April 14, 2016 — Apple published its annual Environmental Progress Report today. In response, Greenpeace USA Senior IT Analyst Gary Cook said:
“Apple’s latest Environmental Progress Report continues to set a high bar for its environmental reporting, particularly on energy transparency, which is critical to demonstrate they are making progress towards its goal to be 100% renewably powered. Other companies — most notably Amazon, whose opaque approach to environmental reporting risks alienating its customers — would do well to follow Apple’s example. However, its weak approach to paper and packaging sustainability is disappointing.
“While Apple’s increased transparency and leadership on renewable energy for its own operations should be applauded, the significant spike in emissions reported from its supply chain is causing Apple’s overall carbon emissions to increase, 11% just in the last year. Apple’s new commitment to deploy 4 GW of renewable energy by 2020 attached to its supply chain is a significant step to tackle this challenge, and one that we hope will inspire other major electronic manufacturers to follow suit.
“In stark contrast to their energy commitments, Apple’s new standard for sourcing sustainable paper and packaging is disappointingly weak. Apple appears to equally value the industry leading Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standard and the much weaker Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), which includes the controversial Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) label. Both PEFC and SFI have weak criteria and inferior audit requirements, greenwashing controversial loggers that are fueling forest destruction in critical forest ecosystems and not adequately safeguarding the right of Indigenous peoples and traditional forest-dependent communities. Apple’s new fiber standard falls short compared to other large global companies and should be strengthened in keeping with the high standard Apple has set on renewable energy.”
Contact: Joe Smyth, Greenpeace Communications, [email protected]
