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Apple has announced an update on its efforts to achieve its goal of going completely carbon neutral in its supply chain by 2030. According to the tech giant, it already supports 1.5 gigawatts of renewable electricity globally to power its corporate offices, data centers, and retail stores, making its corporate emissions carbon neutral. Apple has also invested in 500 megawatts of solar and wind power in China and Japan to address upstream supply chain emissions.
The focus of Apple’s efforts has now shifted toward its supply chain and manufacturing partners. The company reports that more than 40 of its manufacturing partners have joined the Apple Supplier Clean Energy Program in the past year, taking the total to over 250 suppliers across 28 countries. Apple is also offering a “Clean Energy Academy” to its partners to help identify and implement solutions for clean energy and carbon reductions.
Apple has called on its suppliers to decarbonize all Apple-related operations, including sourcing 100 percent renewable electricity. By participating in the Supplier Clean Energy Program, Apple’s suppliers are signaling demand for the expansion of renewable electricity capacity globally. The operational renewable energy across Apple’s global supply chain has expanded five times over since 2019, now totaling 13.7 gigawatts, which equated to 17.4 million metric tons of avoided carbon emissions last year.
Apple has also provided an update on its $4.7 billion Green Bond commitment, revealing that it has disbursed over $3.2 billion to date. The company has allocated $700 million of the proceeds from the 2019 Green Bond to support 59 projects, including the development and distribution of clean energy training resources for suppliers and collaborative advocacy efforts in Japan, Vietnam, and South Korea. The projects supported by the 2019 Green Bond are expected to mitigate more than 13.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide over their lifetime.
In addition to building green energy capacity for supply chain partners, Apple says that the Green Bond spend has supported low-carbon design, energy efficiency, and the expansion of renewable energy in grids around the world.
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Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, praised the company’s efforts in a statement, stating that “the scale of this challenge is immense – but so is our determination to meet it”. Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives, added that “our new supplier commitments demonstrate the rapid pace of progress we’re making toward our 2030 carbon neutrality goal. We are taking urgent action on a global scale to unlock a greener, more innovative, and more resilient future”.
