Climate Change and Apple's Carbon Neutral Plan for 2030

Think about how much technology you use in one day. To wake up, you probably use an alarm clock. After you open your eyes, you might reach for your phone and check for any notifications you missed during the night. Since most businesses are working remotely online, you might log into your computer to meet with your boss or take on a team project. To even read this article right now, you must be using some type of electronic device. Whether you realize it or not, technology is deeply integrated into our daily lives. A Nielsen Company report revealed that the average individual in the United States spends 10 hours and 39 minutes looking at a screen. Another Nielsen report showed that the average American might spend 50 hours per week on some type of device, which totals over two whole days!

Considering our daily technological usage, our society has developed this driving desire to have the newest electronic devices, such as the faster computer or the larger iPhone. The cycle continues as we endlessly strive to attain what is new and to get rid of what is old. Our participation in this cycle is what pushes companies to continually develop and mass-produce new devices. This increase in electronic production leads to a rise in carbon emissions that contribute to detrimental climate change and calls into question the environmental practices of prominent technology companies, especially prominent ones such as Apple. On July 21, 2020, Apple released their plans to be 100% carbon neutral in their supply practices and products by the year 2030. So, what exactly is climate change, why is carbon so important, and what does Apple plan to do?

"Life on Earth is possible thanks to [the] greenhouse effect" (Cassia, Raul et al). The greenhouse effect regulates the temperature of our planet at about 57 degrees Fahrenheit by trapping in the sun's radiation between the Earth's surface and atmosphere (Cassia, Raul et al). If there was no greenhouse effect, Earth's temperature would be at a chilling 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit (Cassia, Raul et al). The greenhouse effect is possible with the greenhouse gases which are parts of Earth's atmosphere that absorb as well as emit radiation (Cassia, Raul et al). In increasing order of abundance in our atmosphere, the gases are "...water vapor, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxides (NxO) and ozone (O3)" (Cassia, Raul et al). The balance of these gases can change due to increased carbon emissions. According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a major contributor to these emissions is the burning of fossil fuels which escalate the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. With rising temperatures from atmospheric imbalance, detrimental changes can occur within climates, such as droughts and floods (Cassia, Raul et al).

The electronics that you use every day use a massive amount of energy which leads to a high concentration of carbon emissions. To put this into perspective, the iPhone 11 (64 GB) emits 156 pounds of carbon emissions throughout its life cycle which includes its production, transport, use, and end of life processing, according to Apple’s 2019 Environmental Report. The iPhone 11 is just one phone, now multiply that by 12 million iPhone 11s that were sold in 2019 and that is just a fraction of Apple's total carbon emission for one year. Despite the enormity of this number, Apple plans "...to reduce emissions by 75 percent by 2030 while developing innovative carbon removal solutions for the remaining 25 percent of its comprehensive footprint". To accomplish this ambitious goal, Apple will focus on five topics: low carbon product design, energy efficiency, renewable energy, material processing, and carbon removal.

For design, the company is going to continue using low carbon and recycled material in their devices as well as developing energy-efficient products. On the subject of energy efficiency, Apple has partnered with the US-China Green Fund. The US - China Green Fund will allocate $100 million to support efficient energy advancements for projects done by Apple's suppliers. To support their goal, 70 of Apple’s suppliers have agreed to use 100 percent sustainable energy in their production of their products. This agreement will reduce Apple’s carbon emissions by 14.3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. In terms of material processing, Apple is involved with the revolutionary development of a carbon-free aluminum smelting process that will be used in the production of their 16 - inch MacBook Pro. For carbon removal, the firm is looking outside of their production process. Apple plans to invest in the preservation of forests and other solutions to decrease the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. They will continue to partner with the World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International, and The Conservation Fund to protect and improve over 1 million acres of forests as well as climates in the United States, Colombia, China, and Kenya. These examples are just some of the initiatives that Apple plans to focus on for the next decade.

Apple is not the first technology company to release a plan to combat the negative effects of climate change, such as deforestation and ozone depletion. Throughout this past year, many other technological giants have already released plans for better environmental practices. In May 2020, Google announced that it would not continue developing machine learning algorithms as well as artificial intelligence to aid in the extraction of fossil fuels for the oil and gas industries. Also this year, Microsoft said that it would invest $1 billion in climate developments. However, the firm still has partnerships with large oil and gas companies. Not all propositions for climate change are perfect, but the fact that a plan is in place at all is better than nothing.

There is a lot of promise with Apple's plan for carbon neutrality by 2030. Just this past year, Apple has reduced its carbon footprint by 4.3 million metric tons through their design developments and use of recycled content. "Over the past 11 years, Apple has reduced the average energy needed for product use by 73 percent". These facts show that Apple is slowly making strides in the right direction. One can only hope that they as well as other companies keep up this momentum, continue to advocate for climate change, and reach their goals in the future.

Works Cited:

Cassia, Raúl et al. "Climate Change and the Impact of Greenhouse Gasses: CO2 and NO, Friends and Foes of Plant Oxidative Stress." Frontiers in plant science vol. 9 273. 1 Mar. 2018, doi:10.3389/fpls.2018.00273