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Apple today urged its global supply chain to take fresh action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adopt a thorough decarbonization strategy. The company will monitor annual progress and assess the efforts of its major manufacturing partners to decarbonize their Apple-related operations, including switching to 100% renewable electricity. Apple is laser-focused on achieving its lofty goal of becoming carbon neutral across its entire global supply chain and the life cycle of every product. Apple has been carbon-free for its global corporate operations since 2020.
Apple also unveiled new projects and investments meant to aid in the global economy’s decarbonization and advance creative climate solutions for local communities as the effects of climate change become more widely felt. These include reasonably large investments in renewable energy in Europe, collaborations to help companies switch to clean energy, and fresh funding for initiatives that promote carbon sequestration naturally and locally driven climate solutions globally.
Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, stated that combating climate change remained one of the company’s top priorities. “Moments like this put action to those words,” Cook added. “We anticipate continuing our collaboration with our suppliers to achieve carbon neutrality in Apple’s supply chain by 2030. Apple’s efforts to combat climate change don’t end at the company’s gates, and we’re determined to make a bigger impact in this area.
Supply Chain Climate Action Mobilization
Apple is working with its global supply chain as part of its supplier engagement program to push for expedited action to reach carbon neutrality for their Apple-related corporate operations. The company will track and audit annual progress and requires reporting on progress toward these goals, particularly Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions reductions related to Apple production. Apple will collaborate with vendors who are moving quickly and measurable toward decarbonization.
Additionally, Apple is trying to encourage its suppliers to focus on clean energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions outside of their Apple production. Apple has reduced its emissions by 40% since 2015 as part of the company’s efforts to meet its 2030 goal. This has been largely accomplished through advancements in energy efficiency, low-carbon design, becoming carbon neutral for corporate operations, and switching its supply chain to renewable electricity.
More than 200 suppliers, or more than 70% of what Apple directly spends on manufacturing, have already committed to powering all Apple operations with clean energy sources like wind or solar. Major manufacturing partners have promised to power all Apple production with renewable energy, including Corning Incorporated, Nitto Denko Corporation, SK Hynix, STMicroelectronics, TSMC, and Yuto.
Apple’s Clean Energy Program offers a variety of free e-learning materials and in-person trainings to assist suppliers in meeting their commitments and going even further. Apple also closely collaborates with its suppliers and regional partners to find efficient ways to use renewable energy sources and reduce carbon emissions. This year alone, more than 150 supplier representatives took part in live trainings. In order to guarantee that businesses of all sizes, both inside and outside Apple’s supply chain, will have access to the resources and advocacy networks needed to speed their transition to 100 percent clean energy and carbon neutrality, Apple plans to donate these resources in order to create a first-of-its-kind public training platform that is free for businesses across many different industries.
Increasing Clean Energy to Address Consumer Product Use
Since 2018, Apple has sourced renewable energy to power all of its corporate offices, retail locations, and data centers in 44 countries as part of its commitment to clean energy. Additionally, its suppliers have put more than 10 gigawatts of clean power online globally. Following a preliminary request for proposals issued earlier this year, Apple plans to support the construction of large-scale solar and wind projects in Europe, with projects ranging between 30 and 300 megawatts. The company plans to obtain enough renewable energy over the coming years to run all Apple devices on the continent on low-carbon electricity while keeping corporate offices, retail locations, and data centers entirely powered by clean energy. A total of 3,000 gigawatt hours of new renewable energy will be added to the grid annually as a result of the planned investments.
The company’s larger plan to reduce the roughly 22% of its carbon footprint that comes from the electricity customers use to charge their electronics includes investments in Europe. Apple intends to increase the impact on Europe’s electricity sector at a time when renewable generation is urgently needed by bringing clean energy projects online whenever possible in grids with high carbon intensity. The company introduced new renewable energy initiatives in Australia and the United States earlier this year to address customer product use.
With Clean Energy Charging, customers in the US can now help reduce the carbon footprint of the iPhone. The new feature, which will be accessible in the US starting this month through iOS 16 update rollout, examines the electricity’s sources during anticipated charge times and adjusts for times when the grid is using greener energy sources, like solar or wind. Apple has joined the University of California, Berkeley’s CoolClimate Network, a research collaboration to inspire and empower people and organizations to make low-carbon decisions, to further advance climate-smart decision-making for clients, team members, and partners.
Promoting Globally Equitable and Profitable Climate Solutions
As part of its groundbreaking carbon removal initiative, Restore Fund, which aims to make money while reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, Apple today also unveiled three new projects. Apple has invested with three excellent forestry managers in Brazil and Paraguay to restore 150,000 acres of sustainably certified working forests and safeguard roughly 100,000 acres of native forests, grasslands, and wetlands in collaboration with Conservation International and Goldman Sachs.
In total, these initial forestry initiatives are anticipated to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide by 1 million metric tons by 2025. Apple is collaborating with partners to examine satellite imagery and implement cutting-edge remote sensing technologies in order to guarantee accurate monitoring, reporting, and verification of the projects’ carbon removal impact.
Apple prioritizes high-quality nature-based solutions for the 25% of remaining emissions that are impossible to avoid with current technologies as it works to reduce emissions by 75% by 2030. In the meantime, Apple is working to promote brand-new approaches, such as by supporting Carbon Direct’s analysis that pinpoints the development of sustainable aviation fuels.
Apple today unveiled new partnerships to advance locally driven climate solutions across the globe in addition to the Restore Fund projects:
- Through the Climate Crowd program, Apple and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) are promoting climate resilience and sustainable livelihoods in Namibia and Zimbabwe. In order to build resilience and create alternative livelihoods that depend on the preservation and restoration of the local natural resources, such as climate-smart agriculture, beekeeping, and rainwater harvesting, Climate Crowd works closely with communities that are most affected by climate change. The program in this area also supports initiatives like clean cookstoves that assist communities in obtaining the vital energy resources they require without depleting the environment around them.
- In order to conduct research, present best practices, and create stakeholder networks with the aim of enhancing the quantity and caliber of properly managed nature-based carbon sinks, Apple has partnered with the China Green Carbon Foundation. The partnership will assist in locating and mapping the province of Sichuan’s high-priority areas as well as creating best practice guidelines and techniques for forest management that could be applied elsewhere. Additionally, Apple will support a pilot in Chengdu that will show the potential for urban and semi-urban areas to remove carbon, which will establish best practices for implementing carbon removal projects in Chinese cities and enhance climate adaptation and resilience.
- Since 2020, Apple has collaborated with Conservation International in the Chyulu Hills region of Kenya to show how better livestock management can aid in the restoration of vital farmlands, the storage of carbon, and the development of climate-resilient pastoral livelihoods throughout Africa. To date, the project has trained hundreds of members of the local Maasai community in modern rangeland management methods, such as more sustainable grazing practices, lowering soil erosion, promoting natural regeneration, and establishing grass seed banks run by women.
- Apple is beginning a new collaboration with ChangemakerXchange in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa to advance climate leadership and action in the area. Apple will assist in connecting solutions to funding opportunities and strengthen climate leadership skills by developing a network to connect, build, and uplift youth-led climate innovation. A group of 100 social innovators and change-makers, including 50 from Europe and 50 from the Middle East and North Africa, will receive support from the initiative over the course of the next two years. The initiative will launch in Egypt during the UN Conference on Climate Change (COP27).
