As global climate crisis continues to intensify, there is growing urgency for big tech companies to take substantive actions, like Apple continues to increase investment in clean energy and water around the world.

The Cupertino HQ-ed company has hit new milestones while expanding clean energy around the world, which will help achieve the Apple 2030 goal to be carbon neutral across its entire value chain by the end of this decade.

More than 18 gigawatts of clean electricity now power Apple’s global operations and manufacturing supply chain. In other words, it’s more than triple the amount in 2020.

Electricity (to manufacture Apple products and to charge and power them) is an element that makes up the largest portion of Apple’s comprehensive carbon footprint. As part of Apple 2030, the company is encouraging its global suppliers to use clean electricity and become carbon neutral across all their Apple-related operations. Over 300 suppliers — representing 95 per cent of Apple’s direct manufacturing spend — have led the way in the transition so far, resulting in 16.5 gigawatts of renewable energy online in Apple’s supply chain today. This generated over 25.5 million megawatt-hours of clean energy across the supply chain last year, avoiding over 18.5 million metric tons of carbon emissions.

Take the case of the company’s growing corporate operations in India. Apple has embarked on a joint venture with renewable developer CleanMax to invest in a portfolio of six rooftop solar projects with a total size of 14.4 megawatts. The added capacity provides a local solution to power Apple’s offices, its two retail stores in the country, and other operations in India.

What about water needs and issues? Apple aims to advance water security through collaboration across the manufacturing supply chain and long-term partnerships to restore ecosystems, address community water needs, and improve climate resilience of watersheds. The company has started fresh water replenishment work in some of the highest-stress locations where the company operates — including Northern and Southern California, Arizona’s Colorado River Basin, and, closer home, in the states of Telangana and Maharashtra.

Quite a few milestones have already been achieved, like last year the company achieved its target for 100 per cent water replenishment for the company’s corporate operations in India through its ongoing work with Uptime Catalyst Facility. In 2023, Apple’s support provided 23 million gallons of clean, affordable drinking water to communities from over 300 water kiosks run by local entrepreneurs in the performance-based programme.

There is also commitment to smart water supervision across the business. In 2021, Apple’s data centre in Prineville, Oregon, became the first-ever data centre certified to the Alliance for Water Stewardship International Water Stewardship Standard. Since then, Apple has certified four additional data centres to the Standard and supported 20 supplier sites in achieving certification as well. In the past year, seven supplier sites in southern India and over 20 supplier sites near Shanghai and Suzhou in China have participated in water stewardship training with AWS and others in the industry.

“We’re racing toward our ambitious Apple 2030 climate goal while taking on the long-term work to transform electrical grids and restore watersheds to build a cleaner future for all,” said Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice-president of environment, policy, and social initiatives.