do they not understand what carbon neutral means? It means you do something to offset the carbon emissions you produce. You effectively “wipe out” the carbon you put into the atmosphere.
They understand fully what it means, and what corporations like Apple are doing does NOT do what you describe.
It's actually in the article. I recommend reading it.
do they not understand what carbon neutral means? It means you do something to offset the carbon emissions you produce. You effectively “wipe out” the carbon you put into the atmosphere.
Do you not understand that such "offsets" are very frequently tantamount to meaningless virtue signalling given that they capture very little carbon? The article talks about it, give it a proper read.
Apple talks a big game about good things that they do, and some of their initiatives genuinely sound great, but if their carbon neutral claims are being majorly bolstered by buying permits to pollute then that's the definition of greenwashing.
Going solely by the article, I don't agree that Apple is guilty of greenwashing or virtue signaling. Apple is a product company and manufacturing any good has environmental consequences. If Apple pays for trees to be planted which offset the carbon released by the manufacture and use of its products, that's a good thing and people should be buying its products instead of competitors' if those competitors do not take this positive step. Whether those carbon offsets are 'high quality' is a separate issue. If Apple has those trees planted on land it owns and then goes ahead and cuts those trees for pulp production, I'd say Apple is guilty of greenwashing. But if Apple pays a third party to plant those trees on their land with a promise that those trees will not be cut down - and then the third party does anyway, is that really Apple's fault? I'd say no. Apple bought those credits in good faith. The story doesn't give enough detail to form an informed opinion.
You have to remember that "virtue signaling" is the dog whistle for people that lack a moral compass or any real concern for anything outside their own, narrow interest. Seeing the planet in which they live as being something that needs to be protected is so far outside their scope that they can't see that this could affect them in their lifetime or their family's lifetime. It's usually a whirlwind of narcissism, laziness, and ignorance.
Triggered much?
Virtue signalling is also a legitimate way to describe people or companies that attempt to manipulate causes to their own marketing ends without actually contributing to the cause all that much at all. That's exactly how carbon offsets are used by many cynical companies to clean up their reputation with minimal actual effort or outlay.
Are Apple one of those? I don't think so, certainly not entirely, they have many good initiatives that convince me that they do actually walk the walk in many ways. But that doesn't mean I'll give them a pass for selling the carbon offset story as a sign of how great they are when it's a greenwash.
Carbon neutral manufacturing, data centers, and offices aren't the biggest challenge if a company wants to be carbon neutral. To actually be carbon neutral, a company must also account for the carbon generated by use of the products it makes. This is easy to see when looking at oil companies, but it also applies to manufacturers like Apple.
Carbon neutral manufacturing, data centers, and offices aren't the biggest challenge if a company wants to be carbon neutral. To actually be carbon neutral, a company must also account for the carbon generated by use of the products it makes. This is easy to see when looking at oil companies, but it also applies to manufacturers like Apple.
That's a very smart point, but how do we know Apple is taking those things into consideration when they make their claims?
Carbon neutral manufacturing, data centers, and offices aren't the biggest challenge if a company wants to be carbon neutral. To actually be carbon neutral, a company must also account for the carbon generated by use of the products it makes. This is easy to see when looking at oil companies, but it also applies to manufacturers like Apple.
That's a very smart point, but how do we know Apple is taking those things into consideration when they make their claims?
Apple explicitly stated that they are taking the emissions from charging into account for the carbon neutral Apple Watches. It was stated in their September event, and it is in their product emissions report.
I showed a plot from their report upthread.
This point is not worth talking about for the Watch. It’s basically noise. Simple math: 5 yr x 365 days/yr x 1 WHr/day = 1.8 kWHr.
That’s about 1 days worth of energy usage from a refrigerator spread across 5 years. You may be able save this energy usage by unplugging your iPhone 5W power adaptor while it is not in use.
If you look at Apple’s charts/report, the energy used to manufacture it is about 80% of its carbon footprint. The other 17% is materials and transport. Sourcing carbon-free energy for manufacturing is by far the most effective thing to do to reduce carbon footprint.
The best thing to do reduce carbon footprint is really making the energy grid and transportation carbon free. That’s 80% of carbon emissions. Apple really should have a carbon credit fund to electrify school buses, put solar+battery on schools, etc. This guarantees less emissions. This and direct air capture.
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Correct.
Virtue signalling is also a legitimate way to describe people or companies that attempt to manipulate causes to their own marketing ends without actually contributing to the cause all that much at all. That's exactly how carbon offsets are used by many cynical companies to clean up their reputation with minimal actual effort or outlay.
Are Apple one of those? I don't think so, certainly not entirely, they have many good initiatives that convince me that they do actually walk the walk in many ways. But that doesn't mean I'll give them a pass for selling the carbon offset story as a sign of how great they are when it's a greenwash.
That’s about 1 days worth of energy usage from a refrigerator spread across 5 years. You may be able save this energy usage by unplugging your iPhone 5W power adaptor while it is not in use.