A planet‑size plan.

Apple is carbon neutral.
And by 2030, all of our products will be too.

We're designing the world's most innovative products from recycled materials. Soon we'll make them all with clean energy and no carbon footprint. Some say it’s impossible. At Apple, we think different.

See the steps we’re taking.

iPhone 12 Pro in its packaging

Lighter on the planet. Right out of the box.

Durable, energy-efficient devices started a design revolution. Using low-carbon materials and processes is the next step in reducing the footprint of every Apple product in the world.

Design

Lighter on the planet. Right out of the box.

Low-Carbon Design

To make the biggest impact on our carbon footprint, we focus our efforts on the most carbon-intensive components — and then we reduce their footprint. By redesigning, reengineering, and rethinking the materials and energy that Apple products use, we can further decrease the carbon emissions generated from making them. Since 2008 the average energy consumed by Apple products has decreased by 73%. When you multiply these savings by all the Apple devices in the world, you can see the difference it makes.

Product Longevity

Your device is designed to be long lasting. It’s made of durable materials that are heavily tested in our Reliability Testing Lab. Your device is also supported by ongoing OS updates and backed by a network of more than 5000 Apple-certified repair locations you can count on if something unexpected happens. Because the longer you use your device, the better it is for the planet.

Smarter Chemistry

Some chemicals last forever and can cause harm to people and the environment. That’s why we’re conducting industry-leading work to map, test, and switch to safer substances. All Apple products are tested to evaluate their compliance with our list of regulated substances. We’re in the process of collecting the chemical composition of all the materials in our products to further assess their effect on human health and the environment. So far, we’ve collected data for over 45,000 parts and materials from more than 900 suppliers — and counting.

The 11-inch iPad Pro is 69% more efficient than the ENERGY STAR requirement.1
Our Reliability Testing Lab conducts over 100 rigorous tests that simulate real-world conditions to maximize product durability and longevity.
Apple has received an A+ Mind the Store rating two years in a row for the way we ensure the chemical safety of our products.
MacBook Pro surrounded by aluminum shavings

Completely recycled. Every bit as advanced.

We’re committed to one day sourcing 100% recycled and renewable materials across all of our products and packaging. Because making doesn’t have to mean taking from the planet.

Sourcing

Completely recycled. Every bit as advanced.

Material Profiling

Our products use many materials. To determine which to tackle first, we created Material Impact Profiles. They break down the environmental, social, and global supply impacts of 45 materials in our products. As a result, we’re prioritizing 14 materials that would benefit from transitioning to recycled or renewable sources first: aluminum, cobalt, copper, glass, gold, lithium, paper, plastics, rare earth elements, steel, tantalum, tin, tungsten, and zinc. As we close the loop on each material, we’ll continue updating the list until we’ve reached our goal to only make, not take.

View the Material Impact Profiles white paper (PDF)

Material Innovation

We aim to make the best products in the world with the highest-quality materials. But sometimes the scrap materials available don’t meet our high standards for purity and performance. So we invent new methods to address those issues. Like developing a custom aluminum alloy for the enclosures of MacBook Air, Mac mini, iPad, and Apple Watch that is 100% recycled but doesn't compromise quality. And to prove that 100% recycled tin is just as functional as virgin tin, we tested it and then used it in the solder of the main logic boards in our most popular devices.

Improved Packaging

Packaging is important to our environmental impact. We’re working to eliminate plastics, increase recycled content, and reduce our packaging overall. When we switched from plastic trays to molded-fiber alternatives in iPhone 7 packaging, it led to the majority of our packaging being fiber-based today. We also transitioned all plastic shopping bags in our retail stores to 100% fiber bags made mostly of recycled content. Continuing to improve our packaging will help change the planet for good.

Paper Supply

We have successfully closed the loop on our paper supply chain. Since 2017, 100% of the wood fiber in our paper and packaging comes from recycled or responsible sources.2 When virgin fiber is needed, we source wood from responsibly managed forests. To ensure that the world’s supply of responsible paper is here to stay, we’ve partnered with The Conservation Fund and World Wildlife Fund to protect and improve the management of over one million acres of working forests in the United States and China. And when forests thrive, so do local communities and wildlife.

iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max are the first-ever smartphones made with 100% recycled rare earth elements in the Taptic Engine.3
Our use of low-carbon and recycled aluminum reduced our carbon footprint by 4.3 million metric tons in 2019.
We’ve reduced plastics in our packaging by 58% in four years.
The arm of Apple's disassembly robot, Daisy

Inside an iPhone lives a new iPhone.

This is Daisy. One of the robots we built to recover useful materials from our devices and give them a second life.

Recovery

Inside an iPhone lives a new iPhone.

Material Recovery Lab

We don’t believe a lack of technology should hold us back from conserving resources. Our Material Recovery Lab in Texas focuses on optimizing recycling practices, improving disassembly, and advancing research and development of the next generation of recycling technologies. This work is so important because more recycled materials mean less mining from the earth.

Daisy and Dave

We created our own disassembly robot, Daisy, to remove and sort components so we can recover more materials at a higher quality than traditional recyclers can. Dave, our new robot, is helping to advance the recovery of rare earth elements, steel, and tungsten from disassembled components and scrap. Through programs like AppleCare and Apple Trade In, these robots are working together to recover more materials than ever before.

Apple Trade In

Apple Trade In is a simple way to exchange your old device for credit toward a new one or an Apple Store Gift Card. If your device isn’t eligible for credit, we’ll recycle it for free.4 The aluminum recovered from iPhone trade-ins became part of the 100% recycled aluminum enclosure of MacBook Air. And the cobalt we recover from iPhone batteries is used to make new batteries. As a result, your trade-in helps reduce the amount of materials that need to be mined from the earth.

Daisy is able to recover materials from 15 different iPhone models at a rate of 200 devices per hour.
Altogether, our trade-in programs directed 11.1 million devices to new users in 2019.
In fiscal year 2019, we helped divert more than 47,000 metric tons of electronic waste from landfills.
Wind turbines on grassy hills

Clean energy is no longer optional.

Our products will be made entirely with clean energy by 2030. That means transitioning hundreds of our manufacturing suppliers to 100% renewable sources of electricity.

Manufacturing

Clean energy is no longer optional.

Renewable Electricity

About half of our carbon footprint is from the electricity used in manufacturing, making it crucial to help our suppliers transition to renewable electricity. This is a monumental feat, but we’re making progress. More and more suppliers are committed to using gigawatts upon gigawatts of clean energy. We’ve also built partnerships to invest nearly $300 million in the China Clean Energy Fund to help develop more renewable energy projects. All of this work is leading to our goal to have all suppliers running on renewable electricity by 2030.

Policy Action

Clean energy benefits not only our suppliers, but also entire electricity grids and the countries they’re in. So we actively support government policies that put a price on carbon and create cost-effective renewable electricity markets for suppliers and their communities. We believe saving the environment by transitioning to renewable energy requires everyone to take action — and policy plays an instrumental role.

Zero Waste Program

In 2015 we launched a Zero Waste Program for suppliers, which provides them with onsite support to eliminate waste going to landfills through reduction, reuse, and recycling. The aim is to divert 100% of waste from landfills. We started by focusing on our highest waste producers: final assembly facilities. In 2018 this helped us achieve 100% zero waste certifications for all final assembly facilities across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, AirPods, and HomePod.5 In 2019 we expanded the program’s reach by adding Apple TV final assembly sites. We will continue to tackle waste in our other facilities until we reach our global goal of zero.

Over 70 suppliers have committed to 100% renewable electricity for Apple production, of which 2.7 gigawatts is operational today.
The majority of iPhone final assembly facilities have committed to a 20% energy use reduction by the end of 2020.
Our supplier Zero Waste Program has diverted 1.3 million metric tons of waste from landfills since 2015 — enough to fill over 100,000 garbage trucks.
Apple Store interior

Apple Inc.
Officially in the green.

Apple’s stores, offices, and data centers are powered by 100% renewable electricity. Now all of our operations, from commute to business travel, are carbon neutral too.

Operations

Apple Inc. Officially in the green.

Renewable Electricity

All of Apple’s offices, stores, and data centers in 44 countries are powered by 100% renewable electricity sources. Most of that electricity comes from projects we helped create, making our renewable electricity investments among the largest from a non-energy company. When we need more, we buy renewable electricity from nearby markets or local utility companies. This big transition to renewable electricity, along with our other environmental efforts, led to our receiving a United Nations 2019 Global Climate Action Award. As we continue to grow, we’ll continue running on clean energy.

Data Centers

Data centers are buildings filled with servers that help run your favorite Apple apps and services. But it takes a lot of energy to send your iMessages and keep your personal information up to date with iCloud. In fact, data centers are our largest corporate energy loads. We take pride in ensuring that all of our buildings conserve energy and water, reduce waste, and use 100% renewable electricity.

Corporate Emissions

Employee commute and business travel account for about 2% of our carbon footprint. But we recognize that emissions from the transportation we use to get to work and conduct business are challenging to avoid. So we’ve focused our efforts on covering these emissions through responsible carbon-offset projects. As of April 1, 2020, the commute and business travel of more than 132,000 Apple employees are covered, making our entire corporate footprint officially carbon neutral. And yes, this includes our Apple Maps vehicle fleet too.

We’ve reduced our carbon emissions from operations by 71% since 2011 — even though our energy use has grown by more than four times.
About 83% of the renewable electricity Apple uses comes from projects we helped create, resulting in direct ownership of over 1.2 gigawatts of clean energy.

We’re investing
in some wild ideas.

As we reduce emissions to as low as we can, we invest in Earth’s natural carbon removers like forests, wetlands, and grasslands to capture what’s left.

Carbon Removal

We’re investing in some wild ideas.

Our Carbon Solutions Fund

Science tells us that we need to be carbon neutral as a planet by 2050. And the climate change threat we’re facing is too big for one company to solve alone. To help address the carbon emissions we can’t yet avoid, we’re rethinking how to remove excess carbon from the atmosphere. That’s why we created a first-of-its-kind fund in partnership with Conservation International that will help protect and restore the world’s forests, wetlands, and grasslands to remove excess carbon from our atmosphere — forever. This is more than buying carbon credits. This is an investment in nature that provides meaningful returns for both people and the planet. Over time, we hope others will join us in this venture to ensure the health and livelihood of these key ecosystems.

Colombian Mangroves

We also partnered with Conservation International to restore and protect a 27,000-acre mangrove forest on the coast of Colombia. Our partnership is helping to pioneer a new method for measuring the “blue carbon” that mangrove trees store in roots and soil below the waterline. Mangroves are important to fighting climate change because they can store 10 times more carbon than trees on land. The mangroves we helped protect have the power to store 1 million metric tons of CO2 over the project’s lifetime. In just two years, this project could remove the emissions our Maps vehicle fleet would generate for the next 10 years — while also protecting coastal ecosystems and communities.

Kenyan Savannas

We’re working with Conservation International to naturally restore the degraded savannas of the Chyulu Hills in Kenya. Our efforts will help regenerate this ecosystem through community governance to resolve the issues preventing these savannas from thriving. Not only will this project help remove up to 4 metric tons of CO2 per hectare per year, but it will also demonstrate how community-driven approaches to natural regeneration can better support rural livelihoods.

Our carbon solutions fund is projected to remove 1 to 2 million metric tons of carbon per year.
Mangroves have the ability to store 10 times more carbon than trees on land, making them key allies in the fight against climate change.
An Apple-protected forest in the northeastern United States
iPhone with abstract wallpaper onscreen

Trade it in.

Help the planet out.

With Apple Trade In, you can exchange your old device for credit toward your next purchase, or get an Apple Store Gift Card you can use anytime. If eligible, your device can have a second life with another owner. If not, we’ll recycle it free of charge. A win-win for you and the planet.4

Learn moreabout trade-in

More from Apple on the environment.

Your product’s
environmental report card.

Each device is measured by its impact on our carbon footprint

and how environmentally friendly — and safe — its materials are.

2020 Progress Report

In our current report, you’ll find more detailed information about our efforts, how we measure our overall effect on the environment,

and the progress we’ve made over the past year.

View the 2020 Environmental Progress Report (PDF)

Additional Reports and Resources

Circular Economy

Our aim is to make products using only renewable resources or recycled material — so we prioritize, responsibly source, and recover materials.

Smarter Chemistry

Apple has a rigorous program to ensure the safety of chemicals used in our products. Learn about Apple’s strict standards, diligent toxicological assessments, and methodology for assessing chemicals of concern.

Climate Change

Climate change is a defining issue of our time. Our goal is for Apple and all of our products to be carbon neutral by 2030. Below are detailed updates on our progress.

Supplier Responsibility

We hold ourselves and our suppliers to the highest standards for labor and human rights protections, health and safety in the workplace, environmental practices, and the responsible sourcing of materials.

Visit the Supplier Responsibility site

Frequently Asked Questions

Find out the answers to common questions about Apple and the environment.

Read the FAQs