Apple announces $200 million Restore Fund to reduce climate change impact

In India, local suppliers-- Yuto and CCL-- are supporting Apple’s efforts to use renewable and sustainably managed materials in its packaging.

As part of Apple’s Earth Day Give Back campaign in 2018, the company had partnered with Conservation International to protect a 27,000 acre mangrove forest in Cispatá Bay on the Caribbean coast of Colombia. Picture credit: Apple

Apple, earlier in the month, revealed that around 110 of the company's supplier companies around the world including some India-based partners are moving to 100 per cent renewable energy for their Apple production, with nearly 8 gigawatts of planned clean energy set to come online.

Now, the Cupertino-based firm has announced a collaboration with Conservation International and Goldman Sachs to set up 'Restore Fund', a carbon removal initiative to accelerate the green innovations to solve problems caused by climate change.

Also, Apple is pledging $200 million for Restore Fund and one of the first aims is to remove at least 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually from the atmosphere, equivalent to the amount of fuel used by over 200,000 passenger vehicles. Also, come up with a viable financial model that can help scale up investment in forest restoration.

“Nature provides some of the best tools to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Forests, wetlands, and grasslands draw carbon from the atmosphere and store it away permanently in their soils, roots, and branches,” said Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives.

“Through creating a fund that generates both a financial return as well as real, and measurable carbon impacts, we aim to drive broader change in the future — encouraging investment in carbon removal around the globe. Our hope is that others share our goals and contribute their resources to support and protect critical ecosystems,” Jackson added.

It should be noted that Apple in 2020 had made a major announcement that the company aims to turn carbon neutral across its entire business, manufacturing supply chain, and product life cycle by 2030, 20 years ahead of the target set by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC).

The Montague wind farm in Oregon is one of Apple’s largest projects at 200 megawatts and powers Apple’s Prineville data centre. Credit: Apple

Apple says it aims to directly eliminate 75 per cent of the carbon emission reduction target by itself and the remaining 25 per cent will be addressed with the new Restore Fund via afforestation programmes.

In India, local suppliers-- Yuto and CCL--are also supporting Apple’s efforts to use renewable and sustainably managed materials in its packaging.

For the past three years, Apple is said to be using 100 per cent responsibly sourced fibres in its packaging. Through partnerships with The Conservation Fund and World Wildlife Fund, Apple has improved the management of more than 1 million acres of working forests in the United States and China since 2015.

Apple and Conservation International have partnered with local conservation organisations in Kenya to restore degraded savannas in the Chyulu Hills region. If scaled up across Africa, savannah restoration could remove hundreds of millions of tons of carbon from the atmosphere each year. Photo Credit: Charlie Shoemaker for Conservation International.

It should be noted that the iPhone 12 series and all the old iPhone models currently being sold off the shelves since October 2020 come with reduced packaging, almost 70 per cent less compared to the products sold previously.

Must read | Apple supplier partners including in India pledge to use 100% renewable energy

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