Apple Wants To Be Carbon-Neutral, Sets Lofty Goals

There is a growing concern among tech companies regarding the environmental impact of their business practices. Earlier in the year Microsoft reported its plan to become carbon negative, an achievement that proves a company gives back more than what it consumes. Apple has now unveiled plans to become carbon neutral across its entire business.

Though the company is already carbon neutral in terms of its corporate operations, it hopes that the new initiatives can ensure that its manufacturing processes are just as clean. And with this new commitment, every Apple device sold by 2030, will have ‘a net zero climate impact’. This is inline with its aspirations to reduce its emission by 75% within the same time frame.

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Here’s what Cupertino’s 10-year roadmap looks like if it is committed to lowering its emissions over the course of the next decade:

• – Increase use of low carbon and recycled materials int products. Besides Daisy, which is Apple’s iPhone teardown robot, Dave, which its other destructive accomplice, dissembles the Taptic engine in iPhones to recover rare earth materials.
• All Apple devices are being made with recycled content including 100% recycled rear earth elements.
• Find new ways to lower energy compsumption. Through its parnetship with US-China Green Fund will invest $100 million in accelerated energy efficiency projects for Apple’s suppliers.
• Last year, the company invested in energy efficnecy upgrades for s existing builds. This helped lower electry needs by one-fifth and saving it about $27 million.
• Apple will rely 100% on renewable sources of energy, which includes its upcoming projects and supply chains. It even has 70 of its suppliers who have commited to use renewable energy for production of Apple parts.
• It will so be supporting the development of carbon-free aluminum smelting process through investments and collaboration with two of its aluminum suppliers. This same material will be used for the 16-inch MacBook Pro.
• The company will also invest in forests and other nature-based solutions around the world.

These are pretty lofty goals for the $1 trillion dollar company, but if past experiences are to be believed, it seems as though Apple’s heart is in the right place. In 2019, it decreased its carbon footprint by 4.3 million metric tons. And over the past 11 years, Cupertino has reduced the average energy consumption for product use by 73%. Apple is an environmentally conscious company, lets hope more tech giants follow suit.
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