Net Zero: Apple’s Carbon Neutral Journey. Will This Company Make It ?

Challenge Objective

In 2020, after announcing their corporate operations were officially carbon neutral, Apple pledged to make their products carbon neutral by 2030. To achieve this goal, they set their emissions for 2015 (38.4 million metric tons CO2e) as the baseline and will aim to reduce them by 75% by 2030. The remaining 25% of gross emissions (9.6 million metric tons CO2e) will be removed using carbon offsets, bringing the net emissions to 0.

Task

To visualize their progress towards becoming carbon neutral in 2030.

Approach and Key Findings:

Tracking Emissions Over Time: A Glimpse into the Future:

First I created a new measure that sums up the gross emission from product life cycle only. This is done because corporate emissions are already carbon neutral and the aim is to reduce the carbon emission of Apple products by 75%. I then tracked the emission rate from 2015 to 2022 and then used Forecast feature in Power BI to generate a forecast based on historical data. Based on the graph, it is clear that if Apple continues on this path it will be able to reduce 75% by 2028, two years ahead of schedule. But the carbon offset goal to reduce the remaining 25% (9.6 million metric tons) still remains.

While, carbon offset is a reduction or removal of emissions of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases made in order to compensate for emissions made elsewhere, Carbon removal is the process of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and locking it away. For this project we only have carbon removal data and so far Apple is able to remove 1.06 million metric tons of CO2e. (Note: carbon removal will slowdown and limit climate change but this is not a substitute for cutting greenhouse gas emissions)

The Biggest Contributor to Carbon Footprint:

Scope 3 emissions contribute to the majority of carbon footprint. These are are indirect greenhouse gas emissions that occur in the upstream and downstream value chain of a company, which include activities like business travel, transportation of goods etc., They are not directly controlled by the company, but they are still relevant to its overall carbon footprint.

The Carbon Footprint Of Your Favorite Apple Product:

I used area chart to showcase the carbon footprint of different products, sorted by the release year.

iPhone X release in 2017 has the highest carbon footprint of 79.

The carbon footprint of Apple's products has decreased in recent years, from 72 to 56 in the last 5 years. This suggests that Apple has taken steps to reduce the carbon footprint of its products.

While, 56 is a good number for carbon footprint, especially for a product like a smartphone, there is still room for improvement, if they plan to stay on track to achieve their carbon neutral goal.

Apple's Business Performance:

From the graph below we can see there is gradual growth both in terms of revenue and market capitalization. And there is a steep growth between 2020 and 2021, my guess is that its because of the pandemic when everything went online and everyone including children needed smartphones for their classes.

Furthermore, I have also listed a few ways using which we can reduce the carbon footprint both at business level and at individual level.

Tools Used:

Power BI for Data Analysis

PowerPoint for Presentation