Earth Day is on 22nd April, and Apple has launched a video campaign that ties in all the key aspects of their environmental priorities for this year. Apple says that it's driven by the idea of making the impossible possible, and leaving the world better than we found it.
Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives says; "Our commitment to fighting climate change, using greener materials and conserving precious resources is at the heart of who we are, and we are always looking for ways to inspire others to join us in leaving the world better than we found it. We think asking crazy questions leads to the innovation behind some of our most significant efforts, and we are proud of the real work being done by real Apple employees on a daily basis to minimise our impact on the planet."
The video campaign focuses on Apple's work on three key priorities for human health and the planet: addressing climate change, conserving precious resources and ensuring safer materials.
The campaign is in collaboration with artist James Blagden who tells Apple's environmental innovation stories in a very different way.
The company does claim that the videos are unscripted and are based on interviews with real people at Apple tackling the real environment challenges that should matter to all of us.
Here's what Apple claims that it has done for our environment.
• In 2016, 96 percent of the electricity used at Apple's global facilities came from renewable energy, reducing our CO2e emissions by nearly 585,000 metric tonnes. The company says that they are 100 percent renewable in 24 countries—and all of Apple’s data centres.
• Apple says that now they have 7 major suppliers committed to running all of their Apple manufacturing on renewable energy by the end of next year.
• Apple previously announced Lens, Catcher and Solvay; and Ibiden in Japan made their commitment just last month. And now, Sunwoda, Compal and Biel have made similar commitments — all the electricity they use for Apple production will be from renewable sources by the end of next year.
• Compal, which is a final assembly supplier for iPad, is building rooftop solar installations on its facilities across China, including in Nanjing and Kunshan. These projects are expected to total 12.6 megawatts across 224,000 square meters of rooftop space. And they are our first final assembly site to commit to 100 percent.
• Battery supplier Sunwoda has built a 50-megawatt solar farm in central Henan Province to meet their commitment. Moving forward, they’re planning to tap into their own expertise in batteries to expand into solar battery storage.
• Biel is one of Apple's glass suppliers and has already contracted 50 percent of its energy load to come from wind and solar. And they’re going to increase this to 100 percent in 2018. At the same time, they are also building out a 5-megawatt rooftop onsite renewable energy system next year, and they’re planning a 100-megawatt offsite renewable energy system.
• Apple claims that the work they are doing is not only helping to advance the global transition to green manufacturing, it’s also creating jobs and boosting local economies.
Forestry
• By Apple's partnership with WWF, 320,000 acres of working forest in China have been recommended for Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification. This according to the company means is protecting, and creating, as much sustainable working forest as is needed to cover our product packaging paper use. The company claims that it has achieved that only two years after we launched our forestry program.
Closed Loop
Apple also plans to make a closed loop supply chain. As traditional supply chains are linear. Materials are mined, manufactured as products, and often end up in landfills after use. Then the process starts over and more materials are extracted from the earth for new products. In a closed-loop supply chain, products are built using only renewable resources or recycled material.
• Apple already has programs in place to ensure the finite materials we use in our products are sourced responsibly through strict standards and programs on the ground that drive positive change, and we’re challenging ourselves to one day end our reliance on mining altogether.
• Apple admits that it's an ambitious goal that will require many years of collaboration across multiple Apple teams, our suppliers, and speciality recyclers—but our work is already under way.
• To start, we’re encouraging more customers to recycle their old devices through Apple Renew. The company is also piloting innovative new recycling techniques, like Liam, which is their line of disassembly robots. As it puts reclaimed materials to better use in new products.
• Apple claims that it has already begun using the reclaimed aluminium to build new devices. They took aluminium enclosures Liam recovered from iPhone 6, melted them down, and reused the material to create Mac mini computers that they use in their iPhone final assembly facilities.
• For tin, Apple took a different approach. Unlike aluminium, there is an existing market supply of recycled tin that meets our quality standards. So they are tapping into that supply for iPhone 6s, and now using 100 percent recycled tin for the solder on the main logic board, where the majority of tin in the device is found.
• Apple says that for every 100,000 iPhone 6 devices, Liam has the potential to recover the following materials: Aluminum (1900 kg), Copper (800 kg), Gold (0.3 kg), Platinum Group Metals (0.4 kg), Silver (7 kg), Tin (55 kg), Rare Earth Elements (24 kg) Cobalt (550 kg), Tungsten (3.5 kg), Tantalum (2.5 kg)
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