Apple launched the "2021 Apple China Corporate Responsibility Report" today, which summarized the specific actions of Apple’s commitments to Chinese consumers and local communities in the past year. The report covers product liability; educational responsibility; environmental responsibility; employee responsibility and community responsibility. Below are some of the highlights. 

Product Liability

Apple has always emphasized that it will build privacy protection into every product it produces to minimize user data from being touched by others.

At the same time, the humanistic care of Apple products is embodied in the design of built-in functions for all users in terms of vision, physical activity, hearing, and cognitive abilities, which can be customized by users to achieve the purpose of making them available to everyone.

In addition, Apple mentioned that the App Store, launched in 2008, is one of the most dynamic App markets in the world, with 1.8 million apps now . In addition, the developer community in Greater China is growing. There are currently more than 4.4 million registered developers, an increase of 76% compared to two years ago .

Educational Responsibility

In the past year. In True China, Apple has supported a series of activities through the "Smart Benefit Program", involving rural education, environmental education, programming training, and free courses and training.

In 2020, there will be more than 300 schools receiving Apple primary and middle school teacher training , and the number of trained teachers will exceed 1,030. In 2020, under the promotion of the Apple Education team, more than 110 programming clubs have been established, and the number of students participating has exceeded 1,200.

In addition, Apple continues to contribute to education equity and popularization of digital learning. In March of this year, Apple donated RMB 25 million to the China Development Research Foundation to help them launch the China Children’s Development Fund to provide more educational resources for children in rural areas. In May of this year, Apple and the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation announced the launch of the Mengdingshan Cooperative Development Training Institute. This is China’s first education and training entity with cooperative directors as the main target, helping to solve the problems of rural cooperative leaders The actual demand.

In the field of higher education, Apple has set up student iOS Clubs in more than 250 universities, and has supported the development of mobile application innovation competitions in China for the sixth consecutive year. Tens of thousands of students have received programming training. Many past winners are now helping more people understand and learn programming, including training supplier workers to learn programming.

Environmental responsibility

Environmental protection is also an area that Apple has been paying attention to. In general, Apple has focused on promoting environmental protection from three aspects.

The first is to deal with climate change. Apple has set a goal of achieving full carbon neutrality by 2030. Last year, Apple achieved 100% carbon neutrality in all the company's operations. In terms of efficient use of materials, low-carbon alternatives and improvement of product energy efficiency, low-carbon design of products is realized. For example, after the Mac mini switched to the Apple M1 chip, it reduced the energy consumption of the device and reduced its carbon footprint by 34%.

In April of this year, Apple announced a pioneering carbon removal program called Restore Fund. This $200 million fund was jointly initiated by Apple, Conservation International and Goldman Sachs, and aims to remove at least 1 million tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year, which is equivalent to more than 200,000 passenger cars. The amount of fuel used also shows a feasible financial model that can help expand the scale of forest restoration investment.

Second, in terms of resource protection, Apple’s goal is to use only recycled or renewable materials to make products and packaging. The iPhone 12 and  iPhone 12 Pro, launched in October 2020  , are the first Apple products made with 99% recycled tungsten and 98% recycled rare earth elements.

For three consecutive years, Apple has used 100% responsibly sourced fiber in its packaging. So far, it has improved the management of more than 1 million acres of forests worldwide.

Employee responsibility

Apple mentioned that the proportion of female managers in its Greater China region has reached 40%.

In 2020, affected by the new crown epidemic, Apple launched an online "Talent Open Day" activity. The number of college students participating in the school exceeded 2,000. Apple provided nearly 100 internship opportunities for college students.

On December 2, 2020, International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Apple held its first "Apple Open Day" event, involving more than 130 volunteers and people with special needs.

Community responsibility

The Apple Global Volunteer Program is actively implemented in China. Apple recruits and organizes employees to participate in qualified social organization volunteer service activities, and provides matching funds for employees' volunteer service hours and cash donations, which can match each employee's charity every year The maximum donation is 10,000 USD. In the past year, Apple has carried out volunteer activities in many cities.

Last year, Apple employee volunteers in Chengdu and Shanghai successively taught creative courses and digital teaching practices to schools mainly based on the children of migrant workers in cities, while helping to improve the local digital teaching level. In 2020, Apple employee volunteers will carry out activities such as cleaning mountains and beaches in Shaoxing and Fuzhou; in 2021, based on the "Mother's Water Cellar" project initiated by the China Women’s Development Foundation, Apple will hold the International Women’s Day on March 8. A volunteer activity with the theme of "Mother's Water Cellar" was organized. 96 employee volunteers from 7 cities including Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Nanjing, Kunming, Fuzhou, Xiamen, and Shanghai participated at the same time.

In March 2018, Apple donated 25 million yuan to the China Development Research Foundation to jointly launch the "Digitalization Project for Children in Poor Areas". As of the end of December 2020, the cumulative number of beneficiaries of the project exceeded 310,000. In 2021, Apple will continue to cooperate with the China Development Research Foundation to jointly launch the "China Children's Development Fund" to help more people obtain educational resources through innovative ways.