Apple says all its operations now run on 100% renewable energy

[midian182]

Despite being one of the biggest companies in the world, Apple has long been praised for its environmentally friendly intiatives. Now, the iPhone maker has announced that all its worldwide facilities run on 100 percent renewable energy.

In a press release yesterday, Apple said that operations across 43 countries, including its retail stores, offices, data centers, and brand-new spaceship campus, now run entirely on green power. Additionally, its Apple Park headquarters is now the largest LEED Platinum-certified office building in North America, drawing energy from sources that include a 17-megawatt onsite rooftop solar installation and four megawatts of biogas fuel cells.

The firm added that nine more of its manufacturing partners have committed to power all of their Apple production with 100 percent clean energy, bringing the number of supplier commitments to 23.

Apple’s announcement came alongside a Fast Company interview with environment VP Lisa Jackson. The article notes that eight years ago, only 16% of Apple’s facilities were powered by renewable energy. That number increased to 93% in 2015, before rising to 96% in 2016.

“We’re committed to leaving the world better than we found it. After years of hard work we’re proud to have reached this significant milestone,” said CEO Tim Cook. “We’re going to keep pushing the boundaries of what is possible with the materials in our products, the way we recycle them, our facilities and our work with suppliers to establish new creative and forward-looking sources of renewable energy because we know the future depends on it.”

Apple has achieved this feat partly through its investment in solar and wind farms near its data centers. Its 25 renewable energy projects around the world produce 626 megawatts of generation capacity. There are 15 more projects in construction in 11 different countries, which will collectively produce 1.4 gigawatts of energy.

Apple added that its clean energy projects helped avoid over 1.5 million metric tons of greenhouse gases from being emitted last year—the equivalent of removing more than 300,000 cars off the road.

Last year, Apple was named the most environmentally friendly company by Greenpeace for the third year running.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/74088-apple-all-operations-now-run-100-renewable-energy.html

 

[Cycloid Torus]

"Apple has long been praised for its environmentally friendly intiatives." Then hopefully they will BEGIN on a major one - repairability.

 

[GreenNova343]

So, when they say they're 100% powered by renewable sources, which interpretation do they mean:

• The renewable power sources (solar panels, biogas, wind farms, etc.) are directly hooked into the facility, so that there is zero chance of any nonrenewable energy being received by the facilities?
• Some of the renewable sources are hooked directly into Apple's facilities, but because they "sponsored" the other renewable sources, & said sources are a) hooked into the same public power grid that the Apple facilities are connected to & b) the power output from those sources is currently matching the Apple facilities' power needs, they're counting it as being "100% green"? Or,
• Some of the renewable sources are directly connected to Apple's facilities, some of the other renewable sources are connected to the same power grid that Apple is connected to, but the remaining "green" power is because Apple paid for "credits" from other facilities that aren't actually providing the electrons that make it to Apple's facilities?

 

[Uncle Al]

So, when they say they're 100% powered by renewable sources, which interpretation do they mean:

• The renewable power sources (solar panels, biogas, wind farms, etc.) are directly hooked into the facility, so that there is zero chance of any nonrenewable energy being received by the facilities?
• Some of the renewable sources are hooked directly into Apple's facilities, but because they "sponsored" the other renewable sources, & said sources are a) hooked into the same public power grid that the Apple facilities are connected to & b) the power output from those sources is currently matching the Apple facilities' power needs, they're counting it as being "100% green"? Or,
• Some of the renewable sources are directly connected to Apple's facilities, some of the other renewable sources are connected to the same power grid that Apple is connected to, but the remaining "green" power is because Apple paid for "credits" from other facilities that aren't actually providing the electrons that make it to Apple's facilities?

I had a conversation with some of the Facilities folks at Apple several years ago asking similar questions. What I was told was their "sustainable" improvements were all hooked to the main distribution system and took priority over the other suppliers so they could take full advantage of the solar/wind systems but on days of little sun and during nights as well as prolonged periods, they could revert back to the main distribution grid.

Makes sense. The only thing I did not get an answer to was if they were "storing" power or selling excess back to the utilities ..... they were hesitant to talk about that, for some reason.......

 

[seeprime]

Apple is again not being 100% honest. Thurrott.com clarifies this, based on a Verge clarification: "Apple says a lot of things, as it turns out. Apple’s milestone here is, in fact, no different from Google’s. It’s just that Apple slips into lying more easily than Google does. “Apple, like Google, is not actually 100 percent powered by clean energy, but it uses the term to signal that it buys enough green energy to offset its global power consumption.,” The Verge clarifies. –Paul"

 

[Darth Shiv]

Apple is again not being 100% honest. Thurrott.com clarifies this, based on a Verge clarification: "Apple says a lot of things, as it turns out. Apple’s milestone here is, in fact, no different from Google’s. It’s just that Apple slips into lying more easily than Google does. “Apple, like Google, is not actually 100 percent powered by clean energy, but it uses the term to signal that it buys enough green energy to offset its global power consumption.,” The Verge clarifies. –Paul"

Still, doing that is better than not doing that don't you think? It's still a step forward.

 

[captaincranky]

F*ck Apple. When they are able to tell me that Foxconn is also running on "100% renewable energy", then I might, (but I doubt it), show them some respect.

 

[seeprime]

Still, doing that is better than not doing that don't you think? It's still a step forward.

I don't like it when companies twist the truth to draw a false conclusion and then sell it as PR that people gobble up, mostly without question.