Apple has announced its commitment to become 100 percent carbon neutral for its supply chain and products by 2030. The company is already carbon neutral for its global corporate emissions.
The company released its 2020 Environmental Progress Report today in which it shared its plan to reduce emissions by 75% by 2030 and the development of carbon removal solutions for the remaining 25% emissions. The company's aim is to ensure that every Apple product sold by 2030 will have zero impact on the environment.
Apple's announcement features a quote by CEO Tim Cook:
“Businesses have a profound opportunity to help build a more sustainable future, one born of our common concern for the planet we share,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “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.”
As part of its efforts, Apple will be establishing an Impact Accelerator, through which it will invest in minority-owned businesses to support improvements in its supply chain towards more environmental-friendly practices and policies.
The company has also laid outs its 10-year roadmap in its announcement in which it will be focusing on the following aspects of product development and recycling, some of which are listed below:
- Recycling of rare earth materials from existing products. A new robot called "Dave" can now disassemble the Taptic Engine in iPhones to recover materials.
- Development of new engineering solutions to recycle technology through its Material Recovery Lab in Austin Texas, in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University.
- All iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch released in the past year were developed using recycled content, including 100 percent recycled rare earth elements in iPhone's Taptic Engine.
- Development of new energy-efficient projects around the world, including the production of 1GW of renewable energy in the United States, a commitment of 8 GW of renewable energy from 70 suppliers, and launch of new solar arrays in Scandinavia, Philippines, and Thailand.
Check out the complete roadmap in Apple's press release here.
