Zeus: How Tim Cook’s early climate lesson saved Apple investors

Cook blazed the trail of CEOs acting on net zero instead of just talking about it

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Tim Cook, Apple CEO, speaks at the launch of We Mean Business during Climate Week NYC, 2014. Photo: The Climate Group/Tina Fineberg.

The end of the Tim Cook era this week seems like a good time to admit I was on the wrong side of what became one of the most successful trades in history 15 years ago when Cook replaced Steve Jobs as CEO just before the legendary Apple AAPL 0.00%↑ founder died.

At the time, with the iPhone only four years old, Jobs was being compared to Thomas Edison in terms of the impact of his invention on society. Apple shares had soared for years. How could they go higher? His death was an obvious sell sign.

A decade-and-a-half later those shares have soared 20-fold, adjusted for splits, as Cook has expertly ridden and expanded the iPhone phenomenon to make Apple one of the most profitable companies of all time.

But if it weren’t for a valuable lesson in handling climate change in the early years after Cook took over in 2011, it might never have happened.