Apple’s Promise for 2030

Inequity and climate change are not separate challenges, and they will not abide separate solutions. My work — as former Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and now as Vice President of Apple’s Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives — is motivated by a truth that defines life in virtually every American community: there is no justice without environmental justice.

When we named environmental justice a top priority for the EPA in 2009, we took our lead from communities who’ve spent decades fighting to recenter environmental progress as a civil rights issue that is quite literally lived and breathed. Decades of research have shown that climate change and pollution disproportionately hurt poor communities and communities of color, deepening inequality in the U.S. and around the world.

Companies now looking to join the struggle for justice shouldn’t overlook environmental justice or defer climate action. Apple is not new to this work, but our environmental efforts have new urgency in this historic moment.

Since our carbon emissions peaked at 38.4 million metric tons in 2015, we’ve managed to reduce our carbon footprint by 35%. As of 2018, every Apple office, Retail store, and data center has run on 100% clean energy. And today, our facilities and corporate operations worldwide are carbon neutral. A handful of companies have vowed to follow suit, but the benchmark we’ve set is no longer enough. Today, the real measure of corporate responsibility is more comprehensive — including not only emissions from corporate offices, but also from supply chains, the shipping of components and products, and from our customers’ use of the products we make.

It’s in that spirit that we’re beginning a new chapter in our environmental journey, one that starts with a promise. By 2030, Apple will be 100% carbon neutral. Our comprehensive carbon footprint will net to zero. And we’re sharing a detailed plan for how we’ll get there — so that companies large and small can not only see why we’re doing this, but how we’re doing it.

The choice between a healthy planet and good business strategy has always been a false one, and we’ve proved that with a company that runs on 100% clean energy and a supply chain transitioning to do the same. Apple has one of the broadest and most complex supply chains in the world. If our manufacturing partners can do this, then others can too.

We won’t reach our goal if we’re not transparent about where we’re starting. In 2020, every company should provide an honest accounting of their carbon footprint — one that includes their supply chain, operations, and emissions from the use of their products. Anything less is a sham.

We want our environmental journey to also be a force for justice, so a key component of our plan is an all-new Impact Accelerator for minority-owned businesses — so that our investments in renewable energy or carbon capture can also be investments in economic opportunity. The accelerator is part of our $100 million Racial Equity and Justice Initiative to expand opportunities for Black and Brown people in the areas of education, economic equality and criminal justice reform.

To business leaders in every industry: the eyes of our children are on us.

To business leaders in every industry: the eyes of our children are on us. We can’t talk about equality without curbing pollution, or confine our climate efforts to corporate emissions when our real impacts stretch deep into the supply chain. We have a generational opportunity to help build a greener and more just economy, one where we develop whole new industries in the pursuit of giving the next generation a planet worth calling home.

Let’s not miss this moment. Let’s resist the simple urge to return to ‘business as usual.’ Instead, let’s create a whole new way of doing business, and in doing so, leave a legacy that will make us all proud.