Apple Environmental Responsibility Report

100 %
We have protected or created enough
responsibly managed forests to cover the
49,000 metric tons of virgin paper we
used in our packaging in fiscal year 2016.
plants and animals like the elusive Canada lynx. The Reed Forest is
certified to the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Sustainable Forestry
Initiative (SFI) standards. In late 2016, Apple and The Conservation Fund
donated a conservation easement to the Forest Society of Maine for the
entire 32,400-acre property. The conservation easement ensures forests
at Reed won’t be developed or converted to other uses, and promotes
economically and ecologically sustainable production of fiber and other
wood products. Apple supported the Fund’s donation of an endowment to
the Forest Society of Maine, which will help ensure that the easement can
be monitored and enforced for centuries to come.
In North Carolina, we’re protecting more than 3600 acres of pine and
hardwood forest in Brunswick County, along the southern coast of North
Carolina. This property sits adjacent to the 17,000-acre Green Swamp
Preserve, which helps enable connectivity and halts fragmentation for
this National Natural Landmark. With high-quality pine savannas, along
with striking and rare plants and flowers, like the carnivorous Venus fly
trap, Brunswick has long been a conservation priority for local and state
partners. The Conservation Fund is working to place a conservation
easement to make sure the Brunswick forest stays a forest. The Brunswick
forest is certified to the SFI standard.
In 2015, we announced a five-year partnership with World Wildlife Fund
(WWF) to transition up to one million acres of forest, across southern
provinces of China, into responsible management by 2020. WWF’s work
has three primary components:
1. Increase responsible management of working forests in China—by
creating up to 300,000 acres of FSC–certified forests, and up to 700,000
acres of forests under improved management.
2. Improve China’s policy framework to encourage responsible forest
management.
3. Establish long-term market incentives in China for responsibly sourced
paper.
In just two years, we’re close to achieving the first goal by transitioning
approximately 320,000 acres of forest in China—nearly 500 square miles
and 20,000 acres more than the project goal—toward FSC certification. This
progress was made through collaboration with two companies in Hunan and
Guangxi provinces, one of which will be the largest FSC-certified plantation
area in the Chinese pulp and paper sector. WWF worked with both companies
to create forest management plans and train their employees to identify
High Conservation Value Forest—both necessary for FSC certification.
Environmental Responsibility Report | 2017 Progress Report, Covering FY2016
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