Apple Final Assembly Sites in China 100% Zero Waste Compliant

Apple is making progress on its sustainable supply chain efforts.

The tech giant says all 14 of its final assembly site in China are now compliant with UL’s Zero Waste to Landfill validation.

The UL standard certifies all of their manufacturing waste is reused, recycled, composted, or, when necessary, converted into energy. Since the program began in January 2015, the sites have diverted more than 140,000 metric tons of waste from landfills.

Additionally, Apple has announced a commitment by major supplier Lens Technology in China to power all of its glass production for Apple with 100 percent renewable energy by the end of 2018. This renewable energy pledge is part of Apple’s supply chain clean energy program announced last year.

Lens is the first supplier to make a clean energy commitment for all of its Apple production, and will meet its goal through a power purchase agreement with local wind projects.

Lens’ manufacturing with Apple currently includes two facilities in Changsha, Hunan province. Wind energy will cover 100 percent of the energy consumed producing Apple products at Lens facilities by 2018, avoiding nearly 450,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide each year.

Apple currently powers 100 percent of its operations in China and the US, and more than 93 percent of its worldwide operations, with renewable energy.

Through its clean energy program, Apple will partner with suppliers in China to install more than 2 gigawatts of new clean energy in the coming years, avoiding over 20 million metric tons of greenhouse gas pollution in the country between now and 2020.

Foxconn committed in October to construct 400 megawatts of solar, starting in Henan province, by 2018. The manufacturer is now well on its way to constructing the first 80 megawatts of that commitment, Apple says.

Earlier this year, Foxconn final assembly sites at Guanlan and Taiyuan were the first in China to receive UL’s Zero Waste to Landfill validation. With the recent addition of 12 manufacturing sites, all of Apple’s final assembly production in China is now zero waste compliant.

In the company’s other efforts to shrink the environmental footprint of its Chinese operations, last year Apple announced a multi-year project with World Wildlife Fund that aims to protect as much as 1 million acres of responsibly managed working forests in China that provide fiber for pulp, paper and wood products.