Apple pressed suppliers to curb emissions, save resources and expand clean power as part of a broader push for the tech company to become carbon neutral across its supply chain within the next four years, according to its 2026 Environmental Progress Report released April 16.
In 2025, Apple and its direct suppliers saved billions of gallons of fresh water and added 20 gigawatts of renewable energy. They also redirected hundreds of thousands of metric tons of waste from landfills, the company reported.
“Decarbonizing our supply chain is a crucial component of our efforts as it represents the largest portion of our carbon footprint,” the report said. “Weʼre driving progress by requiring suppliers to source renewable energy and increase the use of recycled and renewable materials in the manufacturing of our products.”
From 2021 to 2025, those efforts helped Apple cut its gross manufacturing emissions by more than half to 8.15 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, a unit that expresses greenhouse gases in terms of their warming impact.
Apple has set a goal of cutting emissions 75% from 2015 levels and offsetting the rest to become carbon neutral by 2030. The company ended 2025 with 60% lower greenhouse gas emissions than in 2015. But the emissions were unchanged from 2024, suggesting that "the remaining 15 points sit in the portions of the footprint that clean energy investment alone cannot resolve," Carolina Milanesi, president and principal analyst at technology research firm Creative Strategies, said in a LinkedIn post.
Apple's largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions is the electricity used by its manufacturing suppliers, according to the company. Apple has sought to lower those emissions through a Supplier Code of Conduct requiring its entire supply chain to use 100% renewable electricity for all Apple production before 2030.
Last year, Apple suppliers brought online more than 20 gigawatts of renewable energy, avoiding more than 26 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, according to Apple. To bring green power online, suppliers are using new procurement structures, including sourcing from corporate entities, in geographies such as China, Japan and South Korea.
"While weʼve seen progress in key markets, cost-effective procurement remains challenging, and we continue to advocate for policies that enable renewable energy to compete fairly with fossil fuels and subsidized power rates, opening more avenues for our suppliers to transition to sourcing 100 percent renewable electricity," Apple's report says.
Challenges also exist in Apple’s pursuit of recycled materials to meet sustainability targets, per the report. They include contamination during the recycling process and technical limitations in recovering materials from complex waste streams. Also, information about the source of materials might not be readily available.
Even so, on waste disposal, more than 400 supplier facilities across 15 countries redirected over 600,000 metric tons of waste from landfills in 2025, raising Apple's Zero Waste Program diversion total to 4 million metric tons since the program’s inception in 2015, per the report. Notable achievements include coolant and phosphoric-acid recycling techniques at the facilities.
Apple worked with its suppliers to save 17 billion gallons of freshwater across its supply chain. The company also said 30% of product materials came from recycled or renewable sources in 2025.
Priority materials that reached Apple's goal of 100% recycled sourcing included gold, tantalum, rare earth elements for magnets, cobalt for Apple-designed batteries and tin solder for company-designed printed circuit boards.
In addition to recycling, Apple is working with suppliers on sourcing safer chemicals. Last year, Apple approved more than 70 new safer cleaners for use in the supply chain, bringing the vetted list of approved cleaning products to 300, according to the report.
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