Over the next year, Apple will expand the Viborg data center’s operations and build new infrastructure to capture excess heat energy for the city’s long-term benefit. As with its data centers, all Apple offices and retail stores across 44 countries have sourced 100 percent clean energy since 2018, including through Green Bond proceeds.
Investments from Apple’s $4.7 billion in Green Bonds have helped jump-start the development of new low-carbon manufacturing and recycling technologies, the company announced today. Apple has issued three Green Bonds since 2016, with projects showcasing how the investments can reduce global emissions and bring clean power to communities around the world.
As part of this work, Apple is purchasing direct carbon-free aluminum following a major advancement in smelting technology to reduce emissions. The aluminum is the first to be manufactured at industrial scale outside of a laboratory without creating any direct carbon emissions during the smelting process. The company intends for the material to be introduced in the iPhone SE.
Become carbon neutral across the supply chain
In total, Apple has issued $4.7 billion to accelerate progress toward the company’s goal to become carbon neutral across its supply chain by 2030. Its first two bonds in 2016 and 2017 are now fully allocated. The 2019 Green Bond is supporting 50 projects, including the low-carbon aluminum breakthrough. These 50 projects will mitigate or offset 2,883,000 metric tons of CO2e, install nearly 700 megawatts of renewable energy capacity around the world, and promote new recycling research and development.
Apple continues to use its Green Bonds — which are among the largest in the private sector — to develop new sources of renewable energy. More than $500 million of the company’s 2019 Green Bond proceeds have been allocated to clean energy projects. This includes the world’s largest onshore wind turbines, which power the company’s data center in Viborg, Denmark, with all surplus energy going back into the Danish grid.
