Apple Suppliers Donate to Restore Fund for Sustainable Forests and Other Carbon Removal Projects

[MacRumors]

Apple today announced that suppliers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and Japanese company Murata Manufacturing are investing in its Restore Fund, a program aimed at scaling investments in high-quality nature-based carbon removal while also protecting critical ecosystems.

TSMC is investing up to $50 million and Murata is investing up to $30 million, with the money managed by Climate Asset Management. Apple established the Restore Fund in 2021 with a $200 million donation, and expanded it in 2023 with another $200 million.

Apple is using some of the money to support the creation of sustainably certified working forests on degraded pasture and agricultural lands in South America. The project is meant to meet increasing global demand for timber while reducing pressure on natural forests.

Two of the partners that Apple is working on the forests have planted eucalyptus, an ideal tree for sustainable forests because of its fast growth rate, ability to restore degraded land, and lower water consumption than other kinds of trees.

Apple's third partner is developing sustainable forests of tropical hardwoods native to Brazil's Atlantic Forest, with some of the land also going toward restoring tree species that are nearing extinction. The Restore Fund will be used for other projects that focus on ecosystem conservation and restoration, with selection underway. Apple set a goal of removing 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from the air by 2025, which it is on track to exceed.

Apple wants to be carbon neutral across its entire supply chain by 2030. More than 300 suppliers have signed up for the Supplier Clean Energy Program that commits them to achieving 100 percent renewable energy for all Apple production by the end of the decade, and Apple has also asked its partners to decarbonize their Apple-related operations.

Article Link: Apple Suppliers Donate to Restore Fund for Sustainable Forests and Other Carbon Removal Projects

 

[2540497]

If you know you know

 

[canadianreader]

If they updated their iPhone lineup every two years and made their computers upgradable all this would have a bigger and positive impact on the environment than their 200 million donation.

 

[Polinsky]

If they updated their iPhone lineup every two years and made their computers upgradable all this would have a bigger and positive impact on the environment than their 200 million donation.

Which supercomputer did you use to figure all this out? It's amazing. No matter what Apple does, there will always be a MR poster to find fault with it.

 

[Anonymous123]

Which supercomputer did you use to figure all this out? It's amazing. No matter what Apple does, there will always be a MR poster to find fault with it.

And there will always be someone to defend it. Having a critical mind is a good thing my guy/gal. It’s ok to have an opposing opinion. To me this is just a little bit of greenwashing, but I agree it’s still a positive, ulterior motive or not.

 

[Fuzzball84]

This is a tiny drop in the ocean of what is actually required... by everyone.

And it's hilarious that people have comments downvoted just because they suggest companies should be better about prolonging the lifecycles, upgradability and serviceability of their products.

The refresh cycle of iPhones and Apple Watch, are in particular, too high now considering the market is saturated and matured. They need to focus on bigger updates between generations. That leaves more time for R&D, optimisation and quality control between releases.

Apple could easily create a system for Macs where the logic board can be swapped out easily, either at home or at Apple Store, to upgrade a device from one M series to another. That way you'd actually have the ability to upgrade RAM if your workload changed, and you wouldn't have to get an entire new system 😂

A win-win Id say.

 

[Harry Haller]

Scotland cut down 16 million trees to build planet saving wind turbines. To fully understand climate lunacy follow the money.

SNP admits to felling 16 million trees to develop wind farms

Scottish Tory MSP Liam Kerr said figure would astonish the public and communities all over the country had cited concerns about the projects

www.telegraph.co.uk

 

[Fuzzball84]

Which supercomputer did you use to figure all this out? It's amazing. No matter what Apple does, there will always be a MR poster to find fault with it.

You'd not even need a calculator for that 😂

 

[Fuzzball84]

Scotland cut down 20 million trees to build planet saving wind turbines. To fully understand climate lunacy follow the money.

SNP admits to felling 16 million trees to develop wind farms

Scottish Tory MSP Liam Kerr said figure would astonish the public and communities all over the country had cited concerns about the projects

www.telegraph.co.uk

Wind power isn't a problem, it's the way it's done thats the issue. Problem is people will look at that and then think wind power is bad... because of how its been done in past.

 

[canadianreader]

Which supercomputer did you use to figure all this out? It's amazing. No matter what Apple does, there will always be a MR poster to find fault with it.

And every time someone finds fault there's always a complainer... you know the complaining about others complaining.

 

[Darth Tulhu]

I just came to check on the virtue signaling complaints, and wasn't disappointed.

That train, like many others, is never late.

 

[Fuzzball84]

Carbon neutral is a term I find increasingly worrying when its been picked up an used by so many companies... as per the 'neutral' part... it still means you're producing CO2 during manufacturing, transport, use and recycling.. and you're just offsetting that production by doing something else to counter it.

You're not really decarbonising (and making sustainable) the lifecycle of that product. Thats way, way harder to do. Requiring new technologies, processes and materials (that use less power, produce less waste, non toxic waste). Hopefully Apple can lead some aspects of this better way to sustainability.

 

[Glenny2lappies]

Lovely idea.

Pity that vast tracts of north American forests are chopped down, chipped, then shipped to the UK (using diesel trucks, diesel trains and heavy oil burning ships) to be burned as "green" renewable fuel in Drax. Utter disingenuous madness.

 

[CarAnalogy]

The wording of this is so confusing.

They're donating to restore a fund...for renewable project and trees.

I guess in a way they are.

I want to avoid my usual cynicism here and assume that this is all exactly as it seems at face value and hope they really are tangibly restoring land and not just getting tax write-offs.

 

[Fuzzball84]

The wording of this is so confusing.

They're donating to restore a fund...for renewable project and trees.

I guess in a way they are.

I want to avoid my usual cynicism here and assume that this is all exactly as it seems at face value and hope they really are tangibly restoring land and not just getting tax write-offs.

I suspect a mixture of the two... sometimes it is hard to see where the money goes... actually seeing what they are doing etc... its easy to make announcements and throw a little bit of cash... much harder to implement it.

 

[Harry Haller]

Wind power isn't a problem...

It is for birds.
In one country in one year.
"The American Bird Conservancy has utilized data from the U.S. Wind Turbine Database to determine that approximately 538,000 wind turbine-caused bird deaths occur each year."

Wind industry faces questions about turbines killing birds

Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of articles the Abilene Reflector-Chronicle will publish over the next several weeks, which will address the pros and cons, the opposition

www.abilene-rc.com

 

[now i see it]

Research has shown that planting more trees isn’t enough

 

[Fuzzball84]

It is for birds.
In one country in one year.
"The American Bird Conservancy has utilized data from the U.S. Wind Turbine Database to determine that approximately 538,000 wind turbine-caused bird deaths occur each year."

Wind industry faces questions about turbines killing birds

Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of articles the Abilene Reflector-Chronicle will publish over the next several weeks, which will address the pros and cons, the opposition

www.abilene-rc.com

This is true.... but also building design too can have similar impacts (hundreds of millions of birds die flying into buildings).

 

[mihighil]

If they updated their iPhone lineup every two years and made their computers upgradable all this would have a bigger and positive impact on the environment than their 200 million donation.

But what about the shareholders? 🥲

 

[Harry Haller]

This is true.... but also building design too

Fortunately next gen turbines are being designed with reduced speeds and sensors that can throttle down the turbines when flocks approach.

 

[Fuzzball84]

Fortunately next gen turbines are being designed with reduced speeds and sensors that can throttle down the turbines when flocks approach.

Imagine that on aircraft lol

 

[lkrupp]

And there will always be someone to defend it. Having a critical mind is a good thing my guy/gal. It’s ok to have an opposing opinion. To me this is just a little bit of greenwashing, but I agree it’s still a positive, ulterior motive or not.

But for MR the negativity is endemic, all encompassing, derisive. The forums are populated by a majority of non-customers and haters and it’s been that way for over a decade. If it weren’t for the cacophony of negative posts these forums would be empty of comments. And MR is not alone. Almost all social media, newspaper, comment sections are continuously overwhelmed by negativity and sarcasm. There is no positive thinking, just the trashing of everything. Our culture is sick.

 

[maihan]

Greenwashing ...?

 

[Harry Haller]

But for MR the negativity is endemic, all encompassing, derisive. The forums are populated by a majority of non-customers and haters and it’s been that way for over a decade. If it weren’t for the cacophony of negative posts these forums would be empty of comments. And MR is not alone. Almost all social media, newspaper, comment sections are continuously overwhelmed by negativity and sarcasm. There is no positive thinking, just the trashing of everything. Our culture is sick.

Maybe it's a form of cathartic venting.

 

[BenGoren]

It is for birds.

It’s true that windmills kill $Bignum birds.

But CO2 pollution kills $MegaHugeInsaneBignum birds, which means that switching from mining hydrocarbons to windmills would mean a $HugeInsaneBignum reduction in bird deaths.

Also worth noting is that wind energy is indirect solar energy. In certain geographic locations, it’s highly concentrated and so especially economically effective; however, simply covering a significant fraction of existing rooftops globally with solar panels would provide significantly more energy than hydrocarbon mining currently does — and 100% rooftop coverage would far outstrip even the most outlandish intense-energy-usage future dreams (outside of science fiction).

Of course, that kind of solar coverage wouldn’t be cheap … but we’re all out of cheap options. We literally dug up the cheapest options and set them on fire.

Then again, within rounding, solar panels are just glass, and their prices are in freefall. They’re already the cheapest utility-scale new installations. It won’t be all that long before it’ll literally be cheaper to decommission existing power plants and replace them with solar — storage and long-distance transmission included.

b&