Tim Cook wants to be the stone in the pond that moves the waters. He believes in the propagation of effects, he said this in Naples when he received his honorary degree from Federico II and repeats it now speaking of the environment and supply chain: “Apple’s action for the climate – explained the CEO of Apple – it doesn’t stop at our doors and in this work we are determined to be a ripple in the pond that creates a greater change. ” And this could be one of the most effective bottom-up strategies to stop climate change, at least if it is proposed by large companies like the American giant, which have the tools to make themselves heard by their entire supply chain.
According to Apple, in fact, the time has come to decarbonise on a large scale, not only at home. Apple has unveiled an update of its plan to accelerate the process of reducing the environmental impact of its supply chain and is investing in new initiatives around the world that produce energy from renewable sources and find solutions for the climate problem.
Tech4Climate Special – Lombardy
And the CO2 problem becomes a resource
by Eleonora Chioda
Combat the degradation of the environment
The company takes its battle against environmental degradation by taking a couple of more steps than what is required by current international regulations: from 2020 it is “carbon neutral” (i.e. it does not contribute to CO2 emissions with its direct business activities ), and now requires its suppliers to achieve the same goal in using, for example, electricity from 100% renewable sources for their company-related activities.
For a giant like Apple, which annually produces hundreds of millions of devices through subcontractors (from phones to connected gadgets to tablets and personal computers) this move indicates the ambition to be able to lead a transformation of the entire production chain relating to its products in the direction of decarbonization, wherever in the world it is located. And Apple’s suppliers, whether they manufacture components for its appliances or take care of the assembly and distribution of parts, are all over the planet, handling huge quantities of materials and semi-finished products every day.
Tech4Climate – The interview
“An award to startups that change our climate”
by Jaime D’Alessandro
While the company is investing time and resources to find new ways to limit the impact of its appliances, such as the use of recycled materials from the disassembly of its own appliances bought back by customers, on the other it is also investing in initiatives that allow to better calibrate the environmental impact of its instruments. In the US, for example, the new version of the operating system for the iPhone, iOS 16.1, has an option that is able to reconstruct the CO2 emissions of the electricity suppliers of the area where the phone is located and to allow recharging when loads of electricity whose production is certified from renewable sources are fed into the grid.
The fight against climate change
However, the most important initiative now is the request made to suppliers to start a new phase of change and decarbonisation of production. “The fight against climate change – said Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, in a statement – remains one of Apple’s most urgent priorities, and moments like this embody these words”.
Apple now requires its suppliers to indicate their reduction targets for achieving carbon neutrality for the company’s products and promises to track and audit annual progress for each of them. Apple’s action comes as no surprise. Over 200 of its suppliers, representing 70% of the total directly impacting production, have already committed to using clean energy for all of Apple’s production.
Smartphone
Goodbye Lighting: Apple confirms that the iPhone will have a Usb-C port
by Bruno Ruffilli
Investments in Europe
The company also announced new investments in solar and wind projects in Europe, which will each produce between 30 and 300 megawatts of clean energy. In total, Apple says the planned investments will add 3,000 gigawatt hours per year of new renewable energy to the European energy grid.
The new investments in solar and wind energy are part of the company’s broader strategy of reducing 22% of the carbon footprint generated by consumers when they charge their iPhones or other Apple devices.
In addition, the company has also initiated a series of projects funded with the Restore Fund, an initiative that “aims to generate a financial return for investors while removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.” The first forestry projects in Brazil and Paraguay are expected to lead to the removal of 1 million tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in 2025. And in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, the company has launched ChangemakerXchange, a network initiative led by young people who improve leadership capacity in the region’s climate change sector.
The importance of the package
Finally, Apple is pushing its suppliers to address emissions beyond manufacturing. Among the best practices that Apple is proposing to its suppliers is that of small efficiency solutions that lead to considerable effects. For example, as part of the company’s work to reach the 2030 target, Apple has already reduced its emissions by 40% since 2015 thanks above all to the improvements introduced in the field of energy efficiency and product design choices. , oriented towards low greenhouse gas emissions. Changes like product packaging have a huge impact. The Mac and iPhone box, made with biodegradable and recyclable materials, with reduced dimensions to facilitate storage and transport in a more compact way, allows for economies of scale also from an environmental point of view.
In fact, the small reductions in size, multiplied by hundreds of millions of pieces per year, mean compacting the phones and tablets to be transported into a reduced number of containers, eventually removing entire cargo ships from the oceans.
Sharing of knowledge
Finally, Apple with its Clean Energy Program has also prepared a series of tools for e-learning, distance and face-to-face training, completely free, designed to help suppliers meet their commitments and go beyond. In 2022, more than 150 suppliers participated in face-to-face training courses.
Apple said it wants to make these resources public to create a first-of-its-kind free public training platform for companies across industries, ensuring that companies of all sizes, in Apple’s supply chain and beyond, can have access to the resources needed to accelerate the transition to 100% clean energy and promote carbon neutrality. The localization of courses and materials in other languages will continue over time: the materials currently are mostly in English and Chinese.