Apple plans to eliminate its contributions to climate change in this decade, the company announced today. To achieve your goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2030, you will reduce your greenhouse gas pollution by 75 percent, and then find ways to reduce the remaining 25 percent of your heat trapping emissions.
The company reduced its carbon dioxide emissions by 4.3 million metric tons in 2019, according to the 2020 Environmental Progress Report released today. That represents a 35 percent drop in absolute carbon dioxide emissions from the company’s peak in 2015, a reduction it has been able to achieve even when it sold more products. But it still pumped a large amount of carbon dioxide in 2019: 25.1 million metric tons, equivalent to six coal-fired power plants that run for a year.
Apple has been able to reduce its pollution by global warming by using recycled materials and improving the energy efficiency of its products. Their products use 73 percent less energy on average now than they did 11 years ago. Apple says its operations, including emissions from its facilities and business travel, were converted to carbon neutral in April this year. In 2018, the company announced that it would buy enough renewable energy to power its global operations.
It will be more difficult for Apple to reduce emissions by manufacturing its products, which accounted for 76 percent of its carbon footprint in 2019. To take on that challenge, the company is looking to work with suppliers that use renewable energy. He says he has received a commitment from more than 70 suppliers to use only renewable energy for Apple’s production, which the company estimates will reduce carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to taking 3 million cars off the road each year.
Apple is also confident that it can reduce the carbon dioxide that it is responsible for releasing into the atmosphere. But instead of investing in emerging technologies like some of its rivals, it has committed to working with environmental groups like Conservation International to protect and restore forests and mangroves that naturally attract and store carbon dioxide.
Apple’s commitment comes immediately after the climate targets set by Microsoft and Amazon. Microsoft became carbon neutral in 2012 and said in January that it would become carbon negative, removing more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere than it emits, by 2030. It also promised to invest $ 1 billion in technologies that will help it. To remove all carbon dioxide is pumped since the company was founded.
Last year, Amazon set a goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2040. In June, it announced a new $ 2 billion fund to accelerate the development of technologies that will help companies reduce their carbon emissions. Despite its climate commitments, the company released 15 percent more carbon dioxide in 2019 than the year before as sales grew.
“Businesses have a great opportunity to help build a more sustainable future, one born out of our common concern for the planet we share,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. “Climate action may be the foundation for a new era of innovative potential, job creation and lasting economic growth.”
