Apple reported significant progress towards its goal to decarbonize its value chain, announcing that the use of renewable electricity by its manufacturing partners increased by nearly 30% in 2022, alongside commitments from dozens of additional suppliers to move to 100% renewable energy for all Apple production.

Emissions from the manufacturing supply chain represent more than 70% of Apple’s carbon footprint, with electricity use as the single largest contributor. Addressing these emissions forms a major part of the company’s strategy to achieve its ambition to become carbon neutral across its entire business, manufacturing supply chain, and product life cycle by 2030, a goal set by the company in 2020.

To help facilitate the transition to clean energy in its manufacturing supply chain, Apple established the Supplier Clean Energy Program in 2015, offering suppliers resources including information about renewable energy procurement options, training materials, country-specific information, data insights, and engagement opportunities with renewable energy experts as well as policy advocacy.

Apple revealed that more than 250 suppliers – up from around 200 last year – across 28 countries, representing over 85% of the company’s direct manufacturing spend, have now committed to using renewable energy for all Apple production by 2030.

The use of clean energy in Apple’s supply chain has been growing rapidly for several years, with the operational renewable energy now reaching over 13.7 GW, up around 30% from the prior year, and growing more than 5x since 2019, and representing avoided carbon emissions last year of 17.4 million metric tons. The new commitments would bring renewable energy use to more than 20 GW.

Lisa Jackson, Apple’s Vice President of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives, said:

“Our new supplier commitments demonstrate the rapid pace of progress we’re making toward our 2030 carbon neutrality goal. We are taking urgent action on a global scale to unlock a greener, more innovative, and more resilient future.”

The announcements mark the latest in a series of moves by Apple to address its value chain emissions. In October 2022, Apple said that it will require companies in its supply chain to report on progress towards achieving carbon neutrality, including on Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions reductions related to Apple production. The company also said that it plans to facilitate the construction of large-scale solar and wind projects to address emissions from product use, which accounts for around 22% of its carbon footprint.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said:

“At Apple, we’re carbon neutral for our own operations and innovating every day to go even further in the urgent work to address climate change. With partners around the world, we’re adding even more renewable energy to power our global supply chain and investing in next-generation green technologies. The scale of this challenge is immense — but so is our determination to meet it.”

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