As one of the largest tech giants in the world, Apple has left its impact on our environment. Not only has it created tons upon tons of tech waste, it's contributed to the creation of sludge lakes in places like Mongolia. However, a recent purchase may help Apple make up for all this waste.
Apple recently teamed up with environmentalist non-profit The Conservation Fund to purchase 36,000 acres of forest in order to effectively and sustainably use the wood from the forest to create Apple's packaging. "The land - two tracts in Maine and North Carolina that, combined, are roughly two and a half times the size of Manhattan - will be managed by The Conservation Fund. This land is part of an estimated 45 million acres of private forest in the U.S. that are in danger of being lost to development," reports Buzzfeed News.
Larry Selzer, The Conservation Fund's president, told BuzzFeed News that the partnership was Apple's idea. "Apple wanted to work with an organization that had the ability to acquire and manage these forests, and we're thrilled about this partnership......Apple is doing something unprecedented here," he said.
The Conservation Fund promises to manage the forest with a "working forest" model, where the forest is managed with what Daniel Brindis, a senior forests campaigner at Greenpeace, described to BuzzFeed News as "an eye toward the long-term economic well-being of the forest."
While Apple and the Conservation Fund will mainly use these forests for its own products, Apple plans to sell pulp and fibers from the forest to other tech companies if they ask.
"We feel a deep responsibility to take real action and make sure we're addressing our own footprint, " said Lisa Jackson, Apple's vice president of environmental initiatives. "And if we take the approach of just buying sustainably sourced paper, we're not making the world a better place - we're zeroing out. Apple has been really clear that we want to leave the world better than we found it; that's one of our values."
