Apple has pledged to become a carbon-neutral operation by 2030, a commitment that covers its entire supply chain and the lifecycle of all its products, including the electricity consumed in their use.
The company is aiming to achieve the goal by means including:
Low-carbon product design, using recycled materials where possible, and developing new techniques such as a carbon-free aluminium smelting process.
Use of renewable energy, including projects funded by and built for Apple directly, which in total provide 1GW of capacity to the company’s corporate operations.
Carbon removal, through forest planting in Colombia, China, Kenya and the US.
The chief executive, Tim Cook, said: “The innovations powering our environmental journey are not only good for the planet, they’ve helped us make our products more energy-efficient and bring new sources of clean energy online around the world.
“Climate action can be the foundation for a new era of innovative potential, job creation, and durable economic growth. With our commitment to carbon neutrality, we hope to be a ripple in the pond that creates a much larger change.”
The majority of the progress, Apple says in its 2020 environmental progress report, will be made by cutting its carbon emissions directly. But the last 25% will come from “carbon removal solutions” such as forest planting and mangrove swamp restoration.
The company is investing some of a recently announced $100m (£78.5m) fund for a racial equity and justice initiative on minority-owned businesses that can help clean up its supply chain. “Systemic racism and climate change are not separate issues and they will not abide separate solutions,” said Lisa Jackson, Apple’s environmental lead.
In January, Microsoft announced a plan to become carbon-negative – removing more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere than it emits – by 2030, and a goal of erasing all of its historical emissions by 2050.
In doing so, the company committed to deploying carbon capture and sequestration technology, a more hi-tech – but untested – approach than tree planting.