Apple today announced that its global facilities are powered by 100 percent clean energy which also includes retail stores, offices, data centers and co-located facilities in 43 countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, China, and India. The company also mentioned that nine additional manufacturing partners have committed to power all of their Apple production with 100 percent clean energy.
This brings the total number of supplier commitments to 23 and it is also improving the energy options for local communities, states, and even entire countries. Apple creates, with utilities, new regional renewable energy projects and these projects represent a diverse range of energy sources, including solar arrays and wind farms as well as emerging technologies like biogas fuel cells, micro-hydro generation systems and energy storage technologies.
Apple currently has 25 operational renewable energy projects around the world with total 626 megawatts of generation capacity, 286 megawatts of solar PV generation coming online in 2017. Apple also has 15 more projects in construction. All the Apple data centres have been powered by 100 percent renewable energy since 2014, and since 2011, all of Apple’s renewable energy projects have reduced greenhouse gas emissions (CO2e) by 54% from its facilities worldwide and prevented nearly 2.1 million metric tons of CO2e from entering the atmosphere.
Apple Park in Cupertino is now the largest LEED Platinum-certified office building in North America. It is powered by 100% renewable energy from multiple sources. Over 485 megawatts of wind and solar projects have been developed across six provinces of China to address upstream manufacturing emissions. Apple also announced that 23 of its suppliers are now committed to operating on 100 percent renewable energy, including nine new suppliers.
Commenting on the same, Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO said:
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. 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.