Apple plans to use the world's first-ever aluminum produced without any carbon emissions in the manufacture of its iPhone SE.
The Apple brand has announced that it will be sourcing "green" aluminum -- that is to say aluminum that is essentially carbon neutral -- through a collaboration with Quebec firm Elysis. Its aluminum is currently the only one to be produced on an industrial scale without generating any carbon emissions during the melting process. The innovative process in fact releases oxygen instead of greenhouse gases. And it is the next iPhone SE that will be the first commercially available product to use this low-carbon aluminum.
Having already turned to the use of recycled aluminum several years ago, Apple has already managed to reduce its carbon emissions associated with aluminum by 70%. Now it's taking another step forward, with the use of commercial-purity low-carbon aluminum.
Apple has been communicating on its efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of materials used in the design of its facilities for years now. For example, Apple's offices, stores and data centers are all powered by clean energy.
Using more environmentally friendly materials in their production is a key challenge facing manufacturers today. In the automotive sector, manufacturers such as Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and Volvo are already using green steel, produced without fossil fuels but with green hydrogen, which is produced from renewable energy.
This type of initiative is intended to considerably reduce these manufacturers' carbon footprints; integrating principles of recycling, sustainable development and circular economy have also become essential for many industrial groups.
