For years, Apple has been chasing the dream of clean energy, and the company boasts about it pretty well. Now it seems that it can finally announce an achievement to everyone. Apple announced that their facilities are now 100 percent powered by renewable energy. In 2016, the company stood at 96 percent, according to its latest energy report.
Apple says that the new milestone covered power usage in its stores, data centers, offices and co-located sites across 43 countries. For manufacturing, the company received commitments from 23 partners (including Quanta Computers and Pegatron) to build Apple products using renewable energy.
While the company has announced that it’s powered by 100 percent renewable energy, this doesn’t mean that it’s directly connected to clean energy. In some cases, the company is putting renewables back into the grid to help offset the fossil fuels it uses. The company has claimed that it currently has 25 renewable energy projects in operation around the globe and generates 626 megawatts. That’s not all because there are 15 more projects coming that will in total give Apple 1.4 gigawatts of green energy production.
“We’re committed to leaving the world better than we found it. After years of hard work we’re proud to have reached this significant milestone,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. “We’re going to keep pushing the boundaries of what is possible with the materials in our products, the way we recycle them, our facilities and our work with suppliers to establish new creative and forward-looking sources of renewable energy because we know the future depends on it.”