If Apple can do it then its suppliers can do it. That seems to be the message that Apple is sending out.
On April 9 the company announced its global facilities are now powered with 100% clean energy. Clean energy is powering retail stores, offices, data centers and co-located facilities in 43 countries — including the United States, the United Kingdom, China and India.
And the company wants to keep moving its suppliers toward the same goal announcing on April 9, that nine additional manufacturing partners have committed to power all of their Apple production with 100% clean energy, bringing the total number of supplier commitments to 23.
“We’re committed to leaving the world better than we found it," said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. "After years of hard work we’re proud to have reached this significant milestone. We’re going to keep pushing the boundaries of what is possible with the materials in our products, the way we recycle them, our facilities and our work with suppliers to establish new creative and forward-looking sources of renewable energy because we know the future depends on it.”
Altogether, clean energy from supplier projects helped avoid over 1.5 million metric tons of greenhouse gases from being emitted in 2017 — the equivalent of taking more than 300,000 cars off the road. In addition, over 85 suppliers have registered for Apple’s Clean Energy Portal, an online platform that Apple developed to help suppliers identify commercially viable renewable energy solutions in regions around the world.
New supplier commitments include:
-- Arkema, a designer of high-performance bio-based polymers, which manufactures for Apple at its facilities in France, the United States and China.
--DSM Engineering Plastics, which manufactures polymers and compounds in the Netherlands, Taiwan and China that are used in many Apple products, including connectors and cables.
-- ECCO Leather, the first soft goods supplier to commit to 100 percent clean energy for its Apple production. The leather that ECCO produces for Apple is of European origin, with tanning and cutting occurring at facilities in the Netherlands and China.
--Finisar, a US industry-leading producer of optical communication components and vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), which power some of Apple’s most popular new features like Face ID, Portrait mode selfies and Animoji.
-- Luxshare-ICT, a supplier of accessories for Apple products. Luxshare-ICT’s production for Apple is predominantly located in Eastern China.
--Pegatron, which assembles a number of products, including iPhone, at its two factories in Shanghai and Kunshan, China.
-- Quadrant, a supplier of magnets and magnetic components in a number of Apple’s products.
-- Quanta Computer, one of the first Mac suppliers to commit to 100 percent renewable energy for Apple production.
-- Taiyo Ink Mfg. Co., which produces solder masks for printed circuit boards in Japan.