Apple announced that its all-new Watch Series 9 marks its first-ever carbon neutral product, representing the iPhone maker’s giant step towards its ambitious goal of meeting carbon neutrality by 2030. 

Apple’s carbon emissions reduction strategy focuses on three key areas: electricity, materials, and transportation. 

The tech giant underlines the importance of reducing emissions within these sectors before using high-quality carbon credits from nature-based projects to offset any remaining emissions.

Apple’s Decade-Long Journey to 2030 Carbon Neutrality 

Apple’s path to carbon neutrality began over a decade ago and has since achieved significant milestones. In 2020, the company attained carbon neutrality for its global corporate operations and announced the Apple 2030 strategy, aiming for carbon neutrality or net zero carbon across its entire value chain by 2030.

Achieving carbon neutral corporate operations involves the use of 324,100 metric tons (Mt) CO2e of carbon removal credits. 

The company’s 2030 strategy revolves around a 75% reduction in overall carbon emissions from 2015 levels. And Apple has already reduced total emissions by more than 45% while simultaneously increasing revenue by over 65%. 

Apple Net Zero Emissions Roadmap

While the tech giant is still working its way towards its 2030 climate goal, it managed to achieve a significant milestone as it announced its first-ever carbon-neutral watch series. 

The Apple Watch lineup reduces product emissions by over 75% for each carbon-neutral watch. These watches were selected based on strict criteria, including the following:

100% clean electricity for manufacturing and product usage.
30% recycled or renewable material by weight.
At least 50% of shipping is without air transportation.

In the company’s carbon footprint calculations shown above, they also account for the emissions needed to generate clean electricity. This specifically refers to manufacturing renewable energy infrastructure, such as wind and solar farms. 

Only after implementing those carbon reduction efforts does Apple resort to offset residual emissions through high-quality carbon credits, ultimately achieving a carbon-neutral product footprint. 

The Carbon Footprint of Apple Watch SE paired with Sport Loop

In the case of Apple Watch SE paired with Sport Loop, the remaining 7.2kg of carbon emissions were offset with carbon removal credits. These carbon offsets are from Apple’s nature-based solutions through its Restore Fund program. The company expanded this program by doubling its investment up to $200 million in April this year. 

How About The Other Products?

Though revealing the carbon neutrality of Apple Watch is something, the company seeks to achieve the same for all its products by 2030. That means including emissions of other Apple watches, iPhones, iPad, iPod, MacBook, and more. 

Considering that Apple Watch SE has the least carbon footprint, the company still has huge emissions to reduce and offset. 

Source: 8billiontrees.com

For various iPhone and iPad models, the total CO2 footprint is around 4,500 kg. This figure includes only one product per model, and Apple sells millions of each model worldwide. 

According to Apple’s Environmental Report 2023, its total product life cycle emissions (Scope 3) in 2022 is >20 million Mt. To offset 25% of these emissions, the company would need over 5 million Mt of carbon removals.

Investing Heavily in Carbon Removals

Carbon removal is crucial to tackling the climate crisis and meeting global climate goals. 

After massive reductions in product emissions, Apple will cover residual emissions with high-quality carbon removal credits primarily from nature-based projects. These include protecting forests and restoring grasslands and wetlands. 

Apple defines high-quality carbon credits as those coming from projects that are real, additional, measurable, permanent and quantified. The tech company has been advancing carbon removal initiatives that meet those quality criteria through its Restore Fund program. 

The carbon removal funding supports projects in Latin America, generating credits certified by international standards such as Verra. Other certifying organizations are the Climate, Community & Biodiversity Standards and the Forest Stewardship Council.

For the carbon neutral Apple Watch models, the carbon offsets used will come from projects that restore and protect forests in Paraguay and Brazil. This is in partnership with Arbaro Advisors and BTG Pactual Timberland Investment Group.

Apple’s commitment to environmental sustainability extends beyond carbon neutrality. The company has also made the following efforts:

Ceased the use of leather across all its product lines;
Introduced entirely fiber-based packaging for the new Apple Watch lineup;
Increasingly incorporated recycled materials into iPhone production; and 
The Home app features a new tool called Grid Forecast, aiding users in selecting cleaner energy sources for electricity consumption.

Clean Energy, Sustainable Design, and Low-Carbon Materials

Apple plays a pivotal role in advocating for clean energy and supports its suppliers in transitioning to renewable power sources. The company actively invests in large-scale solar and wind projects and collaborates with manufacturing partners to promote clean energy adoption.

Currently, Apple and its global suppliers collectively support over 15 gigawatts of clean energy worldwide, sufficient to power over 5 million American homes. 

Apple’s Supplier Clean Energy Program, joined by 300+ suppliers, commits to 100% renewable electricity for Apple production by 2030.

Moreover, Apple designs products with sustainability at their core, incorporating recycled materials into their creation. The company is phasing out leather in favor of FineWoven, a textile made from 68% post-consumer recycled content. The company also aims to use 100% recycled metals in key components by 2025.

Looking Beyond 2030

Beyond its carbon neutrality goals, Apple also commits to supporting broader efforts to decarbonize shipping industries and identifying pathways for developing sustainable aviation fuels. The company also supports other innovations such as alternative fuels and electric vehicles.

Apple’s commitment to a 90% reduction in emissions by 2050 underscores the company’s role in the fight against climate change. Apple advocates for collective action, urging governments, businesses, and individuals to join forces in accelerating progress toward a sustainable future.

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At Dreamforce 2023, Salesforce revealed that it’s harnessing the power of AI technology to revolutionize its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting platform, Net Zero Cloud, to help companies thrive in a rapidly evolving regulatory landscape.

Powered by “Einstein”, Salesforce Net Zero Cloud’s generative AI capabilities will suggest reliable, auto-generated responses to help businesses simplify the process of ESG reporting. Emphasizing the role of their platform, General Manager and VP Ari Alexander noted:

“Equipped with Einstein, Net Zero Cloud will help simplify the process of reporting ESG data, offering a valuable solution that any company can leverage towards achieving net zero.”

ESG Reporting Towards Net Zero

ESG offers a set of criteria through which to determine the impacts of a company on people and the planet. The “E” particularly focuses on environmental stewardship and shows the performance of the company’s efforts towards climate change. This is the main criteria that Net Zero centers on.

Addressing such a great concern for companies, Salesforce created the Net Zero Cloud as a comprehensive sustainability solution. It allows corporations to easily access and report on their environmental footprint for all scopes – 1, 2, and 3, as shown below.

The net zero platform also handles the two other criteria metrics, S and G, and produces reports in line with known ESG reporting standards, including SASB, CDP, and GRI. And most recently, the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) standards. 

Starting next year, about 50,000 businesses, including multinational companies based in the US, must comply with the EU CSRD. The new directive requires companies to report both climate-related financial risks, societal impact, and supply chain emissions (Scope 3). 

Salesforce further revamped its Net Zero Cloud by adding two more capabilities: CSRD Report Builder and Materiality Assessment. The first one automates the generation of CSRD reports while the second aids companies in gauging what’s “material” to focus on. 

The Power of AI in Generating ESG Reports

According to McKinsey, a successful ESG implementation can lower operating costs by up to 60%. But that is in exchange for a lot of time that finance officers have invested in collecting and disclosing ESG data.  

This is where generative AI technology becomes helpful as is the case with Salesforce’s Einstein for Net Zero Cloud. 

With Einstein, the platform will suggest responses based on prompts that align with certain reporting framework criteria to help a company simplify its ESG reports authoring process. 

For instance, Einstein can refer to the previous year’s ESG reports, uploaded impact or compliance reports, and other data uploaded to the cloud platform, such as carbon emissions. 

Einstein will then utilize the data to generate automatic responses for every item in the report.

The other Net Zero Cloud innovations will further help companies take charge and manage their ESG disclosures more efficiently. They are important reporting tools as governments begin to make ESG disclosures mandatory.

The CSRD Report Builder particularly enables businesses to generate ESG reports in line with CSRD requirements, such as “double materiality”. This new capability further broadens the scope of the platform’s report builders.

The other feature of materiality assessment will help ESG managers determine the aspects most material to the company. With ESG-align results, the company can then design their ESG reporting strategy better. 

Various companies have been using Salesforce Net Zero Cloud for their ESG disclosures. 

The iconic winter sports brand Rossignol, for instance, is using the platform to manage its carbon emissions. Doing so helps the company become accountable for its environmental responsibility and accelerate its journey to net zero. Rossignol is investing in nature by taking part in the global movement committed to growing 1 trillion trees by 2030. 

Salesforce has also shown its own climate commitment by implementing multiple initiatives at COP27 in Egypt last year. 

The cloud-based tech company has also launched a first-of-its-kind carbon credit solution, the Net Zero Marketplace, in 2022. It’s a trusted platform that makes the process of buying carbon credits easy and transparent.

Einstein for Net Zero Cloud will be available in Spring 2024 while the CSRD Report Builder and the Materiality Assessment features will be available starting October this year.

As ESG reporting becomes increasingly mandatory, Salesforce’s commitment to sustainability shines through, offering a valuable tool for businesses striving to achieve net zero. Its latest Net Zero Cloud innovations empower companies to navigate ESG disclosures more easily and more efficiently.

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First Hydrogen Corp. (TSXV: FHYD) announced that fleet management company Rivus has released its report “First Hydrogen LCV Trial”, the first  independent analysis of First Hydrogen’s hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered vehicle (FCEV) versus similar battery electric (BEV) and diesel vehicles used over the same duty cycles. 

First Hydrogen is a Vancouver and London UK-based company focusing on zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) and green hydrogen production. It is the first company to demonstrate a FCEV for the light commercial vehicle market on British roads. It has designed and built FCEV LCV in partnerships with AVL Powertrain and Ballard Power Systems Inc. 

The LCV has a range of 630+  kilometers and is being trialed with an initial 16 fleet operators in the UK. 

Over 100 Stops A Day

Rivus’ report provides an objective first impression of its experience with First Hydrogen’s FCEV. the UK-based fleet management provider concluded in the report that:

“…overall, the vehicle performed very well during testing, appearing much more robust than BEV in terms of how vehicle efficiency was affected by different load factors.” 

A copy of the report is available on First Hydrogen’s website.  

The hydrogen company has been working with significant fleets such as the Aggregated Hydrogen Freight Consortium (AHFC). After accomplishing successful trials, First Hydrogen’s FCEV gained interest from delivery businesses. 

The hydrogen vehicles were built to take on longer distances but they also come with hybrid engines (fuel cell and battery) for shorter journeys.

For journeys with plenty of starts and stops, regenerative braking recharges the vehicle’s battery. This is important for delivery vehicles wherein drivers need to have lots of drop-offs and pick-ups. With First Hydrogen’s FCEV, they can make more than 100 stops a day.

Refueling the vehicle is also much faster, which is only 5 minutes compared to a similar EV,  (5 hours). This minimizes vehicle down-time while extending daily duty cycles and thus, offers greater operational flexibility. 

First Hydrogen’s FCEV Beats Expectations

Study shows that parcel delivery vehicle market size will be over $210 billion by 2032. This projection can further go up as e-commerce continues to rise rapidly, fueling the growth of the delivery market. 

Moreover, with over 9 million online sellers across the globe selling products via the internet, parcel delivery will definitely increase. This is expected to result in more drivers on the road to cater to the growing parcels for delivery daily. It means more vehicles will also be needed, leading to more emissions. 

But with hydrogen-powered fleets, parcel delivery service providers can effectively deal with the associated carbon emissions. First Hydrogen’s FCEV, with its 5-minute refueling and >100 stops, offers a promising solution, as reported by Rivus. 

Earlier last month, SSE, one of the UK’s largest energy infrastructure firms, also tested the vehicles. They are the first to road test First Hydrogen’s hydrogen-powered vehicles. SSE trial results also showed that actual road performance beats pre-trial expectations, suggesting that heavier payloads and driving at higher speeds don’t significantly reduce the range or impact vehicle performance. 

First Hydrogen has launched its specialized vehicle design phase which will develop its fleet of proprietary ZEVs while also developing refueling capability working with FEV.

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Companies operating in the European Union will have to deal with new non-financial and sustainability reporting requirements starting January 2024 with the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).

The CSRD advancement shows a change in how governments are regarding the reporting of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) data, which include a company’s carbon emissions. 

ESG reporting is crucial in helping stakeholders, particularly investors, evaluate the risk of their investments by knowing the company’s impact on the people and the planet. It also helps them understand how climate change disasters can impact the business. Robust sustainability reporting is also vital in establishing trust and enhancing a company’s reputation.

In the U.S., the Securities and Exchange Commission is busy fine-tuning its own climate disclosure regulations. This new climate rule, which will get finalized this fall, requires companies to report climate risk for the first time.

What is the EU CSRD and Its Objectives?

The CSRD, which came into effect in January, is a significant expansion of the required sustainability or ESG reporting. In July this year, the European Commission adopted the first of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) for entities subject to the CSRD. 

The ESRSs are now under a 2-month scrutiny period during which the EU Council and the EP will deliberate it for approval (or rejection). Once approved, it will replace the current Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD) framework. 

CSRD aims to improve the quality of sustainability reporting throughout the region, both for EU and non-EU businesses. It will replace the existing reporting framework and broaden the scope of companies covered, from 11,000 initially to now 50,000.

Businesses earning $166 million or €150 million a year and have listed securities on the bloc’s regulated market fall under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive scope.

From 2024 onwards, the new directive will extend the scope of the EU taxonomy and mandate disclosure against ESG indicators. 

Objectives of the CSRD:

The CSRD will help channel capital flows into sustainable businesses, playing a critical role in the region’s Sustainable Finance Strategy. This is essential to ensure that the European Green Deal goals are achievable, particularly:

Reduce net GHG emissions by at least 55% by 2030 versus 1990 levels
Reach climate neutrality by 2050 (net zero emissions)

Meeting these targets are possible only if financiers have access to sufficient information on the company’s sustainability data and performance. Only by having enough information that they can decide accordingly and invest in sustainable businesses, which the CSRD will provide.

The binding framework creates a comprehensive, transparent, and uniform reporting for the companies in the EU. Developing the directive has been informed by international references, such as the TCFD, CDP and the EU taxonomy.

The EU taxonomy is key in promoting investments in sustainable activities to enable the region to achieve net zero targets. It allows the sustainability assessment of economic activities that represent over 93% of GHG emissions in the bloc.

Failure to comply with the new reporting framework will lead to significant fines.

CSRD Focus and Key Principles

The ESRS are the ESG quantitative and qualitative indicators to report under the new directive. The reporting requirements are breakdown into three major ESG categories:

Source: eco-act.com

The major reporting guidelines and principles under the ESRS are the following:

Double materiality: Materiality assessment on topics relating to matters that are either significant for the business (financial) or from ESG (impact).

Scope: Company’s entire value chain.

Time horizon: Qualitative and quantitative information that covers short-term, medium-term, and long-term periods, when necessary.

Due diligence: Procedures for identifying, preventing, mitigating, and accounting for the impacts on the planet and people.

Verification: Must be verified annually by third-party, independent audit firm accredited by each member state.

Who Is Impacted by the CSRD?

The directive will apply to large EU companies, listed or not, and non-EU large companies listed on EU regulated markets. These businesses often have 250+ employees and have a total balance sheet of >€20 million. 

EU and non-EU small and medium enterprises (SMEs) listed on the region’s regulated markets are also affected. Micro-enterprises are exempted but small and non-complex credit providers and captive insurance companies are not. 

Lastly, the CSRD mandate will also impact large non-EU entities with significant activity in the bloc, with turnover of >€150 million, and have a large branch or subsidiary in the region.

When, Where, And How to Report?

Same with the existing framework, the new directive requires reporting for non-financial information in companies’ annual reports. 

The report can be in single consolidated format or in 4 separate sections – general information, Environmental, Social, and Governance. Or companies may also use references from the ESRS guide, for example ESRS E2-5, par. 22.

So, the ESG reporting is annual, adhering to the following timeline:

Source: European Commission

Moreover, a major difference between the existing reporting framework and CSRD is how the information is shared. There are certain digital formats in which CSRD mandates that companies must use to share their reports.

They must also use digital tags so it’s machine-readable under the European Single Access Point (ESAP). Digitalization is important to enhance access to and reuse of the data. ESAP will handle information accessibility, analysis and comparability of these reports.

Finally, companies that have been following the CDP may find it easier to align their reporting with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. That’s because of the 140 indicators in the new climate change reporting standard, up to 90% align with the CDP Climate Change 2023 Questionnaire. 

IN summary, the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive represents a significant shift in ESG reporting, expanding the scope and depth of sustainability disclosures. By providing comprehensive and transparent reporting guidelines, the CSRD aims to channel investments into sustainable businesses, contributing to Europe’s ambitious net zero goals.

The post The EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD): Key Things to Know appeared first on Carbon Credits.