On Monday of this week, Apple announced that all of their facilities are officially powered by 100 percent clean energy. The announcement encompasses all of their retail stores, offices, data centers, and co-located facilities in 43 countries, including the U.S., the U.K., China, and India. In addition to all of their facilities, they also announced that nine additional manufacturing partners have committed to power all of their Apple production with 100 percent clean energy, bringing the total number of committed partners to 23.
The tech titan’s success is largely based on their numerous and worldwide sustainability efforts. “Apple creates or develops, with utilities, new regional renewable energy projects that would not otherwise exist,” claims a recent press release. Projects include everything from standard solar arrays and wind farms to innovative biogas fuel cells, micro-hydro generation systems, and energy storage technologies. Currently, Apple has 25 operational renewable energy projects around the world, totaling at 626 megawatts of generation capacity. Additionally, they have 15 more projects under construction, which, once built, will add 1.4 gigawatts of clean, renewable energy across 11 countries.
However, Apple’s commitment to renewable energy is not a new development. Starting in 2014, all of Apple’s data centers are powered by 100 percent clean energy. Since 2011, all of Apple’s projects have reduced greenhouse gas emissions from their facilities by 54 percent.
Currently, Apple’s new headquarters in Cupertino is the largest LEED Platinum-certified office building in North America, powered by a 17-megawatt onsite rooftop solar installation and four megawatts of biogas fuel cells. During low periods of occupancy, the headquarters even gives clean energy back to the public grid. In China, the company has developed over 485 megawatts of wind and solar power across six provinces.
“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,” expressed Apple 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.”
Featured Image: Courtesy of Apple
