1.

Introduction
The company selected for assessment is Apple, and the areas being assessed is the
Apple’s environmental sustainability. The company has continued to work with
different partners, global networks and colleagues to make the environment friendly
and sustainable, thus making it good for people’s lives. The company aims at giving
the communities that it works within a relief from climate change. In the year 2020
alone, the company moved with emergency to create a strong and healthy future for
the planet and the people that live within. To fight against climate change, the
company made commitment to become carbon neutral by 2030. By that time, the
supply chain for Apple will use the same products that Apple use, the same products
that use more recycled materials, up to 40% of the recycled materials are used in
Mark Book are recycled, there is also 99% of recycled tungsten that are currently
used in iPhone 12 and Apple Watch Series 6.
The content of the paper is therefore to highlight the approach of the company
towards climate change; the carbon road map, low carbon design and the use of
renewable energy. The paper also explains how Apple has used its resources,
materials and the progress that have been made in packaging, ensuring product
longevity, water stewardship and ensuring of zero water materials by the company.
Other activities such as smarter chemistry, mapping and engagement, assessments
and the innovations used in climate management. There is also use of smarter
chemistry, mapping and environmental engagement.

2. Methodology
The research method used in the study qualitative study, and is the literature review,
the methodology is qualitative and it focuses on analysing words and textual data,
mostly from the Apple sustainability texts. The qualitative analysis can also focus on
the other data points; the qualitative methodology is also used in understanding
people’s perceptions on the activities that the company has taken ensure
sustainability for every activity taken towards sustainability. On top of qualitative
methods, the study also employed the use of data analysis. The study therefore,
uses descriptive statistics on environmental change and safety management when
ensuring health and safety for the selected product line. According to Miller () and
Saunders et al (), descriptive statistics gives an accurate profile for events, situations
or persons. It also offers the researchers the relevant aspects of the phenomenon of
interests. The research methodology was therefore important in gathering data from
various sources. The sustainability reports were also studied to find out how the
company has fared in different aspects of environmental sustainability. The primary
data sources were collected from Twitter and have more confidence level in decision
making. The primary data sources include the data on sustainability for the company.

The study area is environmental sustainability and how Apple protects environmental
resources and long term environmental health systems. The company has a way of
protecting the long term productivity to meet the future economic activities such as
protecting its supply chain. The company has intergenerational decision making
hence the company performs, for example, reducing emission from vehicles in their
supply chain and also analysing the costs that extra pollution imposes on future
generations.
Company overview
The company has highlighted their aim of becoming carbon neutral by the year 2030
and for this to be possible, they need to achieve the carbon footprint of 75% when
compared to its 2015 carbon emission, and this was estimated to be 38.4 million
tonnes. With the implementation of various energy initiatives in the Apple’s products,
while at the same time sourcing clean energy and also use low-carbon materials in
the production process. When looking at the historical carbon footprint, the company
became carbon neural by 2030, and it has cantered, on its 75% achievement relative
to the 2015 footprint. Despite the efforts by the company, the product emissions are
still on the rise, the production process is still, this is according to the 2021
Environmental report of 71 of the Apple’s carbon emission report. With the product
stages creating up to 19%. When compared to 2019 fiscal year, the carbon emission
increased from 16-19%.

3. Sustainability Performance Data

4. Critical evaluation of company performance on your chosen sustainability

focus
Although Apple has changed its charging adapters as default accessories from the
iPhone 12 and the watch retail boxes, over 867, million tonnes of raw materials to be
saved. There are additional 70% more retail boxes can be fitted 0on a single pallet
due to smaller packaging which results to more carbon footprint elimination. Apple’s
carbon input within 1.3 million to 1.9 million in 2020. The packaging changes are
connected with the growth of the company, and this resulted to the release of the
new iPhone SE. When iPhones and other accessories as Apple Watches that need
to be charged to be usable, the company therefore, decided not to supply charging
bricks, the company therefore, passed the CO2 of transportation and production to
third party companies from which Apple users can purchase the chargers. The
company found challenge with the charging bricks, as they required wrapping for
individual accessories, this means that they were transported as one. With the
current changes at the company, in case an iPhone X use decides for an upgrade,
the charger is transported separately because of the fact that charging brick and the
iPhone are supplied differently. The problem with the approach is that the charging
brick may not be compatible with the newly released iPhone 12 series. As a result,
the company has removed from its ownership and now it is the responsibility of other
companies to produce the adapters.
The problem with the approach is that the companies may not have advanced tools
and processes that Apple could have used to reduce the emissions. By outsourcing
the emissions to the other companies, it means that they now lack carbon capturing
facilities and also lack efficient technologies for packaging and clean energy usage
that Apple could have used. Moreover, the companies may not have the ability to
negotiate low carbon emission transportation, this means that the carbon footprint
will still be higher than when Apple was producing the charges. A more appropriate
approach for the company would be to switch from the single phone charger for
every phone released, the company could switch to the universal charger as
proposed by EU convention. This means that consumers will not have to buy
different chargers in case they change phone or any tech they need to own.
When looking at the voice assistant Siri, that competes with Amazon Echo or Google
Voice, Siri uses 100% renewable energy in its power-house. Although it is not easy
to make a comparison of Apple, Google and Amazon, the two latter companies have
vast server farms that helps in multiple searches and when compared to Amazon
that has backtracked their pledge for 100% renewables, this complicates the need
for environmental sustainability and environmental responsibility.
Apple is also actively engaged in recycling of robots Dave and Daisy. The two
products are important in the elimination of the raw virgin materials for the next gen
products. Apple is therefore making steps towards the use of the recycled elements
and with the help of dissemble robots named, the company reported to have doubled
the amount of recycled tungsten and cobalt that is used in batteries, for the first time
in the company’s history, there was 100% recycled tungsten has been applied in
making of the haptic engines for iPhone 12 series, there are recycled materials used
in making the new Apple Watch. In 2020 alone, the company recycled 35% of
tungsten that is used by Apple were from disassembly of older devices.
Apple also mentioned that in a single metric tonne of iPhones, the new robot Daisy
recovers as much as 150 metric tonnes of ore. The recovered materials make their
way back to the assembly plant and they are used in making circuit boards and
camera systems. At this time the company has not shared a detailed information
about the number of devices refurbished, it is estimated by the environmental
watchdog that the company recycles over 10.4 million devices annually. There are
also other programs such as Apple-trade in where user’s trade-in old phones for new
ones. Although there are as much as 200 million units of iPhone use annually, the
figure given for annual trade-in. The company is still in the right directions and Apple
aims to have iPhone to be made from 100% of recycled components.
The company has also used a zero waste to landfill in its facilities, all its retail stores
and facilities. The commitment is aimed at ensuring that what is consumed is limited
to the products, everything produced by Apple, from Coffee cups to the shipping
palettes, instead of having the landfills, the company aims at reducing the waste
products to the landfills. Across the world map, the solid waste has increased from
53 million tonnes to 58 million, the rate of the municipal council solid waste
generated by the company has reduced by 66% Year on Year basis and to reduce
Apple should focus their energy on the data centres in the United States and global
retail stores. The company need to address this by understanding what need to be
thrown away and also have a waste management system that would measure waste
generation or contamination.
 5. Recommendations for improvement

Apart from the above efforts, the companies need to have more than 70+ suppliers
who are committed to 100% of renewable energy for Apple production. There are
40% recycled content in MacBook Air that was introduced in July 2019, the
percentage should be higher than 40% of the recycled content. The company should
also maintain their current efforts, from Smart Chemistry where the products’ safety
is ensured through recycling and also the people who assemble them. Apple has
made hundreds of products every year, with every product representing an
opportunity for reducing the global carbon footprint. Apple should focus more on the
designs and using low-carbon switching devices, and improving energy efficiency
into the products.
The Carbon data must be utilised during the design and the engineering process
when forming the product decisions. The main focus in this area should be material
efficiency, they should use materials that are more efficient. This is the best way to
avoid energy-intensive transportation of raw materials. While manufacturing scrap
does typically lean toward recycling, the company should start by avoiding the
creation of waste materials. They should therefore explore new manufacturing
processes that generates as low materials as possible. Towards this goal, the
company has reduced the use of steal by 30% when compared to the traditional
forging methods, this has ensured that there are over 1kg reduction in carbon use
per iPhone Pro manufactured. The company also reduced the amount of aluminium
used in the manufacture of Apple Watch by over 45%, this is due to the hollow
extrusion process used by the company. When combined with the 100% recycled
components, the overall reduced carbon impact is reduced by 25%.

6. Conclusions

Apple is making various steps in ensuring that the company is environmentally

sustainable. There is however a simple paradox, the company produces over 200
million products annually, ns every new product is an environmental hazard. The
company needs to show that there are emissions can be brought down further to the
company’s capacity and other resources. The stunts by the company to remove the
charging bricks from retail box has never been environmentally led and it had had an
effect by increasing waste packaging and emissions caused by the transportation.
Apple has been frustrated by its efforts to keep its environmental promise of reducing
the environmental impact of their products, the company has however been ranked
by Environmental Watchdog United States Environmental Protection Agency to be
the most environmentally consciously by big technological companies. Despite this,
the company products are yet to become sustainable. The company therefore need
to funnel their profits to projects that reduce their impacts on environmental
sustainability.
Despite the overall criticism of their approach to environmental approach, the
company has made considerable efforts towards making the planet a better place,
such as investment on green bonds, investing on renewable electricity, the company
has continued to use 100% renewable electricity on both Apple’s data centre or
many of its offices across the 44 countries. The company has also recycled the rare-
earth materials such as the ones used in the iPhone 11, or the iPhone 11 Pro Max.
In its many endeavours, the company has reduced its emissions by 35%, this shows
that the company has committed to carbon neutrality by 2030. There are over 70+
suppliers who are contracted to, these companies have to ensure environment
conservation is continued and they also have to use 40% recycled materials from
2019.

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