Apple, How Green is Thy Tally?

Greenpeace International, the environmental advocacy group, has taken a second look at Apple’s (News - Alert) corporate responsibility scores, to update the technology titan’s dismal ratings on its Company Scorecard in April. The new scores reflect data from the latest 2012 Environmental Protection Agency data on state energy mixes.

Since the release of the “How Clean is Your Cloud?” report —which included the scorecard—and the launch of the “Clean Our Cloud” campaign targeted at Apple customers worldwide, Apple has made  several announcements related to the energy sources behind its rapidly growing “iCloud” platform. Apple said on May 17 that its North Carolina facility would be powered 100 percent renewably by year’s end, and also is claiming that all three of its data centers will be “coal- free” by the end of 2013.  Included among the company’s newest clean energy commitments are an additional 100-acre solar panel farm attached to its Maiden, North Carolina, facility and a 100-percent renewable energy powered Newark, California, facility. 

However, Greenpeace asserts that, “Beyond the doubling of solar power capacity for its North Carolina facility, Apple has provided few details on how it will accomplish its goal of becoming ‘coal-free.’”

Updates to the April Company Scorecard evaluation are noted below. “Given Apple’s continued lack of transparency and absence of a commitment to expand its cloud with renewable energy, including a siting policy that covers future data center facilities, Apple still finds itself behind other companies, such as Facebook (News - Alert) and Google. Apple has the ingenuity, on-hand cash and innovative spirit to ‘Think Different’ and make substantial improvements in the type of energy that powers its cloud…Apple should be more transparent about each of these commitments for its score to improve,” advised Greenpeace.

Energy Transparency: D

[No change]

Apple continues to be quite selective in disclosing the energy-related details of its iCloud. Although the company has offered up additional details in the past several weeks related to its cloud investments, Apple is still not disclosing data on its energy consumption and supply for its data centers, and has not revealed plans for how its data centers will be powered as they continue to grow. While Greenpeace does see some improvement, the details provided “do not add up” to an improved grade in this category at this time. The group says that Apple should disclose additional data on energy consumption and supply for its data center in order to improve its transparency grade.

Infrastructure Siting: D

[Previous Score F]

Apple’s announcement in May that it planned to upgrade its three data centers (Maiden, North Carolina; Prineville, Oregon; and Newark, California) to be “coal-free” represents, potentially, “a very important step toward an iCloud powered by clean energy,” said Greenpeace Its announcement in June that it would locate its fourth data center in Nevada, where there is access to significant renewable energy sources, is similarly promising.

“However, the company continues to operate without a long-term infrastructure siting policy that expresses a commitment to renewable energy,” Greenpeace notes. “Apple’s recent investments to expand on-site electricity generation in coal-dependent North Carolina highlight the company’s need for a long-term siting policy that would avoid the problem of a coal-powered data center by making sure they never get built. Given the large amounts of investment required to build and sustain data centers for a company such as Apple, a formal siting policy will provide the long-term guidance Apple needs to make the most responsible choices available about its energy use.”

Energy Efficiency and GHG Mitigation: C

[Previous score: D]

Apple’s grade in this category improved to a C from a D, in light of the company’s commitment to make its existing fleet of data centers coal-free, Apple should disclose further details about how it plans to meet that target to improve its score, Greenpeace notes again. Apple has provided high-level evidence of a number of innovative energy efficient design features in its North Carolina iCloud data center—however, Apple’s lack of transparency on the performance of the facility and detail of the energy savings design features make it difficult to evaluate its performance. Then advocacy group notes, “This lack of transparency and detail in the data also make it difficult for other IT brands to learn from and improve upon Apple’s best efficiency practices.”

Renewable Energy Investment and Advocacy: C

[Previous score D]

Apple’s grade in this category also has improved from a C from a D, following the company’s announcement of an additional 100-acre solar farm at its North Carolina facility, and its public commitment to power its North Carolina, Oregon and California data centers with 100 percent renewable energy.

However, the new ratings reflect the fact that Apple has not released the details of how it intends to secure additional local, clean electricity in North Carolina; and appears to be relying on renewable energy credits (RECs) instead of buying renewable electricity directly.

“Apple needs to put its money where its mouth is by looking beyond these first steps and using its tremendous cash reserves to invest in or directly purchase renewable energy,” said Greenpeace. “Apple should also apply pressure on its North Carolina energy supplier, Duke Energy (News - Alert), to shift its investments away from mountaintop removal of coal and increase the amount of renewable energy it is putting on the grid in North Carolina. Apple has made commitments to move to 100-percent renewable electricity for its Prineville facility, but has not revealed plans yet for how it will achieve that goal.”

In summary, the organization advises Apple’s customers to watch to see if Apple takes the following steps, which “would indicate if it is truly on the path to meet its ambitious goals.” Apple should:

• Choose a renewable-powered local utility for its Oregon data center, not buy renewable energy credits from coal-powered Pacific Power.
• Use renewable electricity from on-site generation to directly power its North Carolina facility; and use grid power solely for backup, rather than selling its renewable electricity to Duke Energy.
• Secure a sustainable source of biogas to directly power its fuel cells for North Carolina.
• Retire renewable energy credits from electricity generated on-site in North Carolina
• Invest directly in new renewable energy generation in North Carolina rather than buying renewable credits to “green” Duke Energy’s dirty electricity.
• Demand Duke Energy eliminate its mountaintop coal removal operations from Apple’s electricity supply chain, and demand that Duke invest in new renewable energy generation capacity—not retrofitting and extending the lifetime of dirty coal plants.
• Adopt a data center siting policy that prioritizes access to renewable energy for any future iCloud data centers.

“Apple has the potential to set a new bar with its coal-free iCloud commitment, but its plans to reach this goal are still mostly talk and not enough walk,” said Greenpeace International Senior IT Analyst, Gary Cook.

“Apple, as a client of Duke Energy, is an accomplice to the health emergency caused by mountain top removal mining in Appalachia,” said Mickey McCoy, a mountaintop removal activist in Kentucky. “If Apple wants to be part of a clean energy future, it should demand that Duke abandon coal from mountaintop removal that is killing people and destroying communities in central Appalachia.”

“It’s great that Apple is putting up solar panels, but as long as they’re buying electricity from Duke, they’re part of the coal problem, and that means more bad air days for North Carolinians,” said Beth Henry, a Charlotte resident who has been actively fighting against Duke’s pollution. “We need Apple's help to push Duke away from coal and into clean renewable energy in North Carolina.”

More than 250,000 customers of Apple, Amazon and Microsoft (News - Alert) have written to the companies asking for a cleaner cloud since Greenpeace launched its Clean Our Cloud campaign.

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