Apple’s target of carbon-neutral manufacturing

  • Mar 28,2024
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Recently the American multinational technology corporation, Apple Inc., has announced the aim of becoming fully carbon neutral by 2030. This combines the whole business with the entire supply chain management (SCM), including its suppliers and the manufacturing process. The company explains that this means all devices it produces will have had "zero climate impact" when ready for the market. Moreover, every new associate that would like to work with it should "be 100% renewable for their Apple production" for at least 10 years ahead. Actually, until this moment more than 70 of the suppliers committed to meet this condition by 2030 unquestionably. 

 

The idea is well developed by other technology corporations until now. Microsoft’s climate-saving pledge is to be carbon free (even carbon negative) by 2030 and further on to help remove the same amount of carbon as it has ever released to the atmosphere by the year 2050. The foundation of a consortium involving international companies, such as Starbucks, the sports brand Nike, Mercedes-Benz and many others, has been announced in order to share information on carbon-reducing innovations and technologies. 

 

Another digital leader, Amazon, has made a promise to become carbon neutral by 2040, due to the obstacles it is facing in implementing more eco friendly vehicles in its home deliveries. Google has also some intentions in reducing carbon emissions, but it still has no deadline. 

 

All of these companies are looking ahead to 2050’s target of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) for “net-zero carbon-dioxide emissions” which is one of the essentials in reducing global warming.

 

According to the non-governmental environmental organization Greenpeace these technology leaders are one of the most profitable businesses in the world and this is the reason why they need to act quickly and be responsible for the sustainability of the planet. Elizabeth Jardim, senior corporate campaigner for Greenpeace USA, said that she was glad to see that Apple has been working along with suppliers to apply “actual renewable energy“. She added that the interesting part would be to see how the company will reduce the use of fossil fuels across its operations. So far, they managed to power the data centers with renewable energy and are about to continue doing the same with the supply chain processes. However, this is not the same as removing the use of fuels at all, it is going to be even harder, because greener alternatives are rare at this point and are more expensive.

 

Apple's plan includes investment in green energy offsets to compensate for the use of fuels. In addition, it is ready to take part in new eco-friendly projects helping with money donations and cooperation. 

 

A significant part of the corporation’s 10-year plan is the use of a new robot, which will be charged with the task to extract and collect the vibrating Taptic Engine from the devices that are given back for recycling. Its name is Dave and it will be an essential part of the work process. Immediately after another robot, Daisy, removes the engine of the devices, Dave will remove the part providing haptic feedback to the customers, who use smartwatches, smartphones, tables, etc., together with the rare-earth elements and the tungsten. After that these elements will be put back into the manufacturing cycle without wasting resources or polluting the environment.

 

Other actions Apple will take include use of more recycled materials (more raw materials), new projects in Scandinavia for an own solar-panel park in order to power its data centers, even a project for a collaboration with other companies for developing “carbon-free aluminium-smelting process”. Investing in various environmental projects such as restoring shrubs and mangrove trees in Colombia, especially along the coastline, as well as Kenya’s woodland-grassland savannas, are a big step for a better future of the Earth. Except all of these campaigns, the technology leader is interested in working on projects benefiting local communities. An example of that is taking part in installation of solar panels at the rooftop of one of the facilities for disadvantaged children in the Philippines and the electrification of some communities in Thailand.

 

In conclusion, let explain the differences between carbon neutral and carbon negative. When a company is said to be a neutral one, it means that it emits no carbon to the environment (without air pollution). A lot of companies are either neutral by now, or aiming to become one in the next few years, but this just slows the emissions and global warming. Whereas being carbon negative means actually removing more carbon from the atmosphere than emitting.