Apple promised to go completely carbon neutral in the next 10 years, with every device sold having a net-zero climate impact.
In the company’s latest Environmental Progress Report released Tuesday, Apple laid out its road map for how it plans to reduce emissions by 75% by 2030.
“Businesses have a profound opportunity to help build a more sustainable future, one born of our common concern for the planet we share,” said CEO Tim Cook. “The innovations powering our environmental journey are not only good for the planet — they’ve helped us make our products more energy-efficient and bring new sources of clean energy online around the world.
According to its 2020 Environmental Progress Report, Apple cut its carbon dioxide emissions by 4.3 million metric tons last year, and its products use 73% less energy than they did over a decade ago. In April, Apple became carbon neutral in its corporate emissions, which includes emissions from its facilities.
However, the company still has work to do. In 2019, Apple produced 25.1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, and 76% of that was in its product manufacturing. The tech giant is pledging to focus on lowering the carbon footprint numbers of its products. Apple plans to do this by including more recycled materials in devices, innovative device recycling, and designing products as energy-efficient as possible.
One of the technologies Apple has implemented to achieve this goal includes robots called “Dave” and “Daisy” that can disassemble iPhones and the Taptic Engine from an iPhone to recover materials like rare earth elements, tungsten, and steel.
Apple also detailed its support in developing the first-ever carbon-free aluminum smelting process with two of its aluminum suppliers. To further cut down on aluminum use, Apple also said it would continue to use carbon-free aluminum in the 16-inch MacBook Pro.
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