Apple is expanding its environmental protection and renewable energy push in China, announcing that it has partnered with World Wildlife Fund to protect up to a million acres of sustainable forest land in China to produce the fiber used in Apple packaging and products. This adds to the 36,000 acres of working forests the company is working to conserve in the U.S. with the help of The Conservation Fund.
Apple is also partnering with several Chinese power companies to create two more solar farms. The company’s first solar project in China, started only three weeks ago, will produce enough power to run all of Apple’s corporate offices and retail stores in the country. The additional solar farms will generate up to 80 million kilowatt hours of additional clean energy that Apple can feed back into the Chinese power grid, bringing Apple closer to its goal of running its operations on 100 percent renewable energy.
With the company sitting at 87 percent now, CEO Tim Cook acknowledged the large scale of the task — especially since much of the environmental fallout related to Apple products comes from third-party suppliers out of the company’s direct control — but doubled down on the company’s commitment to achieving it. “This won’t happen overnight — in fact it will take years — but it’s important work that has to happen, and Apple is in a unique position to take the initiative toward this ambitious goal. It is a responsibility we accept.
