Apple 2020 Supplier Responsibility Report Includes Info on COVID-19 Impact

Apple released its 2020 Supplier Responsibility report [PDF] today. It includes a letter from Sabih Khan, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Operations, about the company’s plan to increase safety and protection in its supply chain due to COVID-19.

2020 Supplier Responsibility Report

Apple will require the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) for its suppliers during work and in common areas. Social distancing will also be enforced, with Apple teams working with suppliers to redesign and reconfigure factory floor plans where needed to maximize personal space.

2019 Environmental Impact Numbers

  • 53% year-over-year increase in supplier sites to achieving zero waste. 50 are already certified.
  • 30.5 billion gallons of water were conserved by suppliers to achieve a 40% wastewater reuse rate. In total, 9.3 billion gallons were conserved in 2019.
  • Over one million metric tons of supply chain combined annualized energy-efficiency-related and direct process greenhouse gas emissions avoided, which is the equivalent of taking 220,876 cars off the road for one year.
  • 2019 was the second consecutive year Apple received an A+ rating from the Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families “Mind The Store” campaign for the company’s efforts to remove harmful chemicals from products.
  • Apple was awarded #1 in the first Corporate Information Transparency Index Master’s Level designation by China’s Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs.

Core Violations

In 2019, five Core Violations were found in environment assessments; these included four related to air emissions and one related to water management. These are shown in the chart below.

Apple 2019 environmental core violations Chart

Overall, it was a good year for Apple.

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