Apple Announces New China Clean Energy Programs for Manufacturing Partners

Apple today announced two clean energy programs aimed at reducing the carbon footprint of its manufacturing partners in China. Apple says the programs will avoid over 20 million metric tons of greenhouse gas pollution in China between now and 2020, which is equivalent to taking 4 million cars off the road for a year.

applesolarfarm

“Climate change is one of the great challenges of our time, and the time for action is now,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The transition to a new green economy requires innovation, ambition and purpose. We believe passionately in leaving the world better than we found it and hope that many other suppliers, partners and other companies join us in this important effort.”

The first program is aimed at expanding Apple's clean-energy investments in the country. Apple will build more than 200 megawatts of solar projects in the northern, eastern and southern regions of China. The projects will generate energy equivalent to the amount of energy used by 265,000 Chinese homes in a year. The Cupertino company also says the project will "begin to offset" the energy used in Apple's supply chain.

The second program is a new initiative aimed at driving Apple's manufacturing partners to become more energy efficient. Apple and its suppliers will install more than 2 gigawatts of new clean energy in the next couple of years. Apple will share strategies for procuring clean energy and building high-quality energy projects with its suppliers while also providing energy efficiency audits, regulatory guidance and more.

Apple's most well-known manufacturing partner, Foxconn, will construct 400 megawatts of solar energy in the Henan Province by 2018, with the manufacturer committing to generate as much clean energy as its Zhengzhou factory consumes in final production of the iPhone.

Finally, Apple announced that it has completed construction on 40 megawatts of solar energy in the Sichuan Province, which means that the company is powering 100 percent of its operations in China and is carbon neutral in the country.

Tags: China, Apple environment

Top Rated Comments

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fullauto

54 months ago

Impressive steps forward, great to see a company investing like this. Come and set up a solar farm in Australia Apple - we need someone to lead the way in renewable energy.

Rating: 3 Votes

Michaelgtrusa

54 months ago

Really in a country that we are at war with! Do you see what china is?! Can you see what the U.S./ E.U has created?! They opened and industrialized china for a reason that soon the U.S and it's allies will soon find out. This policy is a huge waist of Apple's money and would be better spent in their home nation and not communist china. So much more that I could add.....

Rating: 2 Votes

hleewell

54 months ago

Impressive steps forward, great to see a company investing like this. Come and set up a solar farm in Australia Apple - we need someone to lead the way in renewable energy.

Australia is doing fine with renewable energy, look:

Rating: 2 Votes

Morky

54 months ago

Climate change is not a localized problem. The scale of manufacturing and the size of the Chinese population means that pushing renewables there has an outsized effect in this ecological battle. It's more important than any politics.

Rating: 1 Votes

bigjohn

54 months ago

hopefully the plan is to expand after apple covers it's own needs. china has a huge problem with lead poisoning amongst everything else.

Rating: 1 Votes

RockSpider

54 months ago

Impressive steps forward, great to see a company investing like this. Come and set up a solar farm in Australia Apple - we need someone to lead the way in renewable energy.

Where in the story does it say that Apple is the saviour of the world, it's just doing this to cover up its own huge mess.

Rating: 1 Votes

ArtOfWarfare

54 months ago

I don't see it happening. We haven't had a war between major powers since Japan was nuked at the end of WW2 because there's a mutual understanding that the next war between major powers will be the last war, and nobody will win it.

Ever since WW2, every war has either been a major power against a minor one, or two major powers fueling a fight between minor powers in a proxy war.

I don't think we'll ever return to an actual war like we used to have nearly 100 years ago, and I hope that eventually even the proxy wars will end. I think renewable power will be pretty key in ending the proxy wars, since often the proxy wars are over oil and other fuels. If the whole world in on solar, that becomes one less thing to fight over.

Rating: 1 Votes

mijail

54 months ago

Where in the story does it say that Apple is the saviour of the world, it's just doing this to cover up its own huge mess.

Where in the story does it say that Apple is "just doing this to cover up its own huge mess"?
Apple is going out of its way to go green. Note, it is not just switching to some existing greener option, they are building their own greener option, and pushing their providers to go greener.

I guess that calling this "savior of the world" is too much, but you know? If every company did the same, we would not need a savior :P.

Rating: 1 Votes

doboy

54 months ago

Good! China doesn't need more smog :)

Rating: 1 Votes