A Greenpeace report says Apple supplier Foxconn is lagging behind in decarbonization, with the partner having the highest emissions among a range of suppliers that provide assembly services.Apple has committed to becoming carbon neutral across all areas of its business by 2030, from the sale and use of devices like iPhones to initial production. In a report released by Greenpeace on Tuesday, it appears there is still a lot of work to be done on the supply chain front.
Greenpeace's 2023 Supply Change Report assessed the decarbonization efforts of 11 major suppliers working with major brands such as Apple. Some suppliers, including Samsung and iPhone assembly partner Foxconn, "have not taken adequate emission reduction measures."
Wu Xueying, a climate and energy activist, said: "Technology companies brag about being green, but when you look at the problem from a broader perspective, you will find that their supply chains are very dirty. And Samsung Electronics and Foxconn's climate action is particularly weak."
The environmental group said emissions from the five largest manufacturers, including Foxconn, TSMC and Luxshare Precision, increased in 2022 compared with 2020. For these companies, this was attributed to an across-the-board increase in production.
The electricity consumption of these 11 energy suppliers in 2022 also exceeds 111,000 gigawatt hours, which is said to exceed Chile's annual electricity consumption.
In the ranking, Foxconn is the second worst performer among "final assembly" companies, with its D+ rating in 2022 being the same as in 2021. Foxconn's performance is worse than that of Goertek, which has received an F score in both years, but not as good as Pegatron's rise from D- to C, nor as good as Luxshare Precision's rise from D+ to C+.
Foxconn has "made little progress compared with competitor Luxshare Precision in reducing emissions and adopting renewable energy," the report said. According to the report, Foxconn’s renewable energy electricity consumption rate in 2022 will be only 8%.
Only four suppliers on the list have committed to achieving net-zero emissions across the entire industry chain by 2050, with Foxconn, Luxshare Precision and TSMC among them. However, Greenpeace believes that they "lack a target to reduce emissions by more than 50% by 2030, which means that their 2030 emissions reduction targets are not consistent with the 1.5C target of the Paris Agreement."
In April this year, Foxconn announced environmental protection measures and plans to reduce emissions to 21% of 2020 levels by 2025.
The investigation found that many suppliers relied "heavily" on low-impact procurement mechanisms such as renewable energy quotas to increase the proportion of their renewable electricity purchases. Luxshare Precision, Pegatron and Foxconn purchase at least 70% of their power through such methods, including on-site generation, renewable energy investments and power purchase agreements.
While Foxconn didn't score well in most categories, it received an A+ for "transparency" because it disclosed "complete environmental data," including energy use, electricity and emissions. Even so, Foxconn was still rated "F" in "advocacy" because Foxconn did not make public information or directly disclose in "renewable energy-related policy advocacy and peer information sharing."