Apple's renewable energy usage rises to 94% in under 4 years

[Justin Kahn]

Apple has been focused on the goal of powering all of its facilities with 100% renewable energy, and is now very close to doing so. In 2010 the company was powering its corporate campuses and data centers with about 35% renewable power, but Apple has since increased its efforts significantly pushing that number to about 94% and counting.

After receiving praise from Greenpeace with an excellent clean energy index rating, a recent report from Wired gives a detailed analysis of the company's ongoing environmental efforts led by Apple's VP of Environmental Initiatives Lisa Jackson. Jackson, the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), sees a major opportunity for Apple to lead innovation in the field. Data centers are said to be an area of growth in the industry and Apple is clearly already emerging as a leader among tech companies.

One thing to remember here is that the numbers surrounding Apple's 94% renewable energy usage does not include the actual use, manufacturing, or logistics of sales on its products, which according to Wired, accounts for 98% of its carbon footprint.

Regardless, Apple is certainly a leader in terms of being environmentally conscious with its use of renewable energy at datacenter locations, the lack of harmful toxins used in its manufacturing processes and the amount of electricity its products use. Today, Apple released a short film highlighting its efforts in these areas narrated by CEO Tim Cook. You can see the new video below and more about Apple's environmental initiatives at Apple.com/environment. 

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https://www.techspot.com/news/56470-apples-renewable-energy-usage-rises-to-94-in-under-4-years.html

 

[Jad Chaar]

Wow 94% is really impressive. I didnt expect them to reach this point. Very impressive indeed.

 

[Hasbean]

Watchout, they'll stick a patent on solar panels that convert sunlight into electrical current in any shape that resembles a rectangle, square, triangle or circle. Then we're stuffed.

 

[misor]

This is a good move by apple. I hope it will trickle down from its offices to the factories.
also, I hope gpu manufacturers will likewise attempt to create products which are faster but have lower power requirements than previous generation.
as I understand it, the latest intel/adreno (and other) processors have lower power draw than before.
voltage for memory modules have gone down from 1.65v to 1.5v to 1.3v...

 

[Guest]

Now if only they could pay their taxes as appropriate, instead of finding loopholes, they would be a company worth my respect. Going green just isn't enough to allow governments to support their citizens.

 

[Kibaruk]

Watchout, they'll stick a patent on solar panels that convert sunlight into electrical current in any shape that resembles a rectangle, square, triangle or circle. Then we're stuffed.

Yes... the patent trolls... yes...

Ok so... how about Foxconn, which % of clean energy do they work with??? I'm pretty sure they must run on carbon. What % of the 100 is that?

 

[NotParker]

Apple uses bloom boxes that run on hydrogen. What they don't tell you is that the hydrogen comes from fracked natural gas.

One other thing, Apple does NOT power 94% of its operation with renewable. You headline is a big fat lie.

You should retract it.

If you don't , you liars. Just like Lisa Jackson.

 

[Guest]

So this is why apple products seems overpriced (almost rip-off, I guess) because all of their facility powered by those very very expensive technology

 

[thelatestmodel]

Apple uses bloom boxes that run on hydrogen. What they don't tell you is that the hydrogen comes from fracked natural gas.

One other thing, Apple does NOT power 94% of its operation with renewable. You headline is a big fat lie.

You should retract it.

If you're going to post comments like this, you'd better have a source to back it up.

 

[m4a4]

So this is why apple products seems overpriced (almost rip-off, I guess) because all of their facility powered by those very very expensive technology

Other way around, they can buy this very expensive stuff because they overprice their stuff...

 

[Guest]

Kibaruk, TechSpot Paladin, said:

Watchout, they'll stick a patent on solar panels that convert sunlight into electrical current in any shape that resembles a rectangle, square, triangle or circle. Then we're stuffed.

Yes... the patent trolls... yes...

Ok so... how about Foxconn, which % of clean energy do they work with??? I'm pretty sure they must run on carbon. What % of the 100 is that?

Notice how they can talk about their "Office and Data Center" and ignore their children-ran manufacturing plants over seas. They could be 100% "Renewable Energy" fact is they employee children to fill their suit wearing corporate pockets (Over-worked and under paid at that!). What do you even get from that renewable energy? I don't know...maybe landfills of Apple products considering their target customer doesn't care to save money ipso facto throws out their device as soon as a new one comes out. Be proud Apple fans!

 

[NotParker]

http://www.tuaw.com/2012/04/02/apple-plans-nations-biggest-private-fuel-cell-energy-project/

"Apparently, the hydrogen fuel will be produced from natural gas feedstocks, with Apple hoping to offset the use of natural gas with landfill methane gas or other biogas."

 

[SNGX1275]

Notice how they can talk about their "Office and Data Center" and ignore their children-ran manufacturing plants over seas. They could be 100% "Renewable Energy" fact is they employee children to fill their suit wearing corporate pockets (Over-worked and under paid at that!). What do you even get from that renewable energy? I don't know...maybe landfills of Apple products considering their target customer doesn't care to save money ipso facto throws out their device as soon as a new one comes out. Be proud Apple fans!

Every major manufacturer has poor labor conditions in their asian factories, the difference is Apple seems to be the only one putting any pressure on the owners of those factories to do anything about it.

Secondly, Apple has a very high resale market so it isn't advantageous to their device owners to throw them away. There is lots of passing down or selling of older devices, especially their computers. Look at the resale value of their devices on ebay. Apple actively encourages recycling of their hardware, allowing you to bring old devices into their stores for recycling, getting gift cards/vouchers for them if they are recent enough. They will also send you postage paid boxes to send in your old computer devices regardless of brand up to 70 lbs. I don't know of any other PC or phone manufacturer that does that. So your statement about landfill is absurd. Sure not every one of their devices gets recycled, but I don't see anything to suggest the rest of the industry is even close to that type of environmental consciousness.

http://www.tuaw.com/2012/04/02/apple-plans-nations-biggest-private-fuel-cell-energy-project/

"Apparently, the hydrogen fuel will be produced from natural gas feedstocks, with Apple hoping to offset the use of natural gas with landfill methane gas or other biogas."

Maybe a majority does come from fracking but citing a 2 year old article that uses the word "apparently" and as your backup, is a weak argument/source. Also, in your very quote from there it says they are hoping to offset the use of natural gas with landfill methane or other biogas. Given the entire point of the article that started this thread was to show how quickly Apple is ramping up their renewable energy usage it would seem more likely that Apple is actually using more landfill methane than they were 2 years ago when your reference article was written.