Apple's environmental initiative for China focuses on clean energy

Posted May 11, 20159 yr

Apple is partnering with the World Wildlife Fund to increase responsibly managed forests in China, and is bringing renewable energy initiatives to manufacturing facilities in the region.

The new program covers up to 1 million acres of forest, which is used to provide materials for pulp, paper and wood products.

According to Lisa Jackson, Apple's vice president of Environmental Initiatives:

Forests, like energy, can be renewable resources. We believe we can run on naturally renewable resources and ensure that we protect—and create—as much sustainable working forest as needed to produce the virgin paper in our product packaging. This is an important step toward that goal and our commitment to leave the world better than we found it.

Apple CEO Tim Cook also shared details on how the vendor is looking to leverage renewable energy in the manufacturing industry:

We've set an example by greening our data centers, retail stores and corporate offices, and we're ready to start leading the way toward reducing carbon emissions from manufacturing. This won't happen overnight—in fact it will take years—but it's important work that has to happen, and Apple is in a unique position to take the initiative toward this ambitious goal. It is a responsibility we accept. We are excited to work with leaders in our supply chain who want to be on the cutting edge of China's green transformation.

The latest initiative continues Apple's focus on renewable energy, which has seen the Cupertino giant investing in an $850 million solar farm at a 1,300-acre facility in California that will produce 34 million kWh a month. The solar farm will power the upcoming Apple Campus 2 in addition to Apple's offices, retail stores and its data center located in Newark, CA.

Apple is also building a solar farm in the Sichuan Province in China that will provide more than adequate power for the brand's offices and retail stores in the country, with the 80 million kilowatt-hours per year of energy sufficient to power 61,000 homes. Apple aims to be totally reliant on renewable energy to power its global operations, with its recent initiatives bringing that figure up to 87 percent.

Source: Apple