INTERNATIONAL - Apple Inc., expanding its environmental efforts, announced a $300 million fund to promote clean energy in China.
The iPhone maker said it’s creating the fund to boost the use of renewable energy in its supply chain, which is primarily spread across regions in China. The company and 10 of its key suppliers and manufacturing partners, including Corning Inc., Pegatron Corp., Wistron Corp. and Luxshare Precision Industry Co., will contribute to the fund over the next four years, the Cupertino, California-based company said Thursday in a statement.
The fund will be managed by DWS Group GmbH & Co., the asset-management arm of Deutsche Bank AG. DWS will also invest in the fund itself.
The money will go toward developing projects totaling a gigawatt of renewable energy in China, Apple said. In 2015, Apple committed to using clean energy in its supply chain and has said it hopes to create 4 gigawatts of renewable energy globally by 2020, an increase from a goal of 3 gigawatts announced earlier this year.
Currently, Apple uses renewable energy across 100 percent of its facilities worldwide. Earlier this year, the company also helped aluminum suppliers Alcoa Corp. and Rio Tinto Aluminum kick start development of a new technology that eliminates greenhouse-gas emissions during production, which is expected to be ready by 2024.