Yes, but a lot of people who like to put the word sustainability in scare quotes are against action on climate change. And a lot of people who preface mentions of the phrase climate change with "so called" are deniers.
Probably not since it is such an effective dismissal.
This isn't really about Apple, it is more about the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) of which Apple is a member and the NCPPR going after them. NCPPR isn't some new organization, so they have a lot of things on their agenda (consider nuclear missiles were once an item on it).
Not saying their right or wrong on this one, mostly just saying Ars Technica did its usual crappy job on anything with a political bent. They don't seem to do much research into the who or even try to interview anyone.