Apple’s $4.7 billion in green bonds support innovative green technology

Tech giant Apple plans to use the world’s first commercial-purity low-carbon aluminium from Elysis in the iPhone SE.

Apple announced that investments from the company’s $4.7 billion in Green Bonds have helped jump-start the development of new low-carbon manufacturing and recycling technologies.

Apple has issued three Green Bonds since 2016, with projects showcasing how the investments can reduce global emissions and bring clean power to communities around the world.

As part of this work, Apple is purchasing direct carbon-free aluminium following a major advancement in smelting technology to reduce emissions.

The aluminium is the first to be manufactured at industrial scale outside of a laboratory without creating any direct carbon emissions during the smelting process.

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Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives, said it intends for the material to be introduced in the iPhone SE.

“Apple is committed to leaving the planet better than we found it, and our Green Bonds are a key tool to drive our environmental efforts forward. Our investments are advancing the breakthrough technologies needed to reduce the carbon footprint of the materials we use, even as we move to using only recyclable and renewable materials across our products to conserve the earth’s finite resources.”

In total, Apple has issued $4.7 billion to accelerate progress toward the company’s goal to become carbon neutral across its supply chain by 2030.

Apple said its first two bonds in 2016 and 2017 are now fully allocated.

The 2019 Green Bond is supporting 50 projects, including the low-carbon aluminium breakthrough. These 50 projects will mitigate or offset 2,883,000 metric tons of CO2e, install nearly 700 megawatts of renewable energy capacity around the world, and promote new recycling research and development,” Apple said.

Elysis, the company behind the world’s first direct carbon-free aluminium smelting process, announced that it has produced the first commercial-purity primary aluminium at industrial scale for use in Apple products.

The breakthrough technology produces oxygen instead of greenhouse gases, and the achievement marks a major milestone in the production of aluminium, one of the world’s most widely used metals.

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