Apple and 250 companies that supply components for its products are making progress in switching to renewable energy for all Apple production by 2030. The manufacturing partners support over 13 gigawatts of renewable electricity per year, a nearly 30% increase.
The company continues to distribute money from its $4.7 billion Green Bonds program to help finance the expansion of clean energy solutions around the world.
Apple is committed to renewable energy
“At Apple, we’re carbon neutral for our own operations and innovating every day to go even further in the urgent work to address climate change,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, in a statement. “With partners around the world, we’re adding even more renewable energy to power our global supply chain and investing in next-generation green technologies. The scale of this challenge is immense — but so is our determination to meet it.”
The Mac-maker asks its suppliers to decarbonize all Apple-related operations, including using 100% renewable electricity.
It’s having an effect. Operational renewable energy use in Apple’s global supply chain has grown by 5X since 2019, now totaling 13.7 gigawatts. This resulted in 17.4 million metric tons of avoided carbon emissions in 2022 — the equivalent of removing nearly 3.8 million cars from the road.
Apple itself supports about 1.5 gigawatts of renewable electricity around the world to power all corporate offices, data centers, and retail stores. The company also invested directly in nearly 500 megawatts of solar and wind power in China and Japan to address upstream supply chain emissions.
Supplier Clean Energy Program grows
To help component suppliers make the transition to renewable energy, Apple offers training through its Supplier Clean Energy Program. And more than 40 manufacturing partners joined program in the last year.
It’s at 250 now, up from 175 in 2021. These companies are scattered across 28 countries. And nearly 70 suppliers in China are now committed to 100% renewable electricity. There are 34 in Japan.