
Apple
Company Score
-0.80Apple Inc. design, develop and sell consumer electronics, software and online services all over the world. It is an American multinational technology company headquartered in California.
Apple are the world's largest technology company by revenue and one of the world's most valuable companies. Iconic hardware products include the iPhone, the iPad, the Mac and the Apple Watch. Apple's software includes the macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, the iTunes media player, the Safari web browser, amongst a plethora of other services like the Apple Store, Genius Bar, AppleCare and Apple Pay. Apple became the first public U.S. company to be valued at over $1 trillion and it employs 137,000 full-time employees as of 2019. In January 2019, CEO Tim Cook announced that there were 1.4 billion Apple products actively in use worldwide.
Read about Apple and its impact below.
Impact notes
Appleās 25.9 Mn tCO2e emission (2019) will require 1.33 Bn ha of US forests to sequester the effects


In 2018, the global CO2 emissions peaked at 36.83 Bn tonnes1. According to research, the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector emitted 730 tCO2e or 1.4% of overall global emissions in 20182. Devices and gadgets/mobiles also lead to CO2 emissions throughout the lifecycle8.
Apple withdrew 498.9 Mn m3 of water in in 2019 while using just 8.04% of recycled water


Since 1980, water usage on the global level has increased by 1% every year1. By 2050, the water consumption will increase by another 29%1. Tech companies are dependent on water for various operations. According to a report, a mid-sized data center used by tech companies utilizes 492,104 m3 of water per year2. This is equivalent to water consumption by 40.47 hectares of almond trees2.
Apple generated 58,405.93 tonnes of waste that included 2,765.37 tonnes of hazardous waste in 2019


On a global scale, approximately 53.6Mn tonnes of e-waste was generated in 20191;p13. In the same year, the collection and reclining of the e-waste was only 17.4% of the total1;p14. E-waste contains hazardous substances like heavy metals and harmful chemicals1;60.
Apple sells over 200 million iPhones in 2019 - consumes a large amount of rare earth metals


Around 2 billion smartphones are upgraded to a new phone every 11 months1. Research says, Americans dump 416,000 cell phones every day that end up in landfills3. Different varieties of smartphones contain 16-17 rare earth materials2, which are difficult to mine and extract1.
One billion Apple users became vulnerable to "website hack" breach


With more companies experiencing security breaches, the threat of compromised data is on the rise1. On average, a single data breach costs USD 3.86 million3. In 2019, there were 3,800 publicly disclosed breaches and 4.1 billion records exposed 2. Companies are not prepared for the breaches1.