Renewable Resources

Innovation means working with what’s here to create something new.

Apple and The Conservation Fund are protecting more than 36,000 acres of working forests across the United States.

Some of the best technologies for preserving the environment are already here — sunlight, wind, and forests. These resources are naturally renewable and capable of providing energy and materials for a long time. We’re committed to using forests responsibly so they’re still here for future generations. And we’re making real progress toward running all our facilities on 100 percent clean and renewable energy.

Forests give us so much. We need to return the favor.

Forests clean the air we breathe, protect the habitats of animals and plant life, and filter drinking water. They also provide wood fiber for the paper we use in our packaging. If protected and managed sustainably, forests can thrive, fulfilling their vital role in the ecosystem while still supplying the world’s paper needs. But forests around the world are under threat from poor management, illegal logging, and aggressive land development. We need to protect this crucial resource and component of our ecosystem. Our goal is to ensure that our packaging has a net‑zero impact on the world’s supply of sustainable virgin fiber.

Forests are essential to the future of our environmental health and economic vitality. It’s crucial that we work together to protect them.
Evan Smith VP, Conservation Ventures, The Conservation Fund, in a Georgia forest protected by The Conservation Fund.

We’re using paper more efficiently. The best way to preserve virgin paper is to use less of it. So we’re designing our packaging to be smaller and to use more recycled paper, and we’re developing technologies that use paper more efficiently. The packaging for iPhone 6 takes up 34 percent less volume than the first‑generation iPhone packaging. And over two‑thirds of the paper used for iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, and Apple TV packaging comes from recycled content.

We’re sourcing virgin paper responsibly. When we do use virgin paper in our product packaging, we’re continually working to ensure that it comes only from sustainably managed forests and controlled wood sources. Our sustainable fiber specification requires that when our suppliers use virgin fibers, they source only from forests that are certified as sustainably and responsibly managed or from controlled wood sources. In fiscal year 2014, over 80 percent of the paper and corrugated cardboard used in our iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, and Apple TV packaging came from certified sustainably managed forests, controlled wood sources, or recycled materials. We will not stop until 100 percent of the fibers we use meet these standards.

We’re protecting sustainable forests. We are committed to protecting — and creating — as much sustainable working forest as is needed to produce the paper in our product packaging.1 Through our work with The Conservation Fund, we’re permanently protecting more than 36,000 acres of working forest in the eastern United States. The collective annual production from these forests is equivalent to nearly half the virgin fiber used for iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, and Apple TV packaging in fiscal year 2014.2 We’re also working with World Wildlife Fund on a new multiyear project to significantly increase responsibly managed forests across China. This project aims to protect as many as one million acres of responsibly managed working forests that provide fiber for pulp, paper, and wood products.

Clean renewable energy is our standard, everywhere.

Our goal is to power all our corporate facilities around the world as we do all our data centers — with 100 percent renewable energy. And we’re not content with just purchasing clean energy from existing sources. Whenever possible, we go even further by creating new sources that add clean energy to the grid. For example, we’ve partnered with First Solar to create a solar project in Monterey County, California. When it comes online in 2016, this 2900‑acre facility will generate 130 megawatts of clean energy — enough to power Apple Campus 2, all our other California offices, all 52 retail stores in California, and our data center in Newark, California.

Our commitment to renewable energy also extends beyond our home in California. In China, we’re undertaking a ground-breaking renewable energy partnership with SunPower, Tianjin Zhonghuan Semiconductor, and other companies to build a renewable solar energy project in Sichuan Province. It will generate up to 80 million kilowatt‑hours per year of clean energy — far more than the energy used by all our offices and retail stores in China combined. This project is being developed to complement the natural environment, paying special attention to preserving the grasses that feed the indigenous yak population.

Our solar farm in Hongyuan, China, will generate enough clean energy to power the equivalent of 61,000 Chinese homes per year.

100 percent of our data centers run on 100 percent renewable energy.

Since 2012, all our data centers have been powered by 100 percent renewable energy sources. That means no matter how much data they handle, there is a zero greenhouse gas impact on the environment from their energy use. These data centers use renewable energy sources like solar, wind, biogas fuel cells, micro‑hydro power, and geothermal power from onsite and locally obtained resources. On any given day, our data centers will use renewable energy to serve tens of billions of messages, more than a billion photos, and tens of millions of FaceTime video calls. They also run services like Siri, the iTunes Store, the App Store, and Maps. So every time a song is downloaded from iTunes, an app is installed from the Mac App Store, or a book is downloaded from iBooks, the energy Apple uses is provided by nature.

Maiden, North Carolina Our Maiden, North Carolina, data center has earned the LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council — the first data center of its size to be so honored. On any given day, between 60 and 100 percent of the energy it uses is generated onsite through our biogas fuel cells and two 20‑megawatt solar arrays — the nation’s largest privately owned renewable energy installation. And we’ll finish another 17‑megawatt solar array later this year. We purchase any remaining power we need from entirely clean sources located within North Carolina.

Solar Arrays + Fuel Cell Farm

Prineville, Oregon At our data center in Prineville, Oregon, we built a micro‑hydro system that harnesses the power of water that’s been flowing through local irrigation canals for over 60 years. To supplement this micro‑hydro generation, we’re able to directly access enough local wind energy to power the entire data center.

Wind Power + Micro-hydro Power

Reno, Nevada Our Reno, Nevada, data center follows in the footsteps of our 100 percent renewable energy centers in Maiden and Prineville. We worked with the local utility to codevelop a 20‑megawatt solar array using C7 solar panels, a new kind of photovoltaic panel with curved mirrors that concentrates sunlight. The solar array has an annual production capacity of over 43 million kilowatt‑hours of clean, renewable energy. When additional energy is needed, we use local geothermal energy purchased from the utility or other solar resources.

Geothermal Power + Solar Arrays

Newark, California Our data center in Newark, California, is powered by 100 percent renewable energy. We hit this milestone in January 2013, when we began serving the data center with energy sourced primarily from California wind power. We’re acquiring this energy directly from the wholesale market through California’s Direct Access program.

Wind Power

Mesa, Arizona Our Mesa data center will harness Arizona’s abundant sunlight to supply 100 percent renewable energy to our new data and global command center. When the facility is fully operational in 2016, it will harness up to 70 megawatts of solar power to provide clean energy to the center.

Solar Arrays

Athenry, Ireland Our data center in County Galway, Ireland, will be built on recovered land that was previously used for commercial lumber. When it opens in 2017, the data center will run on 100 percent clean, renewable energy, and it will provide an outdoor education space for local schools and a walking trail for the community.

Wind Power

Viborg, Denmark In 2017, we’ll open a new data center running on 100 percent renewable energy in Denmark’s central Jutland region. Due to its proximity to one of Denmark’s largest electrical substations, the data center won’t require any additional generators. The facility is also designed to capture excess heat from its equipment and then conduct it into the district heating system to help warm homes in the community.

Wind Power

Our colocated facilities The vast majority of our online services are provided by our own data centers. We also use third‑party colocation facilities for additional data center capacity. While Apple doesn’t own these shared facilities and uses only a portion of their total capacity, we include them in our renewable energy goals. And we are working with these providers to ensure that our share of the energy is provided in the cleanest way possible. Over 80 percent of our power for colocated facilities is matched with renewable energy generated within the same state for facilities in the United States, or within the same country for those around the world. And we will keep working with the colocated suppliers to get to 100 percent.

Apple Campus 2 will use 30 percent less energy than a typical R&D office building.

Our new home will be green from the ground up.

Like everything we build, our new Apple campus in Cupertino pushes the boundaries of technology — it will be the most energy‑efficient building of its kind. Powered by 100 percent renewable energy, the campus goes beyond showing respect for the environment to forming a partnership with it. Air flows freely between the inside and outside of the building, providing natural ventilation for 75 percent of the year. And sunlight powers one of the largest onsite corporate solar energy installations in the world.

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We’re recycling over 95 percent of the material from the existing buildings for use in our new headquarters.

The City of Cupertino requires that construction sites recycle or reuse a minimum of 75 percent of materials demolished from previous structures. For the construction of Apple Campus 2, we’re going above and beyond that requirement, recycling or reusing over 95 percent of the demolition materials onsite. We’re finding ways to repurpose virtually every wall, window, and pipe rather than hauling them off to landfills.

For Apple Campus 2, we’re choosing trees that are lovely, well‑suited to our coastal climate, and provide varied and bountiful habitat.
Dave Muffly Senior Arborist, Apple, at a nursery where trees are being prepared for Apple Campus 2.

The building itself is only part of the story. Just under 80 percent of the site will be open space, populated by more than 7000 trees, which includes more than 6000 newly planted shade and fruit trees. Drought‑tolerant plants will be used throughout the landscape to minimize water use.

Over 1000 shared bicycles will be available at Apple Campus 2.

Getting to and from the new campus will be greener, too. We’re expanding our commute alternatives program by 20 percent. This means that over a third of our nearly 15,000 employees in Cupertino can commute to the new campus using our biofuel buses, public transit, bicycles, carpools, and their own two feet. And for drivers, we’ll have over 300 electric vehicle charging stations.

The new campus is being built from the ground up to meet the highest environmental standards set by LEED, an internationally recognized green building rating system. When completed, Apple Campus 2 will be an ever‑present reminder of our commitment to sustainability and an example of what every corporate campus can be.

Watch the Apple Campus 2 video