Apple announced today that Apple's $4.7 billion investment in green bonds is a powerful boost to the development of new technologies for low-carbon production and recycling.
Apple issued a total of $4.7 billion in green bonds to accelerate the company's goal of becoming carbon neutral across the supply chain by the end of 2030. Funds received from the first two bonds issued in 2016 and 2017 have now been allocated.
The green bonds issued in 2019 were used to support 50 projects, including breakthroughs in low-carbon aluminum metal processes. The 50 projects will mitigate or offset 2,883,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent emissions, generate nearly 700 megawatts of installed renewable energy capacity around the world, and facilitate research and development of new recycling technologies.
As part of this work, Apple will purchase direct carbon-free aluminum metals, the product of major advances in smelting technology that help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This is the first time that carbon-free aluminum metal has been produced on an industrial scale outside of the laboratory, without any direct carbon emissions during the smelting process. The company is preparing to introduce this material to the iPhone SE model.
ELYSIS, a carbon-free aluminum smelting process, previously announced that it produced the first commercially pure primary aluminum on an industrial scale for use in Apple products. This breakthrough technology allows the smelting process to no longer produce greenhouse gases, but instead produces oxygen. This marks a milestone in the aluminium production process, one of the most widely used metals in the world.
Apple will purchase the world's first commercially available purity low-carbon aluminum metal from ELYSIS and plans to use it on the iPhone SE model. The aluminium is produced by ELYSIS using hydropower at its Industrial Research and Development Centre in Quebec, Canada. Apple's investment partnership with Alcoa, Rio Tinto and the governments of Canada and Quebec has been investing in a partnership since 2018, and this revolutionary advance in the aluminium production process is the result of this collaboration. In 2019, Apple purchased the first commercial-grade aluminum metal produced by the partnership for the production of the 16-inch MacBook Pro.
Apple has made significant progress in reducing the carbon impact of aluminum used in its products and other metals. Today's milestone further advances the process. By switching to recycled aluminum and aluminum smelted using hydropower instead of fossil fuels, the company has reduced its aluminium-related carbon emissions by nearly 70 percent since 2015. The entire iPad series, including the new iPad Air, and the latest MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac mini, and Apple Watch cases are all made of 100% recycled aluminum.
Apple has been issuing green bonds since 2016 for the development of new renewable energy resources. More than $500 million of the company's 2019 green bond issuance was invested in clean energy projects.
Over the next year, Apple will expand the operations of viborg data centers and build new infrastructure to collect the remaining heat energy for the long-term benefit of the city. Like Apple's data centers, since 2018, Apple has used 100% clean energy in all offices and retail stores in 4 countries, and green bond funds have contributed to this.
In 2021, Apple used the green bonds issued in 2019 to help support its suppliers' clean energy initiatives, including investment in training and resources, helping to guide suppliers to switch to clean energy, and conducting policy advocacy activities in Japan, Vietnam, and South Korea to help build cost-effective renewable energy markets. 75 production partners from 24 countries have now committed to using 100% renewable resources in the production of Apple products, an important milestone in ensuring that every Apple product achieves net zero climate impact.