IF APPLE IS A GREEN MINDED COMPANY, WHY WON’T IT SAY WHERE IT GETS ITS ELECTRICITY?
I like me some green apples. But I guess it’s too bad that the Apple company logo is not only red, it’s now making people who believe in sustainability seeing red. But I guess with all the pay-for play politics these days, none of us should be surprised. If you are old enough to remember the original He-Man cartoon series, you’re also old enough to remember Apple the company touting its dedication to environmentalism as much as possible. Literally every product launch was an opportunity to tout its then (or merely alleged) green bonafides. But now? Now we should be asking a very simple question: where is the Apple company getting its electricity from?
NEW RULES WOULD FORCE COMPANIES LIKE APPLE TO PEEK BEHIND THEIR ELECTRIC CURTAIN
Yeah. The answer’s not good. Long gone are the days when robots recycled iPhone parts and some proportion of every Macbook was recycled material. Because now, Apple has joined the chorus of companies which sings a complaining dirge about how the now 25 year old Greenhouse Gas Protocol is going to hurt their business. You may know it from its acronym, the GHGP, which is the literal standard for measuring corporate greenhouse gas emissions and then holding them accountable for their polluting footprint. While Apple is certainly not alone, it’s not a good look for anyone to skip out on reporting their carbon footprint. And let’s face it, AI servers, which everyone is investing in, use a LOT of electricity.
Related:
APPLE MIGHT NOT LIKE THEIR PUBLIC CARBON FOOTPRINT IF COAL-FIRED ELECTRICITY IS A BIG SOURCE
But timing is always key to understanding what’s going on. And the timing now is that the GHGP is looking to update how they measure corporate emissions, in particular “how corporations measure emissions from purchased or acquired electricity, steam, heat and cooling.” In other words, if Apple is buying a LOT of dirty electricity, they’d really rather prefer you not know about it. Especially as their numbers, as well as a lot of other companies, will tell us a lot about how much more quickly we need to transition to renewables. And it was only two months ago that the Trump admin greatly lowered the rules for limiting mercury and heavy metals from coal-fired power plants.
I guess Apple would much prefer not telling you how much poison electricity they’re buying.
