Apple Updated Its Environmental Site With New Stats For 2011

Apple has published its 2012 Environmental Update and Facilities Report detailing company’s environmental footprint and contributions. The company said it recorded 5 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) in energy savings in 2011.

The company’s rapid growth in sales has caused the carbon footprint to increase, with greenhouse gas emissions rising by 56% in 2011. The biggest change in terms of share of carbon footprint come from manufacturing, which surged from 45% to 61%, and product use, which decreased from 45% to 30%. But despite the rapid increase in carbon footprint, Apple touts that amount of emissions per dollar of revenue has declined by 15.4% since 2008.

Apple also touts its massive data center in Maiden, North Carolina, as the only building of comparable size that has earned LEED Platinum certification. The data center will be surrounded with the largest solar array in the US covering about 100 acres. Apple is also going to build the largest non-utility fuel cell installation in the US near the data center. According to Apple, both facilities will provide about 80 million kWh of renewable energy each year.

Apple said that in 2011 its facilities worldwide consumed 3 million therms of natural gas and 493 million kWh of electricity. Apple claimed to have eliminated about 30 metric tons CO2e emissions by utilizing renewable energy initiatives. The company also added updated stats for greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprint by product to its environmental site.