with all that fruit?
  • Reply 18 of 35
    clemynx said:
    Buying and transporting grown trees across towns let alone across states is terrible for the environment. Those things grow. Plant new ones and wait 20 years and boom. 
    Although well meaning, where I'm from, the planning department need the trees to be grown if they are a part of the design, i.e. screening for noise, accounting for air quality figures, hiding buildings etc.
  • Reply 19 of 35
    Wow, 9000 fruit trees are going to produce a hell of a lot of fruit… Any word on what Apple is going to do with all that fruit?
    supply the canteen?    :D
  • Reply 20 of 35
    Well, those contractors are lazy. Everybody new years ago, even when Steve Jobs was alive presenting the project that the project will require a lot of trees. They failed to plan ahead. Simple as that.
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