Apple has announced several new initiatives within Australia for its 40th anniversary, such as backing renewables and another the company said is fuelling opportunities for First Nations Australians.
Speaking at the Apple Store in Bondi today, Apple’s vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives, Lisa Jackson, announced the new programs.
Apple’s first announcement was that they would be purchasing clean energy from a new wind farm in Queensland: the Upper Burdekin Wind Farm, set to be operational in 2026. Apple says that its investment in buying energy from this wind farm is equivalent to that of buying 80,000 homes.
It’s the second project Apple is bringing about to compensate for the energy that customers use to power Apple products, like the iPhone and MacBook. This first project was similar: a partnership with a 2,300-acre solar project in Brown County, Texas. Apple plans to be entirely carbon neutral across its entire supply chain and the lifetime of all of its products by 2030.
“At Apple, we recognise the urgent need to address the climate crisis, and we’re accelerating our global work to ensure our products have a net-zero climate footprint across their entire life cycle,” Jackson said.
“We are proud to play a part in Australia’s transition to a cleaner energy grid, and thrilled that Apple will soon support Australian customers’ use of their favourite products with clean energy.”
Apple is also expanding its Racial Equity and Justice Initiative, a program that aims to address institutional racism, to Australia. Apple has announced a collaboration with Deadly Connections, ID. Know Yourself, First Australians Capital, Original Power and the Djamu Youth Justice Program at the Art Gallery of NSW. These organisations will receive funding grants from Apple to progress work in their respective areas.
“We often hear Indigenous people being portrayed as vulnerable. We’re not vulnerable,” said Worimi woman Tiarne Shutt from First Australians Capital.
“We haven’t had the same access to power, resources, capital that the rest of the economy has, but that’s changing.”
Biripi man Keenan Mundine from Deadly Connections also offered his support for Apple’s program.
“The biggest thing to most people out there that want to get involved in this supporting, the question that I have: If not you, then who? If not now, when, and now is the time for change,” he said.
Lastly, the tech giant will also be partnering with RMIT and UTS to expand coding education.
Apple and the universities are launching two new Apple foundation programs that will provide four-week courses on developing apps in Swift, Apple’s iOS programming code. Enrolment will be open later this year, with courses set to begin in early 2023.
“Australia is a global leader in app development and we’re excited to bring the essential skills of coding and the skills that coding creates to the next generation of talent,” Jackson continued.
To Andrew Parfitt, the vice-chancellor and president of UTS, it’s imperative that learners of all ages and backgrounds are equipped with coding skills as part of their broader education at school and later in life.
“Coding is as crucial a tool as literacy and maths; it encourages critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity. We know that these are skills valued by employers and are in high demand in today’s workforce, no matter the job or career,” he said.
We’ll be following the progress of these initiatives and will keep you updated.
Happy 40th anniversary in Australia, Apple. You can read the full announcement on the Apple website.