Apple's Carbon-Neutral Odyssey

PROJECT GOAL:

Apple, having achieved carbon neutrality in its corporate operations in 2020, set an ambitious goal to make its products carbon neutral by 2030. This endeavor involves reducing emissions by 75% from the 2015 baseline (38.4 million metric tons CO2e), with the remaining 25% to be offset through carbon credits, ultimately reaching net-zero emissions.

PROJECT STEPS:

The project began with the acquisition and import of three critical CSV tables from Maven Analytics: "Greenhouse Gas Emissions" detailing emissions by category and scope from 2015 to 2022, "Carbon Footprint by Product" outlining emissions from baseline iPhone models released between 2015-2022, and "Normalizing Factors" containing revenue, market capitalization, and employee data for the same period.

Data preprocessing, profiling, and cleaning were executed in Power Query, followed by data modeling and the creation of DAX measures. Notably, the data provided in the tables required relatively minimal effort in these preliminary steps.

The culmination of the project involved the visualization of key insights on Apple's journey to carbon neutrality, where the primary focus was dedicated to crafting impactful visuals that tell the story effectively.

THESE ARE THE KEY INSIGHTS:

Apple's Carbon Emission Challenge:

Apple set new goals an ambitious mission is to dramatically reduce their carbon emissions. Beginning with 38 million tons of CO2 emissions in 2015, the company aims to reach an impressive milestone by the end of 2030, targeting a reduction to just 9.6 million tons of CO2. It is anticipated that this goal will be successfully achieved as early as 2027, showcasing the remarkable progress made. Currently, Apple has already reduced its CO2 emissions by an impressive 47.2% compared to the baseline year of 2015.

Beyond Carbon Neutrality: Unlocking Apple's Environmental Commitment:

Furthermore, analysis indicates that Apple is on track to surpass their 2030 target, with projected emissions exceeding the goal by 35.5% in that year.

Product CO2 Footprint Over Years:

The iPhone X's 79 kg CO2 footprint in 2017 left an indelible mark, representing 12.4% of the total emissions. Alongside it, the iPhone 8, released in the same year, contributed 57 kg CO2 and held an 8.9% share of emissions. In contrast, the eco-conscious iPhone 6s and iPhone 7 displayed the lowest carbon footprints at 54 kg and 56 kg CO2, contributing 8.5% and 8.8% to the total emissions.

Carbon Footprints: Models, Baseline Storage and the Evolution Over Time:

Total carbon emissions from all Apple product models over the years amount to 639 kg.

Among baseline storage variants, the 64GB storage models have left the largest carbon footprint, totaling 348 kg CO2 over the years. Notably, in 2017, the release of iPhone X and iPhone 8 contributed 12.4% and 8.9% of the total emissions, respectively.

Products with a storage baseline of 32GB, like the iPhone 6s (2015) and iPhone 7 (2016), together contributed 110 kg CO2, displaying impressive eco-friendly attributes, especially considering their early release in Apple's carbon neutrality journey.

Recent models like the iPhone 13 (2021), iPhone 14 (2022), and iPhone 15 (2023) with 128GB baseline storage have shown a positive trend, aligning with Apple's sustainability goals.

Together, these three models released a total of 181 kg CO2, indicating a promising shift in Apple's environmental efforts.

Scope Insights & Share of CO2 Emissions:

Within the Scopes framework, it's evident that Scope 3 takes the lead as the largest contributor to carbon emissions, generating a substantial 211 million tons of CO2 over the years.

A significant portion of this comes from the Product Life Cycle Emissions category, accounting for 209 million tons of CO2.

Within this category, the greatest emitter is Manufacturing (purchased goods and services), responsible for a substantial 157 million tons of CO2. Following closely are Product Use (39 million tons) and Product Transportation (12 million tons), collectively forming the primary sources of CO2 emissions over the years.

Manufacturing (purchased goods and services), Product Use, and Product Transportation collectively dominate the emissions landscape, accounting for a significant 74%, 18%, and 6%, respectively.

Balancing Growth and Green Initiatives - Apple's Financial Triumph Towards Carbon Neutrality:

Revenue reached $394 billion in 2022, showing a growth of 68.7% since 2015 and 7.8% compared to the previous year.

Market capitalization reached $2,490 billion in 2022, an extraordinary 329.3% growth since 2015, with a 1.6% increase from the previous year.

The number of full-time employees grew to 164,000 in 2022, a 49.1% increase from 2015 and a 6.5% increase from the previous year.

Despite these impressive trends in revenue, market capitalization, and employee numbers, it's important to note that available analyses do not indicate any direct correlation between these financial and employment metrics and Apple's carbon footprint reduction efforts. These metrics demonstrate Apple's strong financial performance and growing workforce but are not inherently indicative of the environmental impact of the company's operations.