Apple says it will be totally carbon free by 2030

The company has commitments from over 70 suppliers to use 100 percent renewable energy for Apple production

By Derick Lila pvbuzz

Apple announced it plans to make its entire business — including its supply chain and resulting products — carbon neutral by 2030. This strategy includes reducing emissions from the production process, removing carbon from the atmosphere, and working with renewable energy suppliers.

The tech giant plans to focus on creating new renewable energy projects and moving its entire supply chain to clean power.

The company currently has commitments from over 70 suppliers to use 100 percent renewable energy for production — equivalent to nearly 8 gigawatts in commitments to power the manufacturing of its products.

Globally, Apple is launching one of the largest new solar arrays in Scandinavia, as well as two new projects providing power to underserved communities in the Philippines and Thailand.

“We’re really proud of what we’ve done so far, but we also know that the moment we’re in calls us to meet this generational challenge of climate change, and to accelerate industry-wide change, to show what’s possible,” says Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of environment, policy, and social initiatives, and a former administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency.

With this new pledge, Apple is following the announcements of Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, all of which have introduced revised climate-related goals within the past year.

The company’s global corporate operations are already net-zero, and this new initiative means that by 2030, every Apple device sold will be carbon neutral.

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Waste Management expected to pay $2.3M in High Acres Landfill settlement in Fairport, NY

Permission granted by E.A. Crunden

By E.A. Crunden@eacrunden Waste Dive

Dive Brief:

  • Waste Management of New York (WMNY) and plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit over the company’s High Acres Landfill in Fairport, New York have proposed a $2.3 million settlement, court documents show. Led by plaintiff James D’Amico, the original lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York in January 2018.
  • Under the terms of the proposed July 14 settlement, WMNY will pay $1.3 million “into a fund for the benefit of the Class Members” from that date over a 30-month period and an additional $1 million into “improvement measures” at the landfill. Those measures include installing a gas collection system and waste mass dewatering pumps and control, along with synthetic alternate daily cover systems and “nearly 1 mile of an additional water- and vapor-based odor control misting system.” 
  • “High Acres has been part of the Perinton and Macedon communities for nearly 50 years and our relationships with our neighbors are very important to us,” Garrett Trierweiler, senior manager of public affairs for Waste Management, told Waste Dive in a statement. Trierweiler said the company is “pleased” by the tentative resolution, but could not offer further comment as the settlement is pending court review. 

If approved by a judge, the 130-page proposed settlement would end an ongoing dispute brought by D’Amico and his neighbors over the landfill’s alleged impacts on their homes. The plaintiffs sued over claims of nuisance, negligence and gross negligence regarding odor effects stemming from the upstate New York site.

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There go those tree-hugging, 1-trillion-dollar, fund managers again

A letter signed by executives from pension plans and other major investors warned the Federal Reserve and other agencies of the financial risks of climate change.
A letter signed by executives from pension plans and other major investors warned the Federal Reserve and other agencies of the financial risks of climate change.Credit…Leah Millis/Reuters

Financial regulators should act to avoid economic disaster, according to a letter from pension funds and other investors representing almost $1 trillion in assets.

By Christopher Flavelle New York Times

WASHINGTON — Climate change threatens to create turmoil in the financial markets, and the Federal Reserve and other regulators must act to avoid an economic disaster, according to a letter sent on Tuesday by a group of large investors.

“The climate crisis poses a systemic threat to financial markets and the real economy, with significant disruptive consequences on asset valuations and our nation’s economic stability,” reads the letter, which was signed by more than three dozen pension plans, fund managers and other financial institutions that together manage almost $1 trillion in assets.

That financial threat, combined with the physical risks posed by climate change, may create “disastrous impacts the likes of which we haven’t seen before,” the letter says. It urges the Fed, the Securities and Exchange Commission and other agencies to “explicitly integrate climate change across your mandates.”

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Investors worry that if regulators do not act, climate change may cause the price of some companies to fall suddenly, the effects of which may ricochet through the economy. Providing more information about that risk — for example, by requiring companies to disclose more about their greenhouse gas emissions, or which of their facilities are at risk from rising seas — could help investors make better decisions.

That, in turn, might encourage companies to lower their emissions, or risk losing access to investment or affordable insurance coverage. “Every medium and large business has bank loans and has insurance,” said Steven Rothstein, managing director of the Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets, a group that works with investors and which organized the letter.

The letter calls on regulators to adopt the steps Ceres outlined last month in a report that makes 51 recommendations to eight federal agencies. At its core are two demands: that the agencies treat climate change as a systemic risk, and that the S.E.C. ensures mandatory and consistent disclosure of climate threats facing companies.

According to Ceres, regulators can adopt each of its recommendations without new legislation from Congress. Still, during the Trump administration, even agencies that are meant to have a degree of independence from the White House have been reluctant to address climate change. President Trump has called global warming a hoax, and he has reversed nearly 70 environmental rules, with another 30 in progress.

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Texas Supreme Court lets Houston out of GOP Convention contract

By John O’Brien Legal Newsline

AUSTIN, Texas (Legal Newsline) – The Texas Supreme Court has rejected the state Republican Party’s attempt to “commandeer” the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston this week.

The Texas GOP was supposed to be holding its convention there this week, but Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner announced the cancellation of it, citing coronavirus-related health concerns. The event was supposed to draw about 6,000 people.

The Texas GOP sued Houston, seeking an injunction requiring the center to comply with the contract the sides signed. It sought an order preventing the city from restricting the convention’s events or using COVID-19 as a pretext to cancel the convention.

It said Turner’s reliance on the Force Majeure clause in the contract was a smokescreen to treat the Republicans differently. Turner is a Democrat.

“The Party argues it has constitutional rights to hold a convention and engage in electoral activities, and that is unquestionably true,” the decision says.

“But those rights do not allow it to simply commandeer use of the Center. Houston First’s only duty to allow the Party use of the Center for its convention is under the terms of the parties’ agreement, not a constitution.”

Justice John Devine issued a 10-page dissent, saying he would hold Houston to its word. To invoke the Force Majeure clause, Houston would have had seven days after the “occurrence” to act. It didn’t do so until July 8.

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How’s this for social distancing?

2 Arrests, Cop Hurt After 400 Show Up To House Party In Brick, NJ

By Karen Wall, Patch Staff

BRICK, NJ — A Brick Township police officer was injured Monday night as a car sped off from a house party that spiraled out of control, drawing more than 400 people to the Baywood section, Brick police said Tuesday.

Darius Edwards, 24, of Brooklyn, has been charged with two counts of assault by auto, eluding, obstruction and possession of marijuana, after he sped off in a white Mercedes and hit Patrolman Joseph Riccio and a detective in the Brick Township Police Department’s Street Crimes Unit, Sgt. Jim Kelly said.

Riccio suffered a knee injury and was treated at the hospital, but the detective was not injured, Kelly said.

Police were called to Atlantic Drive in the Baywood section, at the eastern end of Drum Point Road, about 9:30 p.m. and found more than 400 partygoers, he said. Atlantic Drive and the surrounding streets were blocked with parked vehicles, some of them with people inside, Kelly said.

In addition to loud music, there were reports of littering, public urination and trespassing, and drug use was also evident, he said.

Michelle Cicchillo, the homeowner, told police the party continued to grow until it was beyond her control. She told them she tried to make guests leave “but they were being defiant and refused,” Kelly said.

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