Apple has announced a bold new renewable energy initiative to make the company completely carbon neutral which will eventually include the energy customers use to charge their Apple products.
This new commitment comes as Apple celebrates 40 years in Australia along with plans to expanding coding education programs and partnering with indigenous-led non-profit organisations to advance equity and opportunity.
“We’re proud to celebrate Apple’s long history in Australia, and to deepen our shared commitment to protecting the planet and creating opportunity in people’s lives,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.
“We’re fortunate to have so many great partners, colleagues, and customers across this country, and we’ll continue working together to make the world a more equitable and just place for all.”
Apple is already carbon-neutral across its global facilities and operations and the company has set goals to also become carbon neutral across its entire business – this includes their suppliers and manufacturing.
To get the ball rolling in Australia, Apple will buy the energy generated by a Queensland wind farm in the Upper Burdekin on pastoral land in Gugu Badhun country.
The wind farm will begin operations in 2026 and will provide the equivalent energy to power 80,000 homes.
This will help Apple address the electricity its customers use charging and running their Apple products.
“At Apple, we recognise the urgent need to address the climate crisis, and we’re accelerating our global work to ensure our products have a net-zero climate footprint across their entire lifecycle,” said Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives.
“We are proud to play a part in Australia’s transition to a cleaner energy grid and thrilled that Apple will soon support Australian customers’ use of their favourite products with clean energy.”
Apple has also announced a partnership with leading Australian universities – RMIT in Melbourne and the University of Technology in Sydney to expand coding education around the country.
Since 2017, RMIT Online has been offering courses using Apple’s Develop in Swift curriculum which uses Apple’s Swift coding language so students can design and build apps.
There will be two new Apple Foundation programs that will offer four-week courses on app development fundamentals with Swift.
“UTS is excited to work with Apple to deliver engaging learning experiences that build skills to empower and enable future digital professionals,” said UTS Vice-Chancellor and President, Andrew Parfitt.
“It’s imperative that learners of all ages and backgrounds are equipped with coding skills as part of their broader education at school and later in life.
Coding is as crucial a tool as literacy and maths; it encourages critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity. We know that these are skills valued by employers and are in high demand in today’s workforce – no matter the job or career.”
RMIT Professor Calum Drummond AO, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation and Vice-President, Interim Deputy Vice-Chancellor STEM College said: “RMIT is proud to launch the Apple Foundation program in 2023.
“We believe this program will have a significant impact in supporting Australia’s innovation economy and its fast-growing technology sector by encouraging more learners to acquire in-demand coding and iOS app development skills and knowledge.”
The iOS app economy is already booming and supports millions of jobs for everyone involved including coders, designers, engineers among others.
“Innovation and creativity define the Australian developer community, and we’re incredibly proud to expand the pathways into the thriving iOS app economy through our Apple Foundation programs with RMIT and UTS,” said Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations & Enterprise and Education Marketing.
“At Apple, we view coding as a universal language that empowers people with the tools to create, communicate, and problem solve in entirely new ways, and we’re excited to see what the next generation of developers deliver.”
Apple has also made a commitment to expand the company’s Racial Equity and Justice Initiative (REJI) which is a companywide mission address racism and create and expand opportunities for communities of colour.
The focus is on racial equity in education, the economy and the criminal justice system.
“We all have a part to play when it comes to creating a more equitable world,” said Alisha Johnson, Apple’s director of REJI.
“Extending Apple’s Racial Equity and Justice Initiative to Australia is part of a long-term commitment from Apple to help support Australia’s Indigenous community by collaborating with organisations driving meaningful change.”
Apple will support organisations through funding grants including:
— Deadly Connections: an Indigenous-led organisation that aims to directly address the over-representation of Aboriginal people in the child protection and justice systems.
— ID. Know Yourself: an Indigenous-led organisation that supports Aboriginal children living in the out-of-home-care system who have been impacted by cultural dispossession, systematic disadvantage, and complex trauma.
— First Australians Capital: a national Indigenous-led organisation that builds investment readiness and designs the right capital solutions for Indigenous businesses to thrive.
— Art Gallery of NSW: the gallery’s Djamu Program for Indigenous Art Education provides ongoing opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to learn about art, culture and vocational pathways in the visual arts sector.
— Original Power: an Indigenous-led organisation that is the key initiator of the First Nations Clean Energy Network and has launched community led renewable energy projects in the Northern Territory and beyond to help overcome the structural barriers locking Indigenous communities out of the benefits of lower cost, clean energy.
