It’s part of Apple’s efforts to curb climate change by becoming completely carbon neutral by 2030. The company’s climate commitment in 2020 has led to a 75 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions this decade. and find ways to reduce residual air pollution.
Apple has gone one step further, committing to reducing emissions from its supply chains Unlike other companies that have only promised to eliminate pollution from their direct operations and the use of electricity, Apple has gone one step further by committing to reducing emissions from its supply chains and the use of products by its customers. . This will be the biggest increase by far for the company, as these indirect emissions make up the bulk of its carbon footprint. In addition to having a greater impact than focusing solely on company operations, eliminating supply chain emissions has the added benefit of pushing other companies to clean up their operations. Apple publishes an annual list of its top suppliers, who receive about 98 percent of the money Apple spends on materials, construction and assembly. About 60 percent of these major suppliers are on Apple’s list of companies committed to making Apple products using “100 percent clean electricity” worldwide. Dozens of even smaller suppliers have made similar commitments. However, claims for the use of “100 percent clean electricity” are not so simple However, the claims for the use of “100 percent clean electricity” are not so simple. Apple announced in 2018 that it had started using 100 percent renewable energy, but that does not mean that its stores and offices were actually running on wind and solar energy all the time. Most grids simply do not have enough capacity for renewable energy and are not wired to provide it continuously to any customer. Thus, companies often purchase renewable energy (REC) credits from energy providers, which represent the environmental benefits of renewable energy projects, to somehow offset the dirty use of electricity. Apple buys these credits, as do its suppliers. In 2021, just under 80 percent of its suppliers’ renewable energy “supplies” went to renewable energy suppliers. RECs were another 8 percent. Another 10% of procurement efforts were directed to direct investments in new renewable energy projects. And 3 percent went to electricity from renewable sources actually produced on site at a supplier’s premises. Apple’s Clean Energy Supplier Program has purchased credits equivalent to 360,000 metric tons of carbon emissions to “address a small increase in its carbon footprint,” the program said in a statement today.