Pivoting to suppliers’ emissions

Abstract

Apple declared 2 years ago that it had achieved carbon neutrality—a balance between carbon emitted and carbon absorbed—across its corporate operations. The claim appeared to position the tech giant as a leader among the many companies hoping to make the same announcement by 2050 as signatories to the Paris climate accords. Most companies realize, however, that corporate operations are only one source of their carbon emissions. Every Apple iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Apple TV—indeed, every product the company sells—has a carbon footprint that is not figured into its claims regarding in-house activities. This leaves a lot out. By some estimates , as much as 80% of emissions associated with a company’s products, a measurement known as product carbon footprint (PCF), occur elsewhere along its supply chain. Industry efforts to measure greenhouse gas emissions date back to 1998, when a standard known as the Greenhouse Gas Protocol was introduced by