Apple recently announced ambitious plans to not only become carbon neutral going forward for its corporate emissions globally, but also unveiled proposals to become carbon neutral across its entire manufacturing supply chain, product life and business cycle by the end of the decade. As it stands, Apple is already carbon neutral for its global corporate operations, however, the new commitment means that by 2030 every device Apple sells will have a zero impact on the environment. The company gave details of how it believes it will achieve the target, as well as giving other companies a roadmap to carbon neutrality. The plan is to reduce emissions by 75% by within 10 years, whilst also developing innovative carbon removal solutions for the remaining 25%.
Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook said of the plan ‘Businesses have a profound opportunity to help build a more sustainable future, one born of our common concern for the planet we share’ adding ‘The innovations powering our environmental journey are not only good for the planet — they’ve helped us make our products more energy efficient and bring new sources of clean energy online around the world. Climate action can be the foundation for a new era of innovative potential, job creation, and durable economic growth. With our commitment to carbon neutrality, we hope to be a ripple in the pond that creates a much larger change’.
Of the many initiatives that Apple have set out to help lower its emissions, the one that caught our eye was the company’s latest recycling tools, robots called ‘Daisy’ and ‘Dave’. Dave strips the taptic engine from an iPhone to better recover key materials such as steel, tungsten and rare earth magnets. However, this is only possible because Daisy first takes apart the iPhones in order to recover valuable materials inside, at the rate of 200 iPhones per hour.
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