Revealed: How Apple’s Qld macadamia project is fighting climate change
Apple is expanding its fight against destructive global warming through clever robots, new solar farms, and an 800,000-tree macadamia plantation in Queensland.
Queensland macadamia nuts are helping tech giant Apple reach its goal of combating climate change which threatens to bring more extreme weather and storms to Australia.
Apple has also announced it will expand its renewable energy capacity in Australia, starting with a solar project under construction in Lancaster, Victoria.
In the next five years, the company will match all of the energy customers use to charge and power their Apple products with 100 per cent clean electricity.
Apple-backed projects that will generate more than one million megawatt-hours of clean electricity in Australia on behalf of its users before 2030.
Through a long-term agreement with European Energy, Apple helped enable the 80MW solar project, which is expected to begin generating power next year.
The company is also involved in a Restore Fund project in Queensland, transforming 1700 hectares of degraded sugarcane farmland south of Bundaberg into a macadamia orchard with more than 800,000 trees spanning more than eight kilometres.
The project will reintroduce native species and be regeneratively managed to improve soil quality, increase water efficiency, boost biodiversity and sequester carbon.
A 100-hectare restoration area will also serve as a biodiversity corridor linking two bordering national parks.
The company also announced a new investment in New Zealand.
Apple and partner Climate Asset Management will protect and restore 8600 hectares of forestland across four sites in the Central North Island and one in the South Island, through redwood forests alongside the conservation of 3000 hectares of native forestland.
Apple vice president of environment, policy and social Initiatives Lisa Jackson said Apple had proven businesses could not only tackle climate change through innovation but also maintain profitability.
Apple also says it is building its products to last longer, use more recycled materials, and encouraging customers to trade their own devices in to reduce e-waste.
It is using various types of robots, including one dubbed Daisy, to break down old devices to harvest key materials which can be reused in new devices.
Apple’s robots systematically and efficiently disassemble used iPhones to recover valuable materials like aluminium, gold, and rare earth elements.
Each Daisy robot can process about 200 iPhones per hour, or 1.2 million per year – about 18 seconds per device.
While some politicians in Australia have moved away from net zero commitments, citing rising costs for consumers, Ms Jackson argues that Apple and its suppliers have proven it can be done.
“One thing I would say is that it is incredibly important to me to emphasise that business has to have a voice in the discussions because it will be business that solves the problems and the challenges,’’ she told this publication.
“I’m a former regulator myself but what brought me to Apple was my belief, from all my years there, that if business is given certainty about what’s expected from us and if business is given a set of things that aren’t going to change over time, then you can meet that road map somewhere along the line
“It’s been really important to us at Apple to demonstrate what we believe is possible and doable, and to do it always with an eye towards it, you know, making sure we’re doing it for ourselves and we’re not having a negative impact on the communities, whether that be on energy or restoration or, you know, big land use decisions.
The Apple environment leader said Australia was ‘an immensely impressive place’ with incredible landscapes and great opportunities to lead the way in the fight against climate change.
“But it all has to be done with an eye towards the people, the community, and of course, the economy.”
Apple has worked with its own suppliers to ensure more environmentally friendly practices.
Ms Jackson said the approach involved both incentives and mandates but always leading by example.
“It’s hard to lead without first demonstrating that you’re going to eat the meal that you’re cooking.
“We started with the approach of, let’s show you how we’ve done it and let’s show you how you can do it in a way that is business forward.
“You know, that makes sense from a business perspective.
“Although now, because of our commitment to moving forward and clean energy in our supply chain, we are requiring it.”
Apple had also had to be realistic about the fact the world was not going to get to net zero quickly so it had focused on carbon removal projects such as the massive tree planting projects in Bundaberg and New Zealand.
“We love the idea of using what Mother Nature has given us, which is the growth of trees, the growth of the grasslands, the growth of the forests, and mangroves which all remove carbon from the air,’’ Ms Jackson said.
She said the beauty of the macadamia project was that it produced cash for carbon offsets while the New Zealand project was ‘producing a ton of carbon removal’ through new trees.
Ms Jackson, a trained engineer herself, said she loved giving engineers a challenge to improve environmental outcomes.
“I like to say if you have a hard problem at Apple, you walk into a room of engineers and tell them it’s impossible, they will sit there, until they figure it out because they just don’t believe that.
“And those are changes that can help the whole industry.”
But ultimately she said Apple’s approach was about ensuring “there isn’t a trade-off between performance and quality and the planet and to innovate through that challenge.”
“I think we’ve already proven that you can reduce your carbon footprint.
“You know, ours is down since 2015, something like 60%. And our revenues are up about the same amount since 2015.”
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Originally published as Revealed: How Apple’s Qld macadamia project is fighting climate change
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