Apple's global facilities are now powered by 100 percent clean energy in what CEO Tim Cook has called a significant milestone for the tech giant.
In a statement Monday, the business said that nine more of its manufacturing partners had pledged to power all of their "Apple production" with clean energy. This increases the number of such supplier commitments to 23, although Apple uses hundreds of major suppliers. Cook said that Cupertino-headquartered Apple was "committed to leaving the world better than we found it" and was proud of the achievement.
"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," Cook added.
Apple said that, together with partners, it was building renewable energy projects around the world. At the moment, it has 25 operational renewable energy projects globally, amounting to 626 megawatts (MW) of generation capacity. In 2017 alone, 286 MW of solar photovoltaic generation came online. Currently, a further 15 facilities are being built.
For several years now, the business has been making a concerted effort to green its operations. Since 2014, for example, all its data centers have been powered by renewable energy.
Making sure that its facilities are powered by clean energy is a complex process for Apple. In April 2017, it published an Environmental Responsibility Report covering the fiscal year of 2016. In that report, Apple said that, where feasible, it generated renewable energy by building its own facilities.
When it's not possible to build its own sites, Apple said it entered into renewable energy purchase contracts that support new and local projects. Other options at its disposal include procuring renewable energy credits connected to recently built projects.
Apple is among a number of major global businesses turning to renewable sources of energy. Last October, for instance, Amazon announced that its biggest wind farm to date was operational.
The business said that Amazon Wind Farm Texas would add over 1 million megawatt hours of clean energy to the grid annually. The facility, which is located in Scurry County, has over 100 turbines, each standing more than 300-feet tall and with a rotor diameter over double the wingspan of a Boeing 787.
