Apple, Google, and Microsoft Among Companies Signing New White House Climate Pledge

[MacRumors]

Apple will join twelve other companies from across the country today at the White House in support of the American Business Act on Climate Pledge, which aims to tackle climate change head-on thanks to the backing of partners like Apple.

The new pledge will cut nearly 6 billion tons of carbon pollution through the year 2030, "an amount equivalent to taking all the cars in the United States off the road for more than 4 years." Apple's addition to the pledge doesn't appear to include any projects debuting exclusively for the new initiative, but the company will seemingly continue to heavily support a positive environmental message, now in partnership with the White House.

Apple, already running all of its U.S. operations on 100% renewable energy, will bring an estimated 280 megawatts of clean power generation online by the end of 2016 through investments in Arizona, California, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon and Sichuan Province, China. Since 2011, Apple has reduced carbon emissions from its global corporate facilities, data centers and retail stores by 48%.

The other companies signing the pledge include: Alcoa, Bank of America, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Cargill, Coca-Cola, General Motors, Goldman Sachs, Google, Microsoft, PepsiCo, UPS, and Walmart. By signing on as a partner, the companies are voicing support for a "strong" outcome for the climate negotiations in Paris this December, and promising an "ongoing commitment" to positive environmental action.

In total, the American Business Act on Climate Pledge amounts to about $140 billion in environmental investments, with all of the participating companies estimated to generate more than 1,600 megawatts of new renewable energy. As the White House points out, the partnerships announced today "are only the beginning," with a second round of pledges expected to be announced sometime this fall.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: Apple, Google, and Microsoft Among Companies Signing New White House Climate Pledge

 

[AngerDanger]

The new pledge will cut nearly 6 billion tons of carbon pollution through the year 2030, "an amount equivalent to taking all the cars in the United States off the road for more than 4 years."

Regardless of what you think of climate change, those numbers seem really impressive (as is the $140 billion being spent on this).

 

[FieldingMellish]

Well, here we go.

 

[oneMadRssn]

Regardless of what you think of climate change, those numbers seem really impressive (as is the $140 billion being spent on this).

Despite the attention we give them, passenger car's actually account for a pretty small percentage of greenhouse gas emissions overall. (transportation is 37% of greenhouse gas emissions, and passenger cars are 43% of that; so passenger cars are ~16% of greenhouse gas emissions.) Industry, construction, heavy shipping - those are the big polluters.

Not saying this isn't a good step. But doing the equivalent of taking all cars off the road for 4 years isn't very impressive when put in context.

 

[Z400Racer37]

Am I the only one who has a problem with these climate change people going from "Global cooling" to "Global warming" to..... "Climate change"?? Like they couldn't figure it out, so they just say it just has to not stay the same every year and that's bad?

Combating climate change...

 

[logicstudiouser]

Jeez! It is 2015 and anything related to climate change still has to be put in the restricted section. Ridiculous!

 

[Praxis91]

Wanna buy some carbon credits?

 

[pdaholic]

Methane, cows, and corks.

Problem solved.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Regardles Which s of what you think of climate change, those numbers seem really impressive (as is the $140 billion being spent on this).

We could put this a different way:

On average, today cars in the US have an MPG of 25. To remove all cars from the road for 4 years through 2030 means we'll use 11 years worth of gas in cars in 15 years, so it's like spontaneously having all of the cars move to an average of 34 MPG.

I feel like that's an easier number to comprehend and relate to. You know what it would take to take your current car and replace it with one with the new MPG. I'm actually thinking about going from my current car (MPG of about 25) to one with an MPG of around 45. Which makes the increase seem a bit pathetic and like ordinary progress.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Am I the only one who has a problem with these climate change people going from "Global cooling" to "Global warming" to..... "Climate change"?? Like they couldn't figure it out, so they just say it just has to not stay the same every year and that's bad?

Combating climate change...

I felt the same way until I read this article on Wait but Why. You don't need to read the entire thing - just part 1:
http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/06/how-tesla-will-change-your-life.html

 

[Benjamin Frost]

This is all well and good, but the truth of the matter is that there is no climate change to tackle.

But as there is nothing interesting coming from these companies, they might as well divert attention away from their lack of innovation.

We've had the Corporate Age. It's time for the Family Age.

 

[Mtmspa]

Apple should stick to fixing their crap cloud services. Time to focus on what users want, not Obama's agenda. Gay rights and climate B.S. can wait until they stop sucking at software.

 

[cube]

If this is serious, I expect devices to be more than just recyclable.

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

Climate change does not exist. Renewable energy is not an Apple invention, and therefore evil.

 

[AngerDanger]

Apple should stick to fixing their crap cloud services. Time to focus on what users want, not Obama's agenda. Gay rights and climate B.S. can wait until they stop sucking at software.

Nobody at Apple is saying, "If only our hardware wasn't so recyclable and policies so non-discriminatory, we could optimize our iCloud code and make our services more efficient!" The programmers and administrators responsible for your dissatisfaction aren't the people signing this pledge.

 

[Robert.Walter]

Its easier for many of these companies as they aren't in the heavy manufacturing business.

The biggest thing that software and service companies can do is be more efficient in their use of electricity and that's great.

I was happy to see GM in the list but was surprised by Ford's apparent absence (especially because of Chairman Bill Ford being an ardent environmentalist.)

 

[iansilv]

Uhh... Tesla? The company that is single-handedly doing more to fix passenger car pollution than any other company out there? Were they not invited or something??!?

 

[Mtmspa]

Nobody at Apple is saying, "If only our hardware wasn't so recyclable and policies so non-discriminatory, we could optimize our iCloud code and make our services more efficient!" The programmers and administrators responsible for your dissatisfaction aren't the people signing this pledge.

Efficient? How about they shoot for functional first?

 

[AngerDanger]

Efficient? How about they shoot for functional first?

I find it functional and haven't read any headlines of widespread broken Apple services recently. I therefore think your alleged problems are conspiratorial, like all that gay rights and climate B.S.

 

[Mtmspa]

Services were down for four hours last week.

 

[AngerDanger]

Services were down for four hours last week.

Fair point although they are functional now. You've yet to prove that Apple's political advocacy is responsible for diverting attention away from quality.

 

[2457282]

I find it interesting that Apple is already ahead on emissions and energy. No agreement will come close to the almost 100% renewable energy that Apple is at already. Most of these other companies are signing up but are close to zero right now. My guess is that they are signing up so they can influence the conversation so that they don't have to actually do a lot. Maybe I am cynical and maybe the paris summit will be more than just fancy window dressing.

 

[iBlazed]

Well, here we go.

This was the same thing you said on the article about apple supporting the lgbt non-discrimination bill. Be more original.

 

[mijail]

Despite the attention we give them, passenger car's actually account for a pretty small percentage of greenhouse gas emissions overall. […] passenger cars are ~16% of greenhouse gas emissions.

And 16% is about 1/6 of the total. Not bad I'd say, and of course a good first step to prepare for bigger ones; even more so when it shows that technical companies care about the problem enough to put the money where their mouths are. So it nullifies one (more) excuse from the "doubters" – "bah, this can't be a big problem since no one is really doing anything".

 

[MikhailT]

Regardless of what you think of climate change, those numbers seem really impressive (as is the $140 billion being spent on this).

Like someone said, it is not impressive at all. Country to popular belief, cars are not the biggest pollution producer. One shipping container across the ocean can pretty much pollute as much as 50 million cars. The biggest pollution is in the background with shipping and transportation, including airlines.

Am I the only one who has a problem with these climate change people going from "Global cooling" to "Global warming" to..... "Climate change"?? Like they couldn't figure it out, so they just say it just has to not stay the same every year and that's bad?

Combating climate change...

That's what you get from marketing and media who often doesn't know what they're talking about. Climate change is pretty much vague enough that it includes both processes of cooling and warning. Earth is not a static process, it changes based on thousands of feedback systems around the planet and many of them are meant to reverse one or another to keep them in balance. Hot water, the polar caps melt to cool it down. Volcanos are another natural feedback system to cool the planet by blanketing the sky with ashes for a few days and so on.

Both global cooling and warning can occur in the same disastrous process before the planet becomes inhabitable for us. Before it gets really hot, it will get cold as heck as the current balance gets out of wreak.

Apple should stick to fixing their crap cloud services. Time to focus on what users want, not Obama's agenda. Gay rights and climate B.S. can wait until they stop sucking at software.

LMAO. Wow, placing your needs of critically unimportant software above actual human issues that is facing millions of people right now. Apple is simply pleading to do what it can to help with the climate change and to ensure people have equal human rights. It is not affecting their production of software, hardware and so on, these are entirely different people handling the external processes.

I find it interesting that Apple is already ahead on emissions and energy. No agreement will come close to the almost 100% renewable energy that Apple is at already. Most of these other companies are signing up but are close to zero right now. My guess is that they are signing up so they can influence the conversation so that they don't have to actually do a lot. Maybe I am cynical and maybe the paris summit will be more than just fancy window dressing.

That's pretty much it, it's just marketing at almost zero cost. They're already doing everything they said they were going to do for this.