On Monday, April 22, 2019, corporations worldwide encouraged employees to celebrate Earth Day activities such as neighbourhood or beach clean-ups, planting trees, or biking/walking to work. While the one-day enthusiasm to care for our planet certainly helps, to make a real difference, companies have to incorporate sustainability into their everyday operations. Here is a few business that is making an impact beyond Earth Day.
US-based Apple Inc., which boasts an “unwavering mission to change the world,” has adopted several green initiatives to reduce its impact on Earth. In 2017, to stop the over-mining of rare natural materials such as gold and tungsten used in its smartphones and computers, Apple made a commitment to obtain the rare metals through recycling older devices. The technology company is also looking at ways to make its devices 100 percent recycled. “We're moving toward a closed-loop supply chain. One day we'd like to build new products with just recycled materials, including your old products,” Apple said in its annual environment report. In 2018, the smart device maker announced that all its operations, spanning 43 countries, were being run using 100% renewable energy — either solar or wind.