What a difference a couple years make. It seems that only a few years ago Apple was taking heat from the likes of Greenpeace for not sourcing clean power for its data centers and not being transparent about the energy efficiency metrics of its data centers.

A lot has changed since then. Apple invested in fuel cells and solar arrays for its North Carolina data center and this time last year announced that 100 percent of the power for all of its data centers was renewable.

And true to Apple form, the company is moving beyond just implementing clean power options but is using those decisions as part of its branding. This morning it published a 2 minute spot called “Better,” which begins with a conversation about Apple’s commitment to making its products continually better and leads into a conversation about how the company is extending “better” to the way it produces products and its relationship to the environment. The ad is engaging and carries quite a serious tone, which is maybe how Apple wants to be perceived–as a being very serious about the earth (there’s none of the playfulness you might see in an iPad spot).

It’s good to see Apple bringing its environmental commitments into its branding since the company’s marketing is so closely watched by other companies. Now if we could see these degrees of sustainability commitments in say, the manufacturing industry.