Apple has announced a significant expansion of its environmental projects in Australia and New Zealand. The company is launching new renewable energy and conservation efforts as it pushes toward its ambitious goal of being carbon neutral across its entire footprint by 2030. This latest move focuses on building new clean energy sources and investing in nature-based solutions.
The centerpiece of the announcement in Australia is a new solar project under construction in Lancaster, Victoria. Through a long-term agreement with European Energy, Apple is helping to build an 80-megawatt solar farm that is expected to come online next year. This is just the beginning, as Apple plans to develop multiple projects that will contribute over 1 million megawatt-hours of new clean electricity to Australia’s grid annually by 2030.
“By 2030, we want our users to know that all the energy it takes to charge their iPhone or power their Mac is matched with clean electricity.” –Lisa Jackson, Apple’s VP of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives.
Additionally, Apple has provided follow-up updates for other environmentally related projects. Across the Tasman, Apple is also investing in New Zealand through its innovative Restore Fund. In partnership with Climate Asset Management, this project will protect and restore 8,600 hectares of forestland. This includes sustainably managing working redwood forests while also conserving 3,000 hectares of native forest, a move aimed at improving biodiversity and capturing more carbon from the atmosphere. This isn’t the first Restore Fund project in the region. Furthermore, Apple’s restoration goals don’t stop there as Apple’s Queensland project, is converting 1,700 hectares of degraded sugarcane farmlands into a flourishing macadamia orchard with over 800,000 trees.
These individual projects all tie back to Apple’s overarching 2030 goal. The company is aggressively working to reduce its global emissions by 75 percent compared to 2015 levels—and is already more than 60 percent of the way there. For the remaining emissions, Apple is investing in high-quality, nature-based carbon removal projects like the ones in Australia and New Zealand.
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