Apple’s Green Bonds support low-carbon aluminium technology
Apple’s USD4.7bn investments in Green Bonds have helped to reduce climate gas emissions and bring clean power to communities around the world.
As part of this work, Apple is purchasing direct carbon-free aluminium following a major advancement in smelting technology to reduce emissions. The aluminium is the first to be manufactured at industrial scale outside of a laboratory without creating any direct carbon emissions during the smelting process. The company intends for the material to be introduced in the iphone SE.
Apple's goal - to be carbon neutral by 2030
“Apple is committed to leaving the planet better than we found it, and our Green Bonds are a key tool to drive our environmental efforts forward,” said Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice-president of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives. “Our investments are advancing the breakthrough technologies needed to reduce the carbon footprint of the materials we use, even as we move to using only recyclable and renewable materials across our products to conserve the earth’s finite resources.”
In total, Apple has issued USD4.7bn to accelerate progress toward the company’s goal to become carbon neutral across its supply chain by 2030. Its first two bonds in 2016 and 2017 are now fully allocated. The 2019 Green Bond is supporting 50 projects, including the low-carbon aluminium breakthrough. These 50 projects will mitigate or offset 2,883,000 t of CO2e, install nearly 700 megawatts of renewable energy capacity around the world, and promote new recycling research and development.
Innovation in ‘green’ aluminium smelting
Elysis, the company behind the world’s first direct carbon-free aluminium smelting process, is producing the first commercial-purity primary aluminium at industrial scale for use in Apple products. The breakthrough technology produces oxygen instead of the climate gas CO2, and the achievement marks a major milestone in the production of aluminium, one of the world’s most widely used metals. Apple will purchase this first batch of commercial-purity, low-carbon aluminium from Elysis for intended use in the iphone SE. This aluminium was produced by Elysis at its industrial R&D centre in Quebec using hydropower.
Apple helped spur this revolutionary advancement in aluminium production through an investment partnership with Alcoa, Rio Tinto and the governments of Canada and Quebec that began in 2018. The following year, Apple purchased the first-ever commercial batch of aluminium resulting from the joint venture, using it in the production of the 16-inch Mac Book Pro.
ipad lineup uses 100 % recycled aluminium enclosure
Apple has made significant progress in reducing the carbon impact of aluminium and other metals found in its products. By switching to recycled aluminium and primary aluminium using hydroelectricity instead of fossil fuels, the company’s carbon emissions associated with aluminium have decreased by nearly 70 % since 2015, says the company. Every model in the ipad lineup along with the latest Mac Books, Mac mini and Apple Watch, are made with a 100 % recycled aluminium enclosure.
Rio Tinto takes another step towards its climate goal of halving its carbon emissions this decade by agreeing to obtain all electricity from renewable power.
Several members of the London-based International Aluminium Institute (IAI) have signed on to the organization’s initiative to meet a new GHG emissions reduction target for all its member companies.
Century Aluminum has been selected by the US Department of Energy (DoE) to receive USD500m investment to build a new ‘green’ aluminium smelter to accelerate industrial decarbonisation.