IT House reported on March 24 that Apple plans to make the iPhone SE 3 phone using low-carbon and carbon-free aluminum produced by an innovative smelting process created by its $4.7 billion green bond investment.
Since Apple's green bond program was launched in 2019, the company has invested $4.7 billion in research projects so far. Now, the work has produced new smelting technologies that Apple says will produce aluminum without producing any direct carbon emissions.
"Apple is committed to making the planet a better place than we found it to be, and our green bonds are a key tool in moving environmental efforts forward," Lisa Jackson, Apple's vice president of environmental, policy and social initiatives, said in a statement.
She continued: "Our investments are advancing the breakthrough technologies needed to reduce the carbon footprint of the materials we use, even using only recyclable and renewable materials in our products to protect the planet's limited resources." ”
Apple is buying aluminum from Elysis, which it has described as "the world's first direct carbon-free aluminum smelting process technology support." In what it calls "the first commercially pure primary aluminum [manufactured on an industrial scale]," the process produces oxygen instead of greenhouse gases.
Research into the process was aided by Apple's original investment partnership with Alcoa, Rio Tinto, and the governments of Canada and Quebec in 2018. This work was used in the production of the MacBook Pro 16-inch.
As an extension of this original work, Elysis produced new aluminium from hydropower at its industrial research and development center in Quebec.
"This is the first time aluminum has been produced at this commercial purity, without any greenhouse gas emissions and on an industrial scale," said Vincent Christ, CEO of Elysis. "The sale to Apple confirms the market's interest in aluminium produced using our breakthrough ELYSIS carbon-free melting technology."
"Today's announcement is a testament to the ability of Elysis, a joint venture between Alcoa and Rio Tinto, to turn an idea into reality," he continued. "We are excited to be working alongside Apple, a development that has the potential to make lasting changes in the way aluminium is produced."
Apple says the new process builds on the company's progress in reducing the carbon impact of product manufacturing.
And its green bonds — "one of the largest in the private sector" — are continuing to be used to develop renewable energy. This includes Apple's data center in Vyborg, Denmark, which is powered by "the world's largest onshore wind turbine."