Apple’s offices and data centres now run on 100% renewable power

As the green data centre movement gathers pace, multinational tech giant Apple has claimed that 100 per cent of the energy that is used at its enormous Waukee, Iowa facility is renewable.

Tim Cook and co have extended that claim this week, however, by suggesting that all of the electricity and power used by its data centres, retail stores and offices in 43 countries is renewable - and that it is working alongside its manufacturing partners to ensure they are as green as possible, too.

So far, the consumer electronics firm says that 23 of its suppliers have signed up to support its eco-friendly initiative.

Apple estimates the total carbon savings at 1.5 million metric tonnes of greenhouse gases that would have otherwise been released into the atmosphere in 2017 alone.

The firm reported earlier in the month that all its data centres that provide computing power for services like iTunes, Siri, Maps and the App store are either green-powered on site or by renewable energy the company pipes in from elsewhere. This includes it facilities in Austin, Elk Grove (in California), Cork and Munich - as well as its “Infinite Loop” campus in Cupertino.

It has also invested in 25 energy projects across the globe to keep up this supply: some 626 megawatts of green energy capacity is needed to cover all of Apple’s buildings. These schemes include expanding solar parks, wind farms and biogas fuel facilities, as well as funding research into more efficient energy storage.

Writing in a press release sent out this week, Tim Cook - Apple’s CEO - said that the milestone had only been reached on the back of “years of hard work”.

“We’re committed to leaving the world better than we found it”, he added.

“We’re going to keep pushing the boundaries of what is possible with the materials in our products, the way we recycle them, our facilities and our work with suppliers to establish new creative and forward-looking sources of renewable energy because we know the future depends on it.”