Apple's climate change efforts far exceed rivals, says environmental report
A study of the environmental work being done by six major Big Tech firms shows that Apple is far ahead in its climate change efforts.
Solar panels used by Apple
Apple has long talked of its environmental concerns, and has Lisa Jackson heading a whole division devoted to it, and recently devoted a cringingly over-long segment of its iPhone 15 launch to the topic. Its efforts have been heavily criticised as being more talk than action, but now a new report says Apple is doing much more than other, similar firms.
Stand.Earth's "Pathways to Decarbonization" report, investigated six IT firms, and reports that Apple "is the only company that has a 100% renewable electricity target in its supply chain."
The other five firms are Dell, Google, HP, Microsoft, and Nvidia.
"Among them, Apple has generated or sourced enough renewable electricity to match 100 percent of electricity demand for its corporate operations since 2018," says the report.
"According to a recently released report by Apple, more than 300 manufacturers have committed to using 100 percent clean energy for Apple production by 2030 as of September 2023," it continues, "contributing to Apple's goal to be carbon neutral across every product by the end of the decade."
Renewable energy action plan (Source: Stand.Earth)
The report is critical of firms that speak of asking their suppliers to go carbon neutral, yet don't help them.
"While recognizing the importance of supplier engagement in achieving emission reductions, brands are not providing adequate financial support and incentives to suppliers," says the report. "Only Apple has reported taking meaningful steps to provide financial support, knowledge transfer, or incentives to assist in the energy transition."
None of the six firms escape criticism, however, and the overall conclusion of the report is that much more needs to be done by all of them.
"While the IT industry has acknowledged the necessity of supply chain decarbonization, as evidenced by making commitments and taking some commendable measures," it says, "brands need to take more proactive steps to ensure that they are on track to meet their decarbonization goals."
Separately, Apple has itself been detailing its environmental impact work in an annual Environmental Progress Report.
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Comments
Double tap was my second favorite part. I generally think the "Apple product saves lives" is the cringiest part of the events. Wish the events dived deeper into the technical aspects of the software and hardware, but they seem to be moving away from it.
The thing I'm looking Apple doing is funding permanent carbon sequestration efforts, such as direct air capture and rock weathering. Second behind that would be carbon neutral air-to-gas efforts to power airplanes and ships. Solar augmentation for cargo ships would be big too. Too bad nuclear is too risky and expensive for the cargo ships.
The reforestation efforts they do is nice, but it's an unending fight and a very slow process. In the end, we will be doing direct air capture and rock weathering at mass scale. Start now, Apple.
Yes, not only does Apple have high standards for products, but also for itself. We're living in good times.
But holy moly, HP, Microsoft and Nvidia only one ONE YEAR left to meet their goals! That's literally impossible with how wasteful and inefficient those companies are.
An AI-chatbot query or interaction is about 5x (?) more energy intensive and 10x more expensive due to capital investments for the hardware. To ensure gross margins are good for AI-chatbots, there's going to be a period of enshittification to make queries less expensive, while these companies really should by running these AI-chatbots on solar+wind+batteries to reduce the cost of powering these chatbots as much as possible. The key is these companies have to help fund these technologies, like Apple is, and not just wait.
The biggest issue is not shown. If it is was just solid waste, people would just deal with it. But burning fossil fuels releases CO2 into the atmosphere and that will cause the atmosphere to heat up. That heat will transfer to the oceans, lakes and land and heat them up. If we continue on a path of burning fossil fuels, it will threaten our current cultures and political states, and there is a possibility of threatening humanity itself.
Also not shown as that wind turbines and solar panels will increasing become recyclable. A lot of municipal waste is compostable and will degrade. The e-waste can be mined. Even the plastic has a chance of being composted and degraded properly, but coal ash? It's just going to sit there, lifeless, waiting on the toxicity and radioactive chemicals to leech and dilute into the surrounding environment. CO2 in the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels? The worst part. Those are thousand year problems without human treatment of some kind.
Batteries will be recycled. PV panels will be recycled. Carbon-fiber wind turbine blades are inert solid waste, but even with that, there will eventually be ways to recycle them.
Really, renewables is a gigantic improvement over fossil fuels, especially solar+PV. The waste is solid, most of the product can be recycled, and just not having the gaseous and solid waste from fossil fuels will be a big boon for public health and the vitality of society.