With the technology industry being one of the largest in the world, it is also one of the biggest polluters on the planet. 2% of the emissions released into our environment are from electronic devices. It is estimated that by 2040, it will grow to 15%.
Big tech companies have been changing their ways and making concrete initiatives with hopes to protect the environment in the long run. Here are seven tech companies that are making the world a greener place:
Carbon neutral since 2007, Google has taken steps to make the world a cleaner place. Planning to be carbon free by 2030, Google is supporting clean energy and is committed to keeping the earth clean.
Google products are free of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated frame retardants, which are harmful to the environment. They also utilize higher amounts of recycled goods wherever they can to help reduce emissions.
Apple has made great strides in becoming a greener company. Since 2015, Apple has reduced their carbon footprint by 40%. Apple’s carbon neutrality goal is to reduce their footprint even further by 2030.
Through energy efficient efforts, they have already reduced their energy use by 13.9% million kilowatt-hours. Apple continues to recycle and refurbish plastics. In 2020, Apple introduced over 70 parts for new products, and 50% of those materials were recycled plastics. Currently, all of Apple’s products are carbon neutral, and by 2030 every product will be too.
Microsoft plans to be carbon negative by 2030 and completely remove the CO2 they have emitted from the atmosphere by 2050. So far, Microsoft has reduced their emissions by 586,683 metric tons of CO2.
They have invested $10 million dollars in supporting other tech companies to help conserve water and increase air quality. Investing $30 million dollars to accelerate recycling has already diverted 60,000+ metric tons of waste that would have been sent to a landfill. In 2022, Microsoft plans to reduce emissions further and continue to evolve procedures for better air quality.
With efforts to update their facilities, Samsung will install solar and geothermal panels into their parking lots, roofs, and new buildings to expand into using more renewable energy. In 2020, Samsung was able to achieve their goal of generating 100% of the energy back from their resources from the United States, Europe, and China.
In 2020, Samsung built 540 greenhouses to reduce gases. By doing this, it reduced the GHG emissions by 7,091 Tonnes, a 39% increase from 2019. Samsung’s efforts have reached milestones that are only going to improve over time.
Dell is ranked as a top sustainable tech company for their efforts in helping the earth be a cleaner place. They are currently partnered with some of their suppliers to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60% per unit by 2030. From 2019-2020, their emissions were reduced by 48,842 metric tons. Dell is currently managing green gas emissions and is working to improve the environment each day in 2022 and beyond.
In April of 2021, HP announced new goals to help the environment reach carbon neutrality. They hope to achieve this by 2025 and reduce 50% of chain greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2020, HP’s carbon footprint was almost 45 million Tonnes of carbon dioxide which was 4% less than it was in 2019. HP received a triple “A” rating for taking actionable steps in climate, forest and water preservation. This year, HP plans to act on these initiatives further to help become a greener tech company for all.
Inspired to be a global leader in sustainability and reduce environmental impacts, Intel has taken action to help the environment in a variety of ways. Investing in projects and setting company goals to reduce water, energy, and gas waste, has been accomplished across the company.
In 2020, Intel was able to conserve 7.1 billion gallons of water and save more than 1.3 billion. Over the years, Intel has purchased more than 26 billion kWh of renewable power and has only sent 5% of its total waste to landfills. They are currently on track to have zero total waste sent to landfills by 2030.
Big tech companies have taken steps needed to make the world a greener place, but any company can take these kinds of initiatives to help our community. Learn about some of the green initiatives (link TAI blog) your company can implement to start making a difference today.