Apple Pushes Suppliers to Adopt 100% RE Targets

Tech giant Apple has nearly doubled the number of suppliers it has convinced to adopt 100% renewable energy targets, bringing the total to date to 44, the company announced in a release last week.

Apple “hit its 100% renewables target for its own operations in April of last year,” Greentech Media reports. “Now it’s expanding to what it calls ‘Scope 3’ emissions: those incorporated in a company’s value chain,” including the manufacturing that accounts for 74% of its carbon footprint, according to the company’s estimates.

“We’ve made it a priority to hold our suppliers accountable to the same environmental standards we observe and hope that our collaboration will show others what is possible,” said Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives.

“We are now moving into a world where corporates are enabling their supply chain and their partners and customers,” said Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables senior solar analyst Colin Smith.

“If these big corporates start taking strong leadership positions, they could be one of, if not the, driving force for renewables in a lot of markets,” Smith added. “If Apple, Microsoft ,and Amazon Web Services start lobbying for laws that enable more renewables, we could see huge changes happen in a short time.”

Greentech notes that “large corporate and industrial customers like Apple are now a driving force in the renewables market,” procuring 2.9 gigawatts last year in the U.S. alone, according to WoodMac data. And “data on Apple’s lobbying from OpenSecrets shows the company did indeed spend millions in 2017 and 2018 to lobby around issues like efficiency standards and electricity policy.”

The industry newsletter adds that “pushing forward policy is also already in Jackson’s wheelhouse. For several years of the Obama administration, she served as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.”