Apple has announced a pair of clean energy programmes aimed at reducing the carbon footprint of its Chinese manufacturing operation.
According to an Apple statement, the two programmes will “avoid over 20 million metric tons of greenhouse gas pollution in the country between now and 2020.”
That’s the equivalent of taking almost four million “passenger vehicles” (known to you and I as ‘cars’) off the road for an entire year, apparently.
The first of these initiatives will involve building more than 200 megawatts of solar installations across the country. That should “begin to offset” the energy used by Apple’s manufacturing partners.
The second initiative involves prompting said manufacturing partners to be more energy efficient, and to use clean energy sources. To that end, Apple will partner with them to install around two gigawatts of new clean energy sources in the coming years.
The most notable of Apple’s production partners, Foxconn, will construct 400 megawatts of solar energy-generating equipment by 2018.
Related: Apple launches initiative to save China’s forests
While Apple was on the subject, it took the opportunity to announce that construction was complete on its solar installations in Sichuan Province.
The amount of energy these solar installations generate will be more than the amount of electricity used by Apple across all of its offices and retail stores in the country. This means that Apple can claim that is operations in the country are carbon neutral.
Apple’s China-based manufacturing operations aren’t always painted in the most positive light, so this could be seen as a notable PR win for the company.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
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