Apple's iPhone SE is Constructed of a New Low-Carbon Aluminum
The Low-Cost Phone will assist Apple in reducing its Environmental Impact.
Apple revealed today that its 4.7 billion Green Bond investments have aided in the development of new low-carbon manufacturing and recycling technologies. Since 2016, Apple has issued three Green Bonds, with projects demonstrating how the investments may help cut global emissions and bring sustainable energy to communities all across the world.
Apple is procuring straight carbon-free aluminum as part of this effort, thanks to a big development in smelting technology that reduces emissions. The aluminum is the first to be produced on a large scale outside of a lab without emitting any carbon dioxide during the smelting process. The material will be used in the iPhone SE, according to the business.
Apple's vice president of environment, policy, and social initiatives, Lisa Jackson: Apple is dedicated to leaving the world in a better state than we found it, and our Green Bonds are a key tool in that effort. Our investments are helping to advance the breakthrough technologies needed to lower the carbon footprint of the materials we use, even as we transition to using solely recyclable and renewable materials throughout our entire product line in order to conserve the earth's finite resources.
Apple is proud of its ability to recycle metal, and now it's working to reduce the metal's environmental impact. The latest iPhone SE, according to Apple, is the first product made at an industrial scale from "commercial-purity" low-carbon aluminium. Elysis, based in Montreal, Canada, made a batch for Apple utilising a carbon-free, hydropower-based smelting method that produces oxygen instead of greenhouse emissions.
The two firms did not specify how many iPhone SE units will be made of aluminum. The frame is made of metal, but the back is made of glass, which aids wireless charging and data reception.
It has taken a long time for this to happen. Apple aided development through a partnership with Alcoa, Rio Tinto, the Canadian government, and the provincial government of Quebec. The tech giant also purchased the first supply of aluminum from the union, which will be used to make the 16-inch MacBook Pro starting in 2019. According to Apple, aluminum-related carbon emissions have decreased by about 70% since 2015.
Apple stated that it had frequently invested in projects like these by issuing three $4.7 billion "Green Bonds."
The funds for Elysis' low-carbon aluminum come from a bond issued in 2019 that will fund 50 projects, including those that will "mitigate or offset" 2.9 million metric tones of CO2 and install nearly 700MW of renewable energy.
The efforts help burnish Apple's image as much as they may reduce the company's contribution to climate change — like Samsung and other competitors, Apple wants to reassure customers who are concerned that their new phone will cause unnecessary harm. However, greater use of this environmentally friendly aluminum will aid Apple in meeting its goal of selling carbon-neutral products by 2030. Carbon reductions like this could have a tangible impact, given Apple's sheer market clout.
