110 of Apple’s manufacturing partners, including ones in India, are moving to 100% renewable energy

This energy storage project is a part of Apple’s efforts to become carbon neutral for all its supply chains and products by 2030.

Apple unveiled its plans of becoming carbon neutral across its entire business, manufacturing supply chain, product life cycle in July last year and the aim is to accomplish all this by 2030. (MacRumours )

Apple has announced today that over 110 of its manufacturing partners, globally, are going to move to 100% renewable energy for the production of Apple's devices. With this, nearly eight gigawatts of planned clean energy is set to come online.

Once these manufacturing partners move to 100% renewable energy it is going to avoid over 15 million metric tons of CO2e annually — that is the equivalent of taking more than 3.4 million cars off the road each year. Besides this, there is also going to be a major energy storage project in California that is going to pilot new solutions for renewable infrastructure.

“We are firmly committed to helping our suppliers become carbon neutral by 2030 and are thrilled that companies who've joined us span industries and countries around the world, including Germany, China, the US, India, and France," said Lisa Jackson, Apple's vice president for Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives.

“In a year like no other, Apple continued to work with a global network of colleagues, companies, and advocates — including the communities most impacted by climate change — to help further our efforts to make everything we do a force for good in people's lives and the environment,” Jackson added.

Apple unveiled its plans of becoming carbon neutral across its entire business, manufacturing supply chain, product life cycle in July last year and the aim is to accomplish all this by 2030. This means that by 2030, every Apple device sold will have net zero climate impact.

Since then, Apple has increased the number of its suppliers who are going to transition to renewable energy.

The company has already become carbon neutral for its global corporate operations and they also shared new details about a $4.7 billion spent in Green Bonds to support environmental projects around the world.

Of the 110 manufacturing partners who are currently a part of Apple's Supplier Clean Energy Program, there is Europe's DSM Engineering Materials' wind power purchase agreement that is bringing new clean energy to the grid in the Netherlands, and STMicroelectronics's solar carport in Morocco that is supporting regional energy production. Also, companies like Solvay are now expanding their use of renewable energy to their broader operations after joining the program five years ago.

In the US, Alpha and Omega Semiconductor, Marian, The Chemours Company, and Trinseo have all recently committed to the program. In China, more than 15 suppliers have joined the program in the past six months and a number of Apple's suppliers with operations in India have also come on board recently, including Yuto and CCL.

In many markets where Apple operates, suppliers have limited options to access clean energy. They have managed to fix that issue with China at least with the China Clean Energy Fund. This fund enables Apple and its suppliers to invest in clean energy projects totaling more than one gigawatt of renewable energy in China. In other countries Apple connects its suppliers with opportunities to buy renewable energy directly from project developers and utilities.

Parallely, Apple is constructing one of the largest battery projects in the country, California Flats, which is a grid-scale energy storage project capable of storing 240 megawatt-hours of energy. That's enough energy to power over 7,000 homes for one day. This project supports the company's 130-megawatt solar farm that provides all of its renewable energy in California.

Apple's carbon footprint has decreased by 40% and it has avoided more than 15 million metric tons of emissions through initiatives to use low-carbon materials, drive energy efficiency, and switch to clean energy.