Apple's carbon-neutral product claims called a 'climate-wash'
Malcolm OwenApple CEO Tim Cook
Apple's claims it has created its first carbon-neutral product could be far-fetched, with a Chinese environment research organization calling it "climate-washing" by the iPhone maker.
During its "Wonderlust" event on September 12, Apple introduced its Apple Watch Series 9 as the first carbon-neutral product from the company. While an achievement for Apple, it has been called out by one research organization as possibly being an exaggeration.
The Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE) based in Beijing said in a report that Apple didn't reveal enough details about suppliers who produce its products to be able to substantiate the claim of carbon neutrality, reports Inside Climate News.
IPE was named in Apple's 2022 Annual Progress Report as a "leading non-profit environmental research organization." Apple was the first recipient of IPE's Corporate Information Transparency Index Master's Level Designation for its disclosures.
According to IPE's report, the entity received data on greenhouse gas emissions from fewer suppliers in 2023 than in previous years. This was apparently down to Apple stopping a requirement for suppliers to publicly disclose that information in 2023, with Apple stating "we may not request suppliers to provide facility level carbon disclosure this year."
"We believe there is a need for full disclosure and explanation of how Apple achieves carbon neutrality of its products, given the increase in carbon emissions from some of its suppliers," writes IPE in its report.
Shifting certificates
It is proposed by IPE that, since Apple relies on the purchase of renewable energy certificates for some of its carbon neutrality claims, it's possible that some of those certificates could be reallocated to support the production of another device. For example, certificates used for iPhone production could be allocated towards the Apple Watch instead.
By allocating more certificates to Apple Watch production than iPhone, Apple would therefore be able to claim the Apple Watch as using completely clean energy, with a proportionately lower hit taken to the far larger production of the iPhone.
IPE queries "If this assumption is correct, is Apple's carbon neutrality milestone' really a significant reduction in the carbon emissions of its product manufacturing process, or just a mathematical equation whereby Apple cherry picks the limited green electricity from its suppliers and allocate them to one relatively niche product?"
Apple issued a statement in response, insisting it didn't reallocate certificates from iPhone to the production of other products. It added that the iPhone 15 Pro supply chian generates 28% lower greenhouse gas emissions than the 2015 baseline, thanks to its increased use of renewable energy.
"In many years of our index assessment, Apple was one of the top performers, so we did give it credit for that," said Ma Jun, IPE director. "But when it started making the claim of [a] carbon neutral product, that is a very high standard and I think it needs an even higher level of disclosure."
Ma explained that fewer than 30 Apple suppliers disclosed facility-level greenhouse gas emissions data in 2023, down from around 100 in earlier years. "The number has dropped at a very special moment, when carbon-neutral products are being released," Ma added.
Apple said "We strongly support climate disclosures to improve transparency and drive progress in the fight against climate change. For the last decade, Apple has modeled, measured, and voluntarily reported our greenhouse gas emissions across all scopes of emissions, and publicly advocated for disclosure around the world."
It continued "As stated clearly in our Supplier Code of Conduct, we require suppliers to report their Apple-related greenhouse gas emissions to us each year, and to comply with any laws and regulations that mandate reporting of emissions to local or national authorities."
Andrew Orr
Marko Zivkovic
Wesley Hilliard
Amber Neely
12 Comments
Apple's "carbon neutral" claim is based on the absurdity that one can buy someone else's actual reduced carbon production to claim "neutrality" without actually reducing one's own carbon production. Apple could actually increase it's carbon production while still claiming to be carbon neutral just buy purchasing more fiat certificates.
Regardless of Apple's claims, I'm not about to put my full faith and credit into anything from a CCP mouthpiece. So I guess we have to agree to disagree.
There are two criticisms here, neither of which necessarily adds up to "climate wash." The first is a concern about reporting from specific facilities. That raises a legitimate question, but doesn't automatically translate to "Apple is lying." Even the IPE organization making the criticism acknowledges Apple's past positive record, so this seems like it's a bit premature to automatically infer negative answers to the question raised.
The second issue is a suggestion that Apple could be swapping "renewable energy certificates" internally from phones to a watch in order to apply more credits toward a relatively small production line, thereby making that line reach the carbon neutral benchmark more quickly. Setting aside the fact that Apple says they're not doing that. What if they were? Consider this analogy: You are carrying balances on several credit cards. One of those has a large balance and another a much smaller balance. If by temporarily slightly reducing your payment on the largest balance, you could entirely pay off the small-balance card, it is legitimate to do so and then say "I paid off this card." There's nothing squirrely about that. In fact, most credit counselors will specifically recommend doing that, because it makes keeping track of (and focus on) ongoing progress easier. Eventually, you zero out the smaller balances and you're left with one number that's either going up, down or remaining flat. So it seems likewise entirely appropriate that Apple would focus achievement a carbon neutrality goal on a smaller production line first.
So let me get this straight: a Chinese organization that has no way of verifying anything whatsoever makes claims that Apple is shuffling things around a bit to make the Apple Watch (NOT a “niche product” unless the only thing you’re comparing it to is the iPhone) carbon-neutral. In response, Apple directly refutes this made-up claim, with evidence.