Above the pandemic, the coming recession and the continuous threat of nuclear war, climate change is a looming worry that is expected to affect even more of the world if things don’t change by 2030.
A lot of tech giants have pledged to change under the circumstances: Google intends to extend its own operation’s carbon neutrality to it’s supply chain, while Amazon has pledged to go carbon neutral by 2040. Microsoft, who seem to be doing the most (in terms of promises, that is) are looking to not only be carbon neutral by 2030, but to offset all of the carbon emissions it has produced since starting up, making the goal to be carbon negative by 2050.
Apple is next in line to pledge carbon neutrality, hoping that all of its products will have had zero impact on the climate at the time of sale, by 2030.
In a 10-year roadmap published by the company, Apple plans to increase the use of recycled raw materials in its own products; introduce new solar-panel projects in Scandinavia, to power its own data centres; develop a carbon-free aluminium-smelting process as part of a collaboration with two suppliers; invest in environmental projects, including work to restore mangrove trees and shrubs on Colombia’s coastline and woodland-grassland savannas in Kenya; and to work on eco-friendly energy projects to benefit local communities, including the installation of rooftop solar panels at a facility for disadvantaged children in the Philippines and the electrification of an off-grid fishing community in Thailand, reports BBC.
As well as this, Apple will require all of its suppliers to go carbon neutral too and, Apple’s environment chief, Lisa Jackson said, will be “[working] with suppliers to convince their own governments to put more clean energy on the grid”.
So far, 70 of Apple’s suppliers have agreed to go carbon neutral by 2030. To help, Apple has recruited Dave, a new robot that will recover materials from the vibrating Taptic Engine of devices returned for recycling, with the help of another robot, named Daisy.
