Apple has announced its first-ever carbon-neutral products in the all-new Apple Watch lineup as part of its ambitious 2030 climate goal and also ended the use of leather across all of its product lines. The company will replace leather with a new textile called FineWoven, an elegant and durable twill made from 68 percent post-consumer recycled content.
FineWoven offers a subtle luster and a soft, suede-like feel, and is available on iPhone MagSafe cases and wallets as well as the Magnetic Link and Modern Buckle Apple Watch bands. The company also introduced a new tool in the Home app called Grid Forecast, which helps inform users when their power grid has cleaner energy available, so they can decide when to use electricity. "We’ve achieved an important milestone in making the world’s most popular watch carbon neutral -- and we will keep innovating to meet the urgency of the moment," Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives, said in a statement.
According to the company, each carbon-neutral Apple Watch model meets the following strict criteria -- 100 percent clean electricity for manufacturing and product use, 30 percent recycled or renewable material by weight, and 50 percent of shipping without the use of air transportation. These combined efforts result in at least a 75 percent reduction in product emissions for each model.
The tech giant is also accelerating progress toward plastic-free packaging by 2025. In addition to achieving the first 100 percent fiber-based packaging for the new Apple Watch and band lineup, the packaging for every iPhone 15 model is over 99 percent fiber-based, said the company.
Beyond its 2030 goal, Apple is also working toward a 90 percent reduction in emissions by 2050 -- which will necessitate advocating for collective action from governments, businesses, and individuals to accelerate global progress in the fight against climate change.