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Key takeaways

• A transition to recycled sources additionally pays off in emissions reductions.
• Recycled content material represented 24 % of the supplies (by mass) in merchandise shipped to clients in 2024. 
• Obstacles to recycled content material embrace commerce treaties, restricted origin knowledge and scarce provide chain capability.

Apple’s push to supply 15 precedence supplies totally from recycled or renewable sources — together with aluminum, uncommon earths and lithium — is paying off in considerable emissions reductions for its manufacturing processes.

Apple has diminished its greenhouse gasoline emissions by 60 % since 2015, on its solution to a 75 % minimize by 2030, in keeping with the 2025 Apple Environmental Progress Report printed April 16. (Emissions had been 15.1 million metric tons, down from 22.6 million within the baseline 12 months.) Throughout the interval in query, Apple’s income grew 65 %, to $391 billion.

A lot of Apple’s reported discount got here from renewable electrical energy investments, however sourcing recycled and different lower-carbon supplies helped the corporate keep away from 6.2 million metric tons of emissions in 2024. Averted emissions, typically referred to as Scope 4, are calculated by estimating the quantity of greenhouse gases that weren’t emitted due to manufacturing modifications or different measures and subtracting them from historic emissions tendencies. 

Apple claimed 41 million metric tons in averted emissions for 2024. Transferring to recycled supplies accounted for 15 % of that claimed discount. For context, product manufacturing actions symbolize 54 % of Apple’s general carbon footprint.

Recycled content material from sources licensed to ISO 14021 specs accounted for twenty-four % of the supplies in Apple merchandise in 2024. The product containing essentially the most recycled supplies was the MacBook Air, at 55 %. An in depth second is the most recent Mac mini: 50 % of its elements come from recycled sources and it’s manufactured utilizing renewable vitality, making its footprint 80 % smaller than a mini created utilizing a business-as-usual situation, Apple mentioned.

The corporate is prioritizing 15 supplies in its recycled content material transition, representing 87 % of its manufacturing by mass: aluminum, cobalt, copper, glass, gold, lithium, paper, plastics, uncommon earth components, metal, tantalum, tin, titanium, tungsten and zinc.

“Our technique is to transition to supplies which can be manufactured utilizing low-carbon vitality and recycled content material,” the corporate mentioned in its environmental report. “We’ve prioritized the supplies and elements that make up a big a part of our product carbon footprint to maneuver us nearer to our objective of carbon neutrality.”

Highlight on aluminum

Living proof: Apple used recycled sources for 71 % of the aluminum it purchased in 2024 — a technique that would show prescient as producers reckon with Trump-era aluminum tariffs. 

Recycled aluminum is used for the enclosures of just about each Apple product: the most recent Apple Watch sequence and Mac mini fashions, MacBook Air and MacBook Professional, iPads and iPhones. Apple reclaims a portion of that aluminum from outdated Apple merchandise that it takes again by trade-in applications and procures the remainder from different post-consumer and post-industrial sources. 

That initiative has diminished aluminum-related emissions 76 % since 2015. The fabric represented 7 % of Apple’s product manufacturing footprint for 2024, in contrast with 27 % within the baseline 12 months.

Apple can be investing in a Canadian enterprise, referred to as Elysis, commercializing a course of to smelt aluminum with out emitting direct greenhouse gases. The fabric isn’t but obtainable at industrial scale, however it’s been utilized in some iPhone SE fashions, circa 2022.

Supply: Apple

Work in progress

Apple has a number of different near-term objectives for recycled metals and uncommon earth components that it’s near assembly. They embrace:

• Recycled cobalt for all Apple-designed batteries: It’s at 99 % for the batteries; 78 % of the cobalt sourced for all merchandise in 2024 was recycled, in contrast with 52 % in 2023.
• Recycled sources for all tin soldering and gold plating in sure circuit boards: They represented 99 % in 2024.
• Recycled uncommon earth components for all magnets: They symbolize 99 % of what’s utilized in Apple batteries and 80 % for all of Apple’s uncommon earth wants.

As well as, Apple’s progress on sourcing recycled gold — utilized in circuit boards, connectors and chips — accelerated from 2021 to 2024. In 2024, recycled gold was used for 40 % of fabric in all merchandise, up from 1 % in 2021. The corporate doubled the variety of suppliers licensed to fabricate these supplies over the previous 12 months.

Challenges to future will increase in recycled supplies utilization embrace overcoming technical considerations akin to sturdiness and potential contamination; constrained provide availability; restricted knowledge that traces origins; and worldwide rules which will inhibit cross-border shipments. “Addressing these takes a collective response,” Apple mentioned.

By now, we’ve all heard concerning the Synthetic Intelligence (AI) surge that’s going to demand unprecedented quantities of vitality. Even the Worldwide Vitality Company (IEA) launched a report on Vitality and AI just lately. The superior vitality supplies which can be the inspiration of those digital options are semiconductors. 

Semiconductors and AI Linked by a Extremely Advanced Provide Chain

Supply: Worldwide Vitality Company, 2025

What are Semiconductors?

Do you think about that electrical energy flows by means of energy cables like water flowing by means of a pipe? It doesn’t. The electrical energy is all the time there and accessible by means of nodes, e.g., your house’s energy retailers, which can be like gates that open and shut in line with if you want energy. Electrons move freely by means of conducting supplies when these gates are open to ship energy to your electrical automobile, for instance.

Equally, semiconductors might be regarded as having gates that open and shut, permitting electrons to move and create circuits. Semiconductors are primarily constructed on silicon, an considerable and environment friendly materials. These are constructing blocks that kind transistors and different elements which can be then built-in into advanced circuits on chips. These chips kind the core elements that ship computer systems, AI, and different digital options everyone knows.

Semiconductors Allow Cleantech, However Manufacturing Emits Carbon

Regardless of the tiny nature of semiconductors, manufacturing consumes lots of time, cash, and sources. Constructing a single fab can value upwards of $25B because of the advanced manufacturing processes which can be comprised of a whole lot of steps, over fifty forms of tools, and extremely specialised labor. A brand new fab within the U.S. and Europe takes twice as lengthy to design and assemble and prices twice as a lot than in Taiwan.

From a sustainability viewpoint, manufacturing semiconductors is extremely useful resource intensive. Poisonous ‘endlessly chemical compounds’ (fluorinated chemical compounds/PFAS) make up almost 90% of direct emissions (Scope 1), largely used for cleansing. However changing these chemical compounds may nonetheless be 5-10 years away and non-PFAS options are 20+ years away.

Electrical energy is the only largest supply of emissions (Scope 2)—60% for manufacturing; 40% for operation of amenities. On the provision facet (Scope 3 emissions), utilization of recent supplies doesn’t considerably affect the general industrywide emissions profile. Scope 3 emissions are primarily attributed to mining and refining from outdoors of the business. Ahead wanting, international emissions will rise 8% yearly, doubling by 2045 from 2023 (SEMI, BCG, The Semiconductor Local weather Consortium).

Water utilization is one other space of alternative for innovation. Manufacturing a single chip requires 8,327 L of ultra-pure water, and a single fab will devour upwards of 25M-35M L each day. In Taiwan, fabs will recycle 80% of water utilization, however in most different nations solely 10% or much less is recycled. From 2021-2024, Micron and Aqua Membranes had been creating know-how to recycle water utilization. After profitable trials, the 2 are dedicated to recycling 95% of Micron’s water utilization by 2030.

Key Improvements – Design, Photonics, and Compound Supplies

No single breakthrough innovation is catapulting the business ahead from a sustainability viewpoint, however there are a selection of thrilling areas to concentrate to.

Design – Mental Property (IP) Reuse

IP reuse and discovery is primarily carried out manually by engineers, however digital options are coming on-line breaking by means of the traditionally cost-prohibitive obstacles that stored many fabs from uptake.

Thalia is a supplier of a software program platform that allows semiconductor companies to develop new merchandise utilizing present chip designs for analog. Thalia leverages AI/ML to mine information for IP reuse to streamline design to fabrication. This automation results in diminished cycle time and prices for its prospects and in the end improved part reliability.

Design – Supplies

The person wafers could also be designed with compounds like gallium nitride or indium phosphide. These might have effectivity will increase and should lead to carbon emissions reductions at smaller scales.

PseudolithIC is a producer of hybrid semiconductor merchandise which combine compound semiconductor chiplets into silicon wafers. These compound chiplets mix the vitality capability of excessive vitality supplies (compound III-V) like gallium, indium, and so forth., with silicon. This maximizes efficiency whereas lowering manufacturing prices. It’s concentrating on the RF market with protection and telecom markets main in demand.

Fabrication – Photonic Built-in Circuits (PICs)

PICs use gentle (photons) relatively than electrical energy to course of info. This interprets into vitality waste discount for quicker and extra environment friendly information dealing with. Whereas not projected to scale within the 2030s, PICs do symbolize vital vitality financial savings potential. It’s thought that PICs will have an effect just like the microelectronics revolution within the Nineteen Eighties. PICs may ship merchandise which can be an order of magnitude quicker than right this moment’s electronics.

NXP Semiconductor backed Sensible Photonics is a producer of indium phosphide (InP) semiconductors for PICs. Sensible Photonics just lately partnered with X-Fab and Epiphany Design to show InP-on-Silicon for optical transceivers. It intends to focus on datacenters, sensing, and telecom.

Metrology

High quality management, course of optimization, and testing software program and tools hold contaminates out for top precision manufacturing.

Wooptix is a producer of semiconductor metrology tools incorporating wavefront part imaging (optics) for non-invasive sensing to make sure that every part meets stringent high quality requirements.

K2 Photonics developed a single cavity dual-comb laser for metrology for semiconductor inspection. This offers speedy and exact thin-film inspection.

$2.6B Whole VC Funding for Semiconductors from 2020-2024:
Removed from $1T-$3T Wanted by 2030

Geopolitical Tensions, Rising Prices, Undeveloped Provide Chains

The chance to bolster AI and datacenters, amongst many different cleantech purposes, is threatened by the semiconductor business’s focus in Taiwan. Vulnerabilities throughout the provide chain are additional exacerbated by geopolitical tensions just like the U.S.’ 32% tariffs imposed on exports from Taiwan. We’ve seen vital funding by the general public sector just like the $53B U.S. Chips & Science Act or the $47B EU Chips Act.

However these investments haven’t resulted in any vital breakthrough technological developments but, particularly in Europe and China. Nations are pressuring incumbents to develop enterprise outdoors of Taiwan, however incumbents are pushing again, calling on policymakers to supply monetary incentives, e.g., subsidies for supplies. Nonetheless, the present challenge pipeline is booming, significantly for the U.S. that has dedicated over $540B in provide chain investments since 2020 by way of grants, loans and challenge growth:

• TSMC has invested $165B to construct new fabs within the U.S.
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• Nvidia introduced a $500B plan to fabricate in Arizona in partnership with TSMC and plans to construct out extra fabs in Texas with Foxconn and Wistron
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• Apple is ready to speculate over $500B to construct new fabs in U.S., as effectively

From 2020-2024, we tracked over $2.6B of VC investments for semiconductor innovation. That is removed from the estimated $1T-$3T value of funding wanted from 2020-2030 in R&D and capital to ship the following technology of semiconductors (The Semiconductor Business Affiliation, BCG). These figures are estimated for the semiconductor business as an entire, not simply cleantech. We spent roughly this a lot to get us the place we’re right this moment, so these figures, whereas massive, are manageable.

A part of the rationale for these massive figures is the associated fee to construct a semiconductor fab and its extremely advanced provide chain. On account of this complexity, no single producer nation is able to manufacturing semiconductors with out sourcing some a part of the provision chain from elsewhere. This presents an particularly profitable alternative for play on this distributed provide chain to permit for faster lead instances and higher collaboration among the many ecosystem.