Apple energy efficiency savings in 2019 could power 2500 US homes for a year

In its 2020 Environmental Progress Report, Apple said that it used 18% less energy in 2019 than the prior year — a result of the energy efficiency measures that it has adopted at facilities globally.

That electricity savings is a result of a wide range of energy efficiency measures at the company's offices, data centers and retail stores. It's in addition to Apple's focus on renewable energy at its physical locations, from Apple Stores to Apple Park.

"Simply put, the cleanest energy is the energy we don't use," Apple said in the 2020 report. "And when we use less energy, we need less from clean sources."

Apple's energy efficiency initiatives include specifically designing buildings to optimize energy usage, performing routine efficiency audits at its buildings, and improving the efficiency of its supply chain when shipping products to customers.

With existing buildings, Apple says it audits current energy performance and deploys reduction measures when it can. Energy efficiency measures at data centers, for example, can include evaporative cooling, airside economizers and other cooling systems. Apple says it also integrates energy-efficient design when it's developing new offices or retail locations.

The company said its efficiency programs saved an additional 26.4 million kilowatt hours and 194,500 therms from existing buildings, retrofitting older buildings, and new building design per year in fiscal year 2019. For comparison, the average U.S. household uses an average of 867 kilowatt hours per month, totaling 10,399 kWh per year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

By those numbers, just the additional energy Apple saved in 2019 could power 2,500 average U.S. houses for a year.

Apple also says it works to implement efficiency protocols and policies throughout its supply chain, resulting in 779,000 carbon emissions from partners in 2019. More details on Apple's supply chain programs can be found in the company's annual Supplier Responsibility Report.

Along with helping to reduce supplier energy usage, Apple says it encourages electricity reduction during iPhone manufacturing and supports supply partner investments in energy efficiency programs.

Even the way an iPhone ends up on a customer's doorstep or a store shelf is taken into account. Apple says it's continually improving shipping efficiency, modes of transport, and its transportation management systems to reduce its carbon footprint.

In Apple's 2018 report, the company said that its energy efficiency measures saved the company 41.5 million kilowatt hours at its global facilities.

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7 Comments

randominternetperson 3094 comments · 8 Years

About 4 years ago

Good job, Apple. That represents 2 one-thousandths of 1 percent of all the homes in the US. Or perhaps 5% of the homes of Apple employees. Even one of the largest corporations in the world's best efforts represent less than a drop in the bucket in a world with 7.5 billion people.

bsnjon 39 comments · 4 Years

The report is only about Apple’s efforts last year, presumably. They have working on their carbon footprint for years. We can safely say that operations at Apple Park are noticeably more efficient than work done at older buildings.
Apple is also a company which is still physically growing.

randominternetperson said:

Good job, Apple. That represents 2 one-thousandths of 1 percent of all the homes in the US. Or perhaps 5% of the homes of Apple employees. Even one of the largest corporations in the world's best efforts represent less than a drop in the bucket in a world with 7.5 billion people.

mknelson 1145 comments · 9 Years

randominternetperson said:

Good job, Apple. That represents 2 one-thousandths of 1 percent of all the homes in the US. Or perhaps 5% of the homes of Apple employees. Even one of the largest corporations in the world's best efforts represent less than a drop in the bucket in a world with 7.5 billion people.

True, but the example is still a good one to set.

At my previous job we opened a new location in 2005. There were quite a few (Par-38 iirc) bulbs in track lighting and pot lights. They were on about 10 hours a day on average and failed after almost exactly 1 year.

As an experiment we replaced them with the compact fluorescent equivalent. They were about 4x the price of halogen initially, but lasted 3-4x as long. At the electric rates at the time they also saved $25 on the electric bill per bulb per year.

mknelson said:

randominternetperson said:

Good job, Apple. That represents 2 one-thousandths of 1 percent of all the homes in the US. Or perhaps 5% of the homes of Apple employees. Even one of the largest corporations in the world's best efforts represent less than a drop in the bucket in a world with 7.5 billion people.

True, but the example is still a good one to set.

At my previous job we opened a new location in 2005. There were quite a few (Par-38 iirc) bulbs in track lighting and pot lights. They were on about 10 hours a day on average and failed after almost exactly 1 year.

As an experiment we replaced them with the compact fluorescent equivalent. They were about 4x the price of halogen initially, but lasted 3-4x as long. At the electric rates at the time they also saved $25 on the electric bill per bulb per year.

Agreed. I was reacting to the "2500 homes" implication (that I believe was an AI addition, not in the Apple document, although I could be wrong).

Beats 3073 comments · 4 Years

Really wish Apple would provide energy to the public.

randominternetperson said:

Good job, Apple. That represents 2 one-thousandths of 1 percent of all the homes in the US. Or perhaps 5% of the homes of Apple employees. Even one of the largest corporations in the world's best efforts represent less than a drop in the bucket in a world with 7.5 billion people.

It's not Apple's job to babysit the public or be responsible for the world's energy consumption. No matter how good a job Apple does at anything, people stretch the goalposts so Apple is a sh*tty company and "greedy".