sustainability

Read Cult of Mac’s latest posts on sustainability:

Power a sustainable future with Bluetti solar solutions

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Bluetti offers solar-powered products and practical advice on living sustainably.
Bluetti offers solar-powered products and practical advice on living sustainably.
Photo: Bluetti

Climate change makes protecting our environment and embracing sustainable living practices more important than ever before. Impacts include warmer temperatures through increased greenhouse gases, rising sea levels, warmer oceans, more volatile weather and increasing ocean acidity.

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This post is brought to you by Bluetti.
These problems underscore an urgent need for action. And power solutions provider Bluetti offers innovative green products as well as advice on how anyone can contribute to a brighter future.

Apple saves 861,000 tons of precious metals by ditching iPhone chargers

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iPhone 12 box
Miss power chargers from your iPhone box? The environment doesn't.
Photo: Marco Verch/Flickr CC

Apple has saved 861,000 metric tons of copper, tin, and zinc ore by removing power adapters from iPhones, starting last year. That’s one of the tidbits from Apple’s factoid-studded Environmental Progress Report, released Friday.

It showcases how Apple is working toward its efforts of achieving net carbon neutrality across its whole supply chain by 2030. As Apple notes, that includes “How [an Apple product is] designed, how it’s made, how it’s shipped, how it’s used, [and] how it’s recycled.”

Apple’s $200 million fund will remove tons of CO2 from the atmosphere

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Apple environment
Apple's doing its bit to promote sustainability.
Photo: Apple

Apple on Thursday unveiled a $200 million fund to back responsible forestry efforts around the world. The Restore Fund, launched with Conservation International and Apple Card partner Goldman Sachs, aims to remove at least 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year.

That would be equivalent to removing more than 200,000 passenger vehicles from the road.

Apple’s clean-energy projects will cut carbon emissions equal to 200,000 cars

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Green Bonds
The name's Bond. Green Bonds.
Photo: Apple

Apple funded 17 Green Bond projects last year, which will ultimately help avoid an average of 921,000 metric tons of carbon emissions being pumped into the environment each year. That’s the equivalent of removing nearly 200,000 cars from the road, Apple says.

In an update on its planned $4.7 billion Green Bond spend, Apple notes that its new projects will generate a massive 1.2 gigawatts of renewable energy globally.

Apple (and its entire supply chain) will be 100% carbon neutral by 2030

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campus
Apple Park leads the way forward for sustainability. The rest of Apple's supply chain is following suit.
Photo: Apple

Apple will become carbon neutral across its entire business and manufacturing chain by 2030, the company said Tuesday.

Cupertino’s global corporate operations are already carbon neutral. Now, the company promises that in 10 years’ time, “every Apple device sold will have net zero climate impact.”

Tim Cook talks climate change at sustainability nonprofit event in New York

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Tim Cook talks climate change at sustainability nonprofit event in New York
Tim Cook has pushed sustainability throughout his time as Apple CEO.
Photo: Jim Gould/Twitter

Tim Cook talked Apple’s commitment to sustainability and renewable energy in a keynote speech at the Ceres 30th Anniversary Gala in New York City Monday night.

Ceres is a sustainability nonprofit that works with companies to tackle environmental issues. Cook described how Apple views battling climate change as an opportunity.

7 reasons people are keeping old iPhones much longer

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Old iPhones
The iPhone 5 might have been Apple’s coolest iPhone design.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Apple is set to make 5 billion dollars less this quarter than it previously expected. That’s a pretty big deal, and it’s down to two major things. One was an “economic weakness in some emerging markets.” The other was that Apple said it sold “fewer iPhone upgrades than we had anticipated.”

That second one is very interesting. Why aren’t people upgrading? There are two possibilities. One is that they’re switching to Android. The other is that people are holding onto their old iPhones for much longer. Why’s that?

Apple seeks to silence activist shareholders at its annual general meeting

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Apple could be a $2 trillion company by end of 2021
Apple doesn't want to talk sustainability or human rights at its 2018 AGM.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple may be very happy to talk environmental issues and human rights when it suits it to do so — but not at its shareholder meetings.

According to a new report, Apple is “pushing back” on four activist shareholder proposals to discuss these issues at its annual general meeting (AGM) early in 2018. The reason? Because Apple says they relate to “ordinary business” and are already areas that Apple is dealing with. In other words, don’t worry about it!

The great lengths Apple goes to for eco-friendly packaging

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EarPods
Apple's EarPods packaging is some of its most environmentally friendly.
Photo: Apple

Apple has taken big steps toward making its products more sustainable. As part of that mission, it just released a new “Paper and Packaging Strategy” white paper, which lays out the various measures the company is taking to lower the environmental impact its packaging has on the world.

Apple wants all its devices to be made from recycled or renewable materials

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iPhone 7 back
Future iPhones will be made from 100 percent recycled and renewable materials.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple has pledged to end its reliance on mining, and to make its devices from only renewable or recycled materials — although it’s not announced any timeline to do so.

The pledge was announced as part of the company’s Environmental Responsibility Report.

Apple will defend its Ireland data center plans this month

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Irish flag
New data center will be one of Apple's biggest projects in Europe to date.
Photo: John Hoey/Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple’s proposed 850 million euro ($960 million) data centre in Athenry, Ireland may be one of the most environmentally-friendly projects the company has yet put its name to, but that’s not stopping locals from kicking up a fuss about it.

This month, Apple will defend its plans during a hearing to be held on Tuesday 24 May in Galway City, when Cupertino representatives will attempt to convince An Bord Pleanála, an independent, statutory body which decides on appeals from planning decisions made by local authorities in Ireland.

Apple steps up its clean energy efforts in China

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Apple is spreading its green initiative to China. Photo: Apple
Apple is now carbon neutral in China. But it's not stopping there.
Photo: Apple

Apple and Foxconn are teaming up to build solar power plants that will ensure its iPhone-manufacturing factories in China run on 100 percent clean energy.

Foxconn has committed to constructing more than 400 megawatts of solar power plants, beginning in China’s Henan Province, by 2018. Apple will also build an addition 200 megawatts of solar projects throughout China, helping offset the carbon produced by the rest of its supply chain.

Dam It: Apple Embraces Hydroelectric Power For Oregon Data Center

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(Credit: Randy L. Rasmussen / The Oregonian)
(Credit: Randy L. Rasmussen / The Oregonian)

Remember when Tim Cook said he wanted Apple to be a “force for good” in the world, in terms of sustainability?

In keeping with Apple’s plans to use 100% renewable energy to power all of its facilities, it has recently taken over a small hydroelectric project at a Central Oregon site, near to the company’s data center in Prineville.

Since these data centers consume massive amounts of electricity (read: the equivalent of a small city), Apple has been keen to explore alternative sources of energy to keep them in clean, renewable energy.

Tim Cook Tells Profit-Obsessed Investors To Sell Their Stock

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timcooksmiling

Tim Cook lashed out at shortsighted, bottom line-driven investors during Friday’s annual shareholders meeting — telling them to “get out of [Apple] stock.”

The exchange concerned the conservative think tank National Center for Public Policy Research, which was pushing Apple to disclose the cost of its sustainability programs, and the impact this had on the company’s earning power.

Cook was asked about Apple’s plans to have 100 percent of its power come from green sources — and whether this was the case only because of government subsidies on green energy.

Asked to commit point-blank to only pursuing moves immediately profitable to Apple, Cook responded with anger — noting that Apple does many things because they are right and just, and not simply about making a return on investment (ROI).

iFixIt Publishes Self Repair Manifesto, Sponsors Free Repair Manuals Online

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Self Repair Manifesto

Concerned with the growing problem with eWaste?  Want the ability to upgrade and repair your own electronics?  Believe that the throw-away mentality needs to change for the sake of sustainability?

So does iFixIt, teardown-masters extraordinaire and longtime information and parts resource for Apple users.  They have just published the Self Repair Manifesto, along with an ambitious call to action to create – via crowd-sourcing – a Wikipedia-style Free Repair Manual for devices of all kinds: electronics, appliances, even a few cars.

Why the Mac App Store Makes Apple the Greenest Computer Company

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Though much of the buzz in the wake of today’s “Back to the Mac” event has been about the pair of sleek new MacBooks Air that Steve whipped out during one more thing (guilty as charged), the most revolutionary announcement was the Mac App Store. In one slide, Apple flipped the way people buy software for PCs on its head. Big ad budgets will soon be less important than a good relationship with Apple.

There’s a lot to debate about the Mac App Store (which we’ll do from now until a few years after its launch), but I want to touch on something no one is talking about yet: it makes Apple the greenest computer company on the planet.