Apple Releases Its 2014 Environmental Responsibility Report

Apple released its 2014 Environmental Responsibility Report today and posted a progress update on its website.

Here's the progress update:

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On Earth Day, we promised to keep you posted on our progress in reducing Apple’s environmental impact. We’re back with a few updates.


First, we recently submitted our 2013 carbon emissions data to the CDP (formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project). For the past six years, we’ve been measuring and publishing our carbon footprint — not just for the facilities we own but also for our supply chain and even our customers’ use of Apple products. We heard from some shareholders that making this information available through the CDP would help them more easily track our environmental performance. So you can expect to see Apple’s data in the CDP’s next report this fall.

Second, while focusing on our climate data, we decided to recalculate our 2012 emissions using our newest methodology — the same model we used to calculate our 2013 numbers. The new analysis shows that our carbon footprint actually shrank by 3 percent from 2012 to 2013. This marked the first time we’ve seen a year-over-year decline since we began tracking the numbers in 2009. While we’re excited about this progress, we know our work is far from done.

We also released our full 2014 Environmental Responsibility Report, previously called the Facilities Environmental Footprint Report. We gave an extensive preview of its content when we launched this website 10 weeks ago, but we have additional details and progress to share:
● We’re now powering 145 of our U.S. retail stores and all of our retail stores in Australia with 100 percent renewable energy.
● Thanks to our clean-power investments, our carbon footprint from energy use dropped by 31 percent from fiscal 2011 to fiscal 2013 — even though our overall energy consumption increased by 44 percent during that time.
● The energy efficiency programs we applied to our corporate offices in the Cupertino area over the past three years saved 28.5 million kWh of electricity and 751,000 therms of natural gas.
● The commute alternatives program for our employees provided more than 1 million trips and helped avoid greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to taking more than 15,000 vehicles off the road.

The new report also highlights some of the challenges we face:
● Our water consumption rose significantly in 2013, in part due to construction and other expansion activities.
● Carbon emissions from our manufacturing partners remain the largest portion of our carbon footprint, an area we’re committed to addressing.


Good data leads to good decisions, and we’re already using the data from this year’s report to inform the work that will fill the pages of next year’s. Stay tuned.
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You can read the full 2014 Environmental Responsibility Report by clicking the link below...

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