Apple is ramping up investments in clean energy and water around the world

April 17, 2024

FRISSÍTÉS

Together, Apple and suppliers support more than 18 gigawatts of clean energy, delivering billions of gallons of water benefits and savings

Apple today announced new progress to expand clean energy around the world and further momentum toward Apple 2030, the company’s bold goal to achieve carbon neutrality across its entire value chain by the end of this decade. More than 18 gigawatts of clean electricity now powers Apple’s global operations and supply chain, more than three times the amount in 2020. Apple is making new investments in solar energy in the US and Europe to help meet its electricity needs customers use to charge and power their devices. Apple devices.

As part of its broader environmental efforts, Apple has also made progress toward another ambitious 2030 goal: replenishing 100 percent of the freshwater used in operations in high-stress locations. This includes launching new partnerships to deliver nearly 7 billion liters of water benefits over the next two decades – from restoring aquifers and rivers to financing access to drinking water. As with clean energy, Apple has extended its commitment to clean water to its entire supply chain: Together, Apple suppliers saved more than 40 billion gallons of fresh water last year, for a total of 76 billion gallons of water savings since the company launched its supplier. Clean water program in 2013.

“Clean energy and water are fundamental to healthy communities and essential building blocks for responsible business,” said Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives. “We are racing toward our ambitious Apple 2030 climate goal while taking on the long-term work to transform electricity grids and restore watersheds to build a cleaner future for all.”

Adding new renewable capacity around the world

Electricity – both to manufacture Apple products and to charge and power them – makes up the majority of Apple’s total carbon footprint. As part of Apple 2030, the company has called on its global suppliers to use clean electricity and become carbon neutral in all their Apple-related operations. More than 320 suppliers – representing 95 percent of Apple’s direct manufacturing spend – have led the transition to date, resulting in 16.5 gigawatts of renewable energy online across Apple’s supply chain. This generated more than 25.5 million megawatt hours of clean energy across the supply chain last year, avoiding more than 18.5 million tons of CO2 emissions.

To address the greenhouse gas emissions associated with customers’ use of their devices, Apple has pledged to match every watt of rechargeable electricity with clean electricity by 2030, including through large-scale investments in new renewable energy in markets across the world. whole world. This is part of a broader strategy to minimize emissions from using Apple products through efficiency improvements, engaging customers in grid decarbonization opportunities, and building clean electricity projects that reduce carbon and maximize social impact. In the US, Apple is investing in a portfolio of solar projects across Michigan, with construction underway to bring 132 megawatts of clean energy online later this year. In Spain, Apple is working with international solar development platform ib Vogt on an investment that will generate 105 megawatts of solar energy when the project comes online in late 2024.

To cater to its growing business in India, Apple has also entered into a joint venture with leading renewable energy developer CleanMax to invest in a portfolio of six rooftop solar projects totaling 14.4 megawatts. The additional capacity provides a local solution to power Apple’s offices, its two retail stores in the country and other operations in India. Apple achieved 100 percent renewable energy for its global operations for the first time in 2018.

Apple’s commitment to renewable energy has unlocked new capacity in markets around the world. In 2018, Apple took an innovative approach to connect twelve of its suppliers operating in China to renewable energy sources through the China Clean Energy Fund. The Fund has now exceeded its target, with investments resulting in more than 1 gigawatt of new wind and solar projects in China, spread across 14 provinces. In total, these projects are expected to generate more than 2,400 gigawatt hours of renewable energy every year, equivalent to the residential energy consumption of more than 2.5 million people in China.

Promoting water resilience through nature-based solutions

Apple is committed to advancing water security everywhere the company reaches through manufacturing supply chain collaboration and innovative, long-term partnerships to restore ecosystems, meet community water needs and improve watershed climate resilience. Because the impact of water is being felt locally, Apple has begun replenishing fresh water in some of the hardest-hit locations where the company operates, including Northern and Southern California, Arizona’s Colorado River Basin, and the Indian states of Telangana and Maharashtra. Modeled after the company’s approach to renewable energy sourcing, Apple pursues innovative strategies and long-term contracts aimed at delivering water benefits and savings across entire watersheds. Since 2023, Apple has committed more than $8 million to date to replenish freshwater in high-pressure watersheds. The projects announced today are expected to produce a combined 6.9 billion liters of water over the next twenty years.

In Northern California, Apple is working with River Partners to restore the natural function of the floodplains on 750 acres where the Sacramento River, Feather River and Butte Creek meet. This confluence of waterways – the largest in California – provides a crucial resting point for native Chinook salmon on their path to the Pacific Ocean. Restoring the area will require planting hundreds of thousands of native plants and reconnecting the vast historic floodplains, making the region and communities downstream more resilient to climate-induced flooding. Apple’s investment is expected to deliver nearly 5 billion gallons of freshwater benefits over the next 20 years by significantly reducing on-site water demand and encouraging healthy flooding patterns to replenish underground aquifers. The restoration of Dos Rios Norte is also funded by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the California Natural Resources Agency, the California Wildlife Conservation Board and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

In the Phoenix area, home to Apple’s Mesa data center, Apple is working with the Salt River Project (SRP) to protect approximately 30,000 hectares of forests at high risk of wildfire. With a 10-year plan to strategically thin forests in the Colorado River Basin, the project will help protect the watershed from wildfire devastation and ensure the upstream reservoir can continue to support local communities. Apple’s investment – the largest investment in SRP’s Resilient Water and Forest Initiative – is expected to deliver nearly 2 billion gallons of water benefits to the area.

Last year, Apple achieved its 100 percent water replenishment goal for the company’s operations in India through its continued partnership with Uptime Catalyst Facility. In 2023, Apple’s support provided 23 million gallons of clean, affordable drinking water to communities through more than 300 water kiosks operated by local entrepreneurs in the innovative, performance-based program. Progress continues in another critical region – Southern California – with a project to remove the invasive Arundo donax reed species in the Los Angeles River Watershed, saving 21 million gallons of water annually.

In addition to pursuing watershed restoration and other nature-based replenishment solutions in high-stress areas, Apple is committed to smart water management across the company. In 2021, Apple’s data center in Prineville, Oregon, became the first-ever data center to be certified to the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) International Water Stewardship Standard, a trusted global framework for measuring responsible water management. Since then, Apple has certified four additional data centers to the standard and also supported 20 vendor locations in achieving certification. Over the past year, seven supplier locations in southern India and more than 20 supplier locations near Shanghai and Suzhou, China, have participated in water management training with AWS and others in the industry.

Accelerate progress through green investments

In the US and around the world, Apple’s green bonds have also made these new investments possible. Last year, Apple spent 2019 Green Bond proceeds on new clean energy projects, such as the new solar projects in Michigan and the IP Radian Solar project in Texas, support for the Supplier Clean Energy Program and investments in high-quality carbon removal through the Fund. Since 2016, Apple has issued a total of $4.7 billion in green bonds, of which approximately $3.4 billion has been committed to date.

For more information about Apple’s green bond efforts, visit investor.apple.com/Apple_GreenBond_Report. This year’s annual impact report covers the cumulative allocation of Apple’s 2019 green bond proceeds to environmental projects for which expenditures were incurred between September 29, 2019 and September 30, 2023 (Apple’s fiscal years 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2020). Sustainalytics provided a second party opinion on the selected projects, and Ernst & Young LLP provided an attestation report on the expenditures.

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