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Apple Is Now Forcing Its Suppliers to Go 'Green' (afr.com)
Apple is already running on 100% green energy, according to Fast Company. But Apple is still "keen to show it's a good corporate citizen," reports the Australian Financial Review:
Apple's annual supplier responsibility report released on Thursday revealed 20 manufacturing supplier facilities had been removed from the company's supply chain for breaches of environmental permits or workplace rules. "Smelters and refiners deeper in our supply chain are held to similar standards and if they exhibit a lack of commitment to meet our supplier code of conduct, they risk losing Apple's business," the report said...
In 2018, Apple completed 770 audits of its supplier manufacturing facilities, logistics and repair centres and contact centre facilities. There were also 279 third-party mineral smelter and refiner audits conducted... Apple's 13th annual supplier responsibility progress report said all final assembly points for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, AirPods and HomePod, were now certified zero waste to landfill, while conserving billions of litres of water and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Apple's suppliers in 45 countries have diverted 1 million tonnes of garbage in three years, saved 28.7 gigalitres of water and reduced greenhouse gas emissions by more than 466,000 annualised metric tons, which is the equivalent to taking 100,000 cars off the road for one year.
In 2018, Apple completed 770 audits of its supplier manufacturing facilities, logistics and repair centres and contact centre facilities. There were also 279 third-party mineral smelter and refiner audits conducted... Apple's 13th annual supplier responsibility progress report said all final assembly points for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, AirPods and HomePod, were now certified zero waste to landfill, while conserving billions of litres of water and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Apple's suppliers in 45 countries have diverted 1 million tonnes of garbage in three years, saved 28.7 gigalitres of water and reduced greenhouse gas emissions by more than 466,000 annualised metric tons, which is the equivalent to taking 100,000 cars off the road for one year.
Having to replace a bunch of parts and drop $700 because a MacBook Pro's butterfly keyboard broke isn't green, Apple. These things have embodied energy, implicit in their manufacture. They're not disposable.
I hope more people see past Apple's sleight of hand here. They design their devices in such a way that makes it very difficult (or impossible) to repair, and it's usually just cheaper to replace it out of warranty since they charge exorbitant prices to due so and don't authorize third-party repair. E-waste is a real thing, but they completely ignore this because "green electricity" is easier to get a headline for and doesn't affect their bottom line.
Iâ(TM)ve been a long time Android user and was dismayed by all the manufacturer environmental records. Apple rate along side the Fairphone (https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/reports/greener-electronics-2017/) on Greenpeaceâ(TM)s guide to green electronics. Apple is definitely not a perfect corporate citizen, but there are some things they are doing much better than the rest.
Just marketing words to make uninformed people feel better.
Everything costs to make and making things out of "green" things is not automatically greener. I had the same complaint about Incandescent vs LED bulbs. What is involved in each one? Most people just talk about the run time. Check out the worlds longest burning bulb.
https://www.popularmechanics.c...
LED's are made of plastic and plastic is a hydrocarbon, and they break down and expire and will go into land fills too. Most of them are engineered to only barely meet the very weak regulatory requirements to be energy efficient. Apple is no more green or honest than De Beers and blood diamonds.
The only objective with announcements like this are to win brownie points and nothing else. Apple can require whatever they want, their suppliers will just put on enough of a facade to look green so Apple can say they are green because there is a shiny new badge saying its green... green or not. Kinda like how Monsanto keeps staying in business under different names despite the destruction they have wrought aided entirely by regulatory agencies that claim to be there to protect us.
Any yes, people are dumb enough to believe it, you can most definitely fool most of the people most of the time. If you use the internet and do not see that one basic truth then you are part of that unfortunate majority.
All it does is force other consumers to move away from using green energy (switch to fossil fuels), because you are now using the green energy they used to use. e.g. Everyone used to use 20% green energy, 80% fossil fuels. Some company decides to buy up all 20% green energy for its own use so it can claim its energy consumption is 100% green. That forces everyone else to use 100% fossil fuel energy. And the net result is... 20% green energy, 80% fossil fuels - exactly the same as before this pointless gesture.
To truly increase the fraction of energy derived from green sources, you have to change the supply end of power generation. That means adding new green power sources, and shutting down fossil fuel plants.
E-waste is a real thing, but they completely ignore this
How on earth can you claim this?
Not only does Apple accept every product for free for recycling or resale (they will give you some credit if they can sell it again), Apple also carefully recycles each item themselves to extract as much material as possible.
In fact Apple has gone so far (in a keynote last year) as to say a stated goal is to eliminate the need for raw materials, and get all of the material they need for new devices from recycled ones!
Apple is the model for how all companies should behave with regards to e-waste.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Yes.
And you can read about it in the very same report.
https://www.apple.com/supplier...