“Apple Inc acknowledged on Wednesday it needs to address manufacturing partners’ carbon emissions and its own rising water consumption, though the iPhone maker said it had cut back sharply on greenhouse gas output,” Reuters reports.
“On Wednesday, Apple released its 2014 environmental responsibility report, saying investments in renewable energy helped slash its carbon footprint from energy use by 31 percent from fiscal 2011 to fiscal 2013. That’s despite power consumption soaring 44 percent over the same period,” Reuters reports. “But the company, which is building its future main campus not far from its current base in Silicon Valley, said water usage had spiked as a result of general construction and expansion. It also blamed production partners for the largest portion of its carbon footprint, without naming them.”
Read more in the full article here.
Apple Inc.’s Environmental Responsibility Report – 2014 Progress Report, Covering FY2013 – can be found a href=”http://images.apple.com/environment/reports/docs/Apple_Environmental_Responsibility_Report_2014.pdf” target=”_new”>here.
Related articles:
Greenpeace: Apple leading the way in creating a greener, more sustainable internet – April 2, 2014
Apple plans Nevada solar farm to generate clean power for data center – July 2, 2013
Apple now gets 75 percent of its total power needs from renewable energy – March 21, 2013
Apple’s NC and Oregon data centers to use 100 percent renewable energy – May 17, 2012
Bloom Energy confirms they will supply fuel cells for Apple’s North Carolina data center – April 30, 2012
New aerial images of Apple’s planned NC fuel cell, solar farms published – April 7, 2012
Apple’s massive fuel cell energy project to be largest in the U.S. – April 4, 2012
Apple plans USA’s largest private fuel cell energy project in North Carolina – April 1, 2012
How Apple took the lead on the environment – February 22, 2012
Apple patent application reveals next-gen fuel cell powered Macs and iOS devices – December 22, 2011
Apple’s Mothership campus solar roof will be among biggest in U.S. – December 7, 2011
Apple working with US company, Leaf Solar Power, on North Carolina solar farm – November 8, 2011
Apple patent app details highly-advanced hydrogen fuel cells to power portable devices – October 20, 2011
Apple building huge solar farm around its billion-dollar North Carolina data center – October 26, 2011
Apple Inc acknowledged on Wednesday it needs to address … its own rising water consumption.
Water is the next big issue as sustainability continues to slam humanity on the head like an anvil of the godz.
One major solution is going to be local reusability. You pay for the water once, you use it many times.
For graywater (which is increasingly being referred to with political correctness as ‘reused’ or ‘reclaimed’ water) this is reasonably easy and relatively inexpensive. The movement to reuse graywater has been going on for years. [Insert sardonic joke about Halliburton providing graywater as drinking water to US troops during the Iraq War here].
For actual [versus Halliburton] drinking water via water reuse, the problem is cost. Osmosis systems are still remarkably slow and expensive, although they are in regular use already in areas with essentially no water sources, such as in the Middle East. With time, I expect there will be more efficient and less expensive solution.
BTW: The exponentially increasing value of potable water around the world is the prime reason I believe fracking should be stopped worldwide. It is bad technology at the worst possible time. The fracking industry knows this as demonstrated by their increasingly desperate carpet bombing of propaganda to the contrary. [Shame on you US public radio and television for allowing them to do so on your airwaves!]
And no, I won’t be drawn into a fracking discussion here at MDN. Sorry.