Apple today announced over 110 of its manufacturing partners around the world are moving to 100 percent renewable energy for their Apple production, with nearly 8 gigawatts of planned clean energy set to come online. Once completed, these commitments will avoid over 15 million metric tons of CO2e annually — the equivalent of taking more than 3.4 million cars off the road each year. Additionally, Apple is investing directly in renewable energy projects to cover a portion of upstream emissions, as well as a major energy storage project in California to pilot new solutions for renewable infrastructure.
“We are firmly committed to helping our suppliers become carbon neutral by 2030 and are thrilled that companies who’ve joined us span industries and countries around the world, including Germany, China, the US, India, and France,” said Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president for Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives, in a statement. “In a year like no other, Apple continued to work with a global network of colleagues, companies, and advocates to help make our environmental efforts and everything we do a force for good in people’s lives — and to work alongside the communities most impacted by climate change.”
Last July, the company unveiled its plan to become carbon neutral across its entire business, manufacturing supply chain, and product life cycle by 2030. Since that announcement, Apple has significantly increased the number of its suppliers that are transitioning to renewable energy. Apple is already carbon neutral today for its global corporate operations, and this new commitment means that by 2030, every Apple device sold will have net zero climate impact. The company recently shared new details about its $4.7 billion spend in Green Bonds to support environmental projects around the world.
Supplier Commitments and Global Energy Projects
Apple is constantly developing new tools for its suppliers to help execute on their renewable energy goals, and bring new clean energy to communities across the globe. In Europe, DSM Engineering Materials’s wind power purchase agreement is bringing new clean energy to the grid in the Netherlands, and STMicroelectronics’s solar carport in Morocco is supporting regional energy production. Companies like Solvay are now expanding their use of renewable energy to their broader operations after joining Apple’s Supplier Clean Energy Program five years ago. In the US, Alpha and Omega Semiconductor, Marian, The Chemours Company, and Trinseo all recently committed to the program. And, in China, 15 suppliers have joined Apple’s program since July 2020.
Sharing the experience gained through Apple’s own transition to 100 percent renewable energy with its suppliers, the company introduces suppliers to resources and training materials with country-specific information to guide them in their transition to renewables. Apple also educates suppliers through advanced and customized training with leading experts. And the company supports the creation and growth of renewable energy industry associations that its suppliers can join to learn about local opportunities.
In many markets where the company operates, suppliers have limited options to access clean energy. To break down that barrier, Apple created the China Clean Energy Fund, which enables Apple and its suppliers to invest in clean energy projects totaling more than one gigawatt of renewable energy in China. Apple also connects suppliers with opportunities to buy renewable energy directly from project developers and utilities as those models emerge around the globe.
Looking ahead, Apple’s work with its suppliers will include sharing lessons learned from the next frontier of Apple’s renewable energy efforts: investing in storage solutions for renewable sites.
Energy Storage and 2030 Progress
Apple is constructing one of the largest battery projects in the country, California Flats — an industry-leading, grid-scale energy storage project capable of storing 240 megawatt-hours of energy, enough to power over 7,000 homes for one day. This project supports the company’s 130-megawatt solar farm that provides all of its renewable energy in California, by storing excess energy generated during the day and deploying it when it is most needed.
Wind and solar power provide the most cost-effective new source of electricity to many parts of the world, but the intermittent nature of these technologies has presented an obstacle to widespread adoption. One solution to intermittency is energy storage, which can retain generated energy until it is needed. Apple is investing in utility-scale storage in California and research into new energy storage technologies, even as it builds upon distributed storage capabilities in Santa Clara Valley and through Apple Park’s microgrid.
Overall, Apple has seen consistent reductions in its carbon footprint, even as net revenue increased. The company’s footprint has decreased by 40 percent, marking steady progress toward its 2030 target, and it has avoided more than 15 million metric tons of emissions through initiatives to use low-carbon materials, drive energy efficiency, and switch to clean energy.
MacDailyNews Note: Find out more about Apple and the environment here.
Why does Apple hate plants and trees so much?
During nearly all of Earth’s history, carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentration was at many multiples of our current level, averaging 2,600 ppm, or 6.5 times our current measurement. Forerunners of most of the plants we rely on for sustenance first appeared around 150 million years ago when CO₂ levels were more than 2,000 ppm. Since that time CO₂ has fallen steadily and precipitously.
In fact, at the end of the last ice age, carbon dioxide reached the dangerously low level of 182 ppm, thought to be the lowest since the Pre-Cambrian time period more than 600 million years ago. Why is it dangerous? Because 150 ppm is the lowest level at which plant life can survive. We came within a whisker of breaching that “line of death.” Until we began adding CO₂ to the atmosphere, there was no guarantee that this horrific threshold would not be crossed in the future.
It has been long known that increasing CO₂ benefits plant growth through the CO₂ fertilization effect. Recognizing the benefits of this, greenhouses often increase CO₂ to 1,500 ppm. Research from laboratory studies by the Center for the Study of CO₂ and Global Change have documented that a 300 ppm rise in CO₂ levels would increase plant biomass by 25 to 50%. This significant boost in plant productivity, along with a boost from lengthening growing seasons, means that we are better able to feed a hungry planet.
An additional significant benefit from this increasing CO₂ fertilization is that the plants have smaller stomata (pores) and have lessened water needs. Less water used means that more stays in the ground and is leading to increasing soil moisture across much of the planet and a “greening” of the Earth. According to NASA, up to 50% of the Earth is “greening,” in part due to higher CO₂ levels. This increased soil moisture is a primary cause for the long-term decrease in forest fires and droughts worldwide.
● More CO₂ makes plants grow faster and with less stress.
● Forests are growing faster in response to increasing CO₂.
● More CO₂ stimulates growth of beneficial bacteria in both soil and water.
● CO₂ fertilization, leading to more plant growth, means less erosion of topsoil.
● More CO₂ means bigger crop yields, and more and bigger flowers.
● More CO₂ fosters glomalin, a beneficial protein created by root fungi.
● More CO₂ helps plants to create natural repellents to fight insect predators.
If plants had a say in the matter, they would not lobby for reductions in CO₂ levels.
For plants, CO₂is food. They need more of it, not less.
I now return you to the “climate change / covid-19” hysterical fear porn overreaction which far too many godless, clueless Democrats have turned into a twisted pseudo-religion in a desperate attempt to fill their empty souls.
Thousands of physicians endorsed cigarettes, too.
https://www.healio.com/news/hematology-oncology/20120325/cigarettes-were-once-physician-tested-approved
Something else besides CO2 is shrinking…maybe a bigger concern.
https://summit.news/2021/03/24/scientist-says-plastic-pollution-is-shrinking-penises-will-make-most-men-infertile-by-2045/
That might explain why the anti-environmentalists are so obsessed with a teenage girl.
From here, we hear the disconcerting, tearing and pitiful screams that comes from the insides of your mother, cursing, abhorring, lamenting, hating and crying with nothing to comfort her, the day she bore you.
She never imagined that those nine months she had you in her womb, conceived with love with a man (not with another female), would be the most wasted and hated time of her life, bringing to the world a totally useless and unproductive, totally nocuous and harmful to the human species.
Thousands of physicians have warned against alcohol consumption during pregnancy, too.
“Thousands of physicians endorsed cigarettes, too.”
What the hell are you talking about now?
Is your sick and twisted mind attempting to somehow correlate CO2 with tobacco smoke?
I am trying to correlate fake experts who provide false testimony for hire.
“I am trying to correlate fake experts who provide false testimony for hire.”
You mean people like Al Gore and Michael Moore?
No, his ears are closed to the whack jobs on his side. He leaves them out and goes full-vehemence ahead with partial views being conclusive.
During nearly all of Earth’s history, the earth’s atmosphere was unbreathable to humans. The fact that you would skip over that tiny detail and obsess over something that hasn’t the remotest chance of happening shows the fundamental dishonesty of the anti-environmental position.
yeah, converting the earth into the death star, that’s not a blight
When will Apple announce that over 110 of its manufacturing partners around the world have BIPOC LGBTQAI+ board members and (or) members of upper management? Shouldn’t Apple refuse to do business with those who don’t comply with Apple’s standards for partners?
What Apple standards? Apple deals with the repressive, murderous, organ-harvesting Communists in China.
Tim Cook is a worthless hypocritical virtue signaller. He doesn’t care about justice if it impacts his bottom line.
Repressive, murderous, organ-harvesting communists? That’s ok! As long as BIPOC LGBTQAI+ are in and straight white males are out, then all is well in the (far left fascist) world.
How is that solar array monstrosity (and future toxic waste) friendly to the environment?
Because they have no consumables and no emissions.
The alternative (hydrocarbons) need power generation sites too, but then they also have to produce the fuel from hundreds of thousands of sites all over the world (producing waste and emissions), transport and process it (producing waste and emissions), and then burn it emitting a large amount of carbon and other pollutants.
At least AAPL is consistent; Uighurs and ethic minorities are a renewable “energy”.
And with every new prisoner of concise, the CCP has a fresh supply of new human organs to harvest.
Apple’s number 1 criminal trading partner knows all about renewable resources.
https://faluninfo.net/violent-suppression-of-100-million-people/
No they didn’t….please!