Apple has finally achieved its milestone of getting all of its facilities powered with 100% clean energy. This means that all the facilities owned and operated by Apple rely on only renewable sources for their power. This includes all their retail stores, offices and data centers in all the locations all over the globe. Along with achieving its goal, Apple has also inspired others to follow them. In the company’s press release of the announcement, it was also declared that nine manufacturing partners have also committed to power all of their Apple production with 100% clean energy.
The newly committed green companies have brought the total number of suppliers to twenty-three. Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, said, “We’re committed to leaving the world better than we found it. After years of hard work, we’re proud to have reached this significant milestone. We’re going to keep pushing the boundaries of what is possible with the materials in our products, the way we recycle them, our facilities and our work with suppliers to establish new creative and forward-looking sources of renewable energy because we know the future depends on it.”
Apple has reached its impressive goal by investing in renewable energy projects across the globe. In 2013, Apple hired a former EPA administrator Lisa Jackson as VP of the environment, policy and social initiatives to steer the company’s new green direction. Apple has 25 operational renewable energy projects and among these, 15 are under construction in 11 different countries. In 2010, only 16% of Apple’s facilities were powered by renewable energy. By 2015, almost 93% of them were relying on green energy. The percentage jumped further to 96% in 2016 and 100% in 2018. Jackson says that the last four percent were difficult but indeed rewarding as well.
She said, “If you look at our trajectory, for the last couple of years we’ve been close to 100%. It’s just four percent more, but it’s four percent done the right way. So this announcement feels like a classic Apple product release. Like our products, we sweat the details, we have pretty strict standards, and we prefer to wait and meet our standards than to rush and make a claim.” Data centers were the first target of Apple towards green energy.
The massive energy-consuming data centers make it possible for the renowned Apple features like Siri, iCloud, and Apple Music to be used non-stop by users. All of Apple’s data centers have been powered by 100% renewables since 2014. The company has established its data centers in Maiden, North Caroline, Reno, Nevada, Mesa, Arizona, Newark, California, Prineville, and Oregon. The company also plans to establish another data center in Waukee, Iowa, one in Ireland, two in Denmark, and two in China.
Apple says that since the year 2011, its combined renewable energy projects have reduced the greenhouse gas emissions by 54%. This has prevented almost 2.1 million metric tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere. Apple aims to develop its green energy supplies and will be motivating its suppliers to go green as well.
