By Steve Fiscor, Editor-in-Chief
Apple to End Its Reliance on Mining
During April, Tim Cook the CEO of Apple, the 8th largest publicly held company, pledged to end its reliance on mining and make all its products only from renewable or recycled sources. It was the Thursday before Earth Day and who would expect less from a company with such a strong environmental sustainability track record. In its Environmental Responsibility Report, the technology leader outlined its accomplishments and some of its goals. Apple has been tracking and reducing its carbon footprint for years and in 2016 it reported that 96% of the electricity that the company consumed globally came from renewable sources.
The slogan for the report is: “To ask less of the planet, we’re asking more of ourselves.” Two of the mining-related questions it asks are: Can we get 100% of our supply chain to move to 100% renewable energy? Can we one day stop mining the Earth altogether? The first question can be addressed by the engineering cliché that nothing is impossible, some projects just cost more than others. That expression can’t be applied to the second question, which has probably been asked rhetorically, but nonetheless it has been asked. Stop mining the Earth simply does not compute. Apple, however, might be able to one day make all of its products from recycled or renewable sources, but the rest of the world cannot.
