The high marks with “Mother Nature” that Apple recently touted in a promo video might be somewhat questionable, but the company does lead its Big Tech peers in climate initiatives, according to a new report.
Environmental org Stand.earth sized up the track records of six tech industry giants—Apple, Dell, Google, HP, Microsoft, and Nvidia—when it comes to their decarbonization efforts. Among them, the report found that Apple has the edge in a couple of key factors.
Apple is the only company of the six to have “generated or sourced enough renewable electricity to match 100% of electricity demand for its corporate operations since 2018,” and the only one to have set a 100% renewable energy target for its supply chain. The company has also set loftier greenhouse gas reduction goals for 2030 than its four competitors with similar timelines—Apple aims to cut 75% from its 2015 levels, while other companies have pledged around 50% each.
The report comes on the heels of another investigation from a separate organization last month that called into question Apple’s claims around its first carbon-neutral products—a recently announced lineup of Apple Watches. The company has faced added scrutiny around its climate goals since it put sustainability front and center at its flagship event last month with a five-minute sketch featuring Octavia Spencer as “Mother Nature.”
Tech support: The tech sector as a whole accounts for 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions, but that number is growing with the industry’s mounting electricity demands, according to Stand.earth’s report.
Overall, the report identified a few key issues that are holding back the industry’s efforts:
- Tech companies are not focused enough on eliminating fossil fuel dependence in the Asian countries where they host manufacturing hubs, the report’s authors claimed.
- They’re also too reliant on renewable energy certificates, which the report says could hold back genuine progress toward decarbonizing their own production.
- They don’t coordinate enough as an industry to tackle broader climate crisis goals.
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Questions remain: Despite Apple’s relative edge over its competitors, another analysis from the nonprofit Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs found that the company does not disclose enough information about its suppliers to substantiate the claims around its carbon neutrality.
“We believe there is a need for full disclosure and explanation of how Apple achieves carbon neutrality of its products, given the increase in carbon emissions from some of its suppliers,” the authors of the IPE report wrote.
While Stand.earth acknowledged that some progress has been made toward decarbonization goals, tech companies overall need to step up their commitments.
“While the IT industry has acknowledged the necessity of supply chain decarbonization, as evidenced by making commitments and taking some commendable measures, brands need to take more proactive steps to ensure that they are on track to meet their decarbonization goals,” the report concluded.