Many well-known companies have come forward with the issue regarding carbon emissions and how they plan to tackle them. One of the most prominent among them is Silicon Valley ace Apple. In 2020, they announced that they are going to be carbon neutral by 2030 and will be using renewable energy for their data centres, stores, and corporate campuses. The challenge for 2030, however, is to convert their supply chain, manufacturing process, and the life of its products carbon neutral and that work has already begun. Apple said that it had commitments from over 70 suppliers to use 100% renewable energy for Apple production. The company has a new robot designed to disassemble an iPhone component that contains rare and valuable elements extracted from under the ground, capable of being reused in future devices. According to Apple, all iPhones, iPads, Macs and Apple Watches released in the last year now have recycled rare earth elements. It’s also working with the environmental non-profit, Conservation International, on projects such as restoring a mangrove ecosystem in Columbia as well as a degraded savanna in Kenya. These efforts, and other carbon capture projects, would offset the carbon footprint of using Apple products.
Knowing the efforts of a leading company, Apple was criticised in the fall of 2020. It was because of not including a power adapter with their iPhones even though they explained how it would affect the climate drastically by reducing carbon emissions.
Following Apple, Facebook and Google have also come forward with their plan to go carbon neutral. Google first committed to going carbon neutral back in 2007, the company since then has been successful in cutting all carbon it has ever used. In 2017, Google became a “net-zero” company buying renewable energy for its energy usage, but was unable to commit to fully eliminating carbon-emitting generation. It’s that last objective that Facebook says it will presently meet by 2030 when the company will get 100% supported by renewable energy. Facebook has additionally reported an objective for itself, resolving to net-zero emanations for its whole “value chain” by 2030, including its providers and clients.
“Over the next decade, Facebook will work to reduce carbon emissions from our operations and value chain,” the company said in a blogpost, “including by working with suppliers on their own goals, helping the development of new carbon removal technologies and making our facilities as efficient as possible.”
IKEA is a Swedish worldwide conglomerate that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture, kitchen appliances and home extras, among other valuable merchandise and every so often home services. IKEA has more than 500 shops worldwide and is focused on being environmentally positive by 2030. That includes everything from crude materials to the furthest limit of a product’s life. IKEA arrived at its objective that over 98% of the wood in its items come from responsibly managed forests as confirmed by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or recycled. It dispatched another objective that in any event 33% of wood be reused by 2030, up from 12% a year ago. When asked about sustainability and how they can persuade buyers to consume things during a climate crisis, this is what they said:
“It really means looking at the entirety of our business. We are committed to only use renewable and recycled materials by 2030. We have, for example, already all our cotton in the products, like this sofa, to be sustainable cotton. We are well on our way to have all of our wood being from sustainable sources by 2020. And it’s also looking at: how do we design the products so that they can be repurposed, reused, recycled, etc? So it’s really looking at: how do we build circular design metrics into our products? But then also, how do we engage and reach out to customers, so we are looking at new service models like furniture as a service, starting to test with business-to-business.”
In the fall of 2019, Amazon employees from 25 cities and 14 countries staged marches with regards to the company’s inaction on climate change. The protest was organized by an internal group called “Amazon Employees for Climate Justice”, and its events were captured in the forms of photos and videos and shared on social media platforms. The group consisted of more than 1,800 Amazon employees. It concurred with a more prominent worldwide development to battle climate change, The Global Climate Strike, the week-long worldwide occasion that united young people, work and helpful associations, natural gatherings and company employee collectives. A large number of strikes took place, as per teenage environment activist Greta Thunberg, who is one of the coordinators of this global initiative. After the protests, Amazon’s CEO and founder Jeff Bezos’ committed $10 billion to fight climate change. In 2020, he announced the establishment of a new fund to back scientists, activists and organizations working to mitigate the impact of climate change. Amazon also announced a pledge to go carbon neutral by 2040, ten years before the deadline set out by the Paris Climate Agreement.
It is important to know which companies are willing to fight climate change because their measures are crucial to tackling the growing issue. Such initiatives from companies will lead to more environmentally friendly products and should be supported by people. For us to bring small changes, we need to buy products from such companies who are willing to and do play their part in the fight against climate change.
