Like many companies, Apple is committed to minimising its impact on the planet,
but just how effective has its journey been? Join
us as we delve into Apple’s journey towards carbon neutrality.
On 21 July, 2020, Apple unveiled its plan to become carbon neutral across its entire
business operations, from manufacturing and supply chain to its products’ life cycles,
by the year 2030. Not only did the press release detail the road map to carbon neutrality,
but it also acted as a promise, holding the tech giant accountable in the public eye.
The goal to be carbon neutral by 2030 comes 20 years sooner than the target set out by the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and while this may seem like a bold move,
the reality is that many companies are exceeding expectations that are frankly not enough.
Overall, the Cupertino-based company plans to reduce its emissions by 75%. The remaining 25%
of its energy will be the subject of what Apple calls “innovative carbon removal solutions” - in
other words, carbon offsetting. It aims to do this in five key areas of its business:
product design; energy efficiency; renewable energy; process and materials; and carbon removal.
Let’s explore what each step entails. Trade your iPhone in for the latest and greatest,
and chances are, it’ll meet “Daisy.” This is the name given to the iPhone disassembly robots.
At 33 feet long, and with five arms, she can disassemble up to 200 iPhone per hour,
extracting materials which later go on to be reused in newer models. Apple’s latest innovation,
though, goes by a more unassuming name: “Dave.” He specifically hones in on the Taptic Engine,
recovering key materials including rare earth magnets, tungsten, and steel.
Every iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch is made with recycled content from robots like “Daisy” and
“Dave,” with the latest iPhone Taptic Engines using 100% recycled rare earth elements.
But there is a lot that Apple doesn’t know about recycling,
and it’s perfectly acceptable for a company to admit this. After all, nobody is a master of all
trades; as the saying goes, you may be a Jack of all trades but a master of none. The Austin,
Texas-based Material Recovery Lab, for instance, which focuses on electronic recycling technology,
is partnering with Carnegie Mellon University. This shared knowledge will likely aid in the
development of the relevant technologies. Apple claimed to have reduced its carbon
footprint by 4.3 million metric tons purely through design and recycled content.
You may not be shocked to hear that over three-quarters of an iPhone’s footprint
is down to its production, so refining things around there could prove useful.
Apple has worked with the US-China Green Fund to invest $100 million in projects to boost energy
efficiency for the company’s suppliers. 2019 saw Apple reduce its electricity needs across
the board by a fifth, saving around $27 million in related costs, thanks to efficiency upgrades.
But there is also a certain amount of a product’s footprint dedicated to its use - many of us charge
our iPhone every night, and not so many of us are fortunate enough to be having our electricity
coming from renewable sources. Over the past 11 years, Apple has reduced the average energy needed
for its products by 73%, and while the company has featured in the news for battery-related concerns,
we need to remember to balance the pros and cons versus protecting the environment.
Being energy efficient is great, but it’s unlikely we will ever see a day where products
don’t draw on electrical energy, so in the meantime, sourcing it from the sun, wind,
and waves seems a fair compromise. Its operations already run on green electric, but as will almost
every other company, Apple isn’t a closed loop. It relies on hundreds of other companies to bring
together every aspect of its products, and for it to be able to say that it’s fully eco-friendly,
it needs these on-board too. 70 of its suppliers have already
committed to use renewable energy for their Apple-devoted production lines, which the tech
giant says is worth around 8 gigawatts: the equivalent of 14.3 million metric tons of CO2
or 3 million cars off the road each year. It’s not just electricity that negatively impacts
the planet during many production processes: aluminium smelting, for example, requires other
elements to work. Investments and collaborations with two of its suppliers is developing direct
carbon-free aluminium smelting, and while it may be a working progress, recycling the existing
materials will likely help reduce the pressure. Fluorinated gasses were also reduced by almost
a quarter of a million metric tons in 2019 - these are contributors to global warming.
The last step in the roadmap set out by Apple is the removal of the carbon both it and we produce
as a result of its products. Restoring degraded savannas in Kenya and mangroves in Colombia
are a few of the projects undertaken to help nature regain a balance on the
atmosphere’s carbon levels. Chinese, American, Colombian and Kenyan forests protected by Apple
amount to around one million acres. So next time you complain about your brand
new iPhone not coming with a power adapter, remember this. Along with the majority of
the parts from inside it being restored from recycled iPhones, the packaging now contains
less plastic than before, and paper from wood that is either recycled or ethically sourced.
Remember that, inside the box, fewer plastic, copper, tin and zinc are used thanks to the
exclusion of the power adapter, particularly for those of us fortunate enough to be able to
upgrade our phones regularly. 861,000 tons of copper, tin and zinc, to be precise.
On top of the reduction in materials, a smaller overall box size meant Apple
could ship 70% more iPhones per cubic metre of truck space than previously, which would,
in turn, reduce the per-iPhone footprint. Do you believe Apple is doing everything that
it should to minimise its impact on the environment? How does it compare
to other ethically-minded companies? Let us know what you think in the comments below.