It was reported earlier this month that although one iPhone 15 Pro generates 66 kilograms (145 pounds) of carbon dioxide in its lifetime — the equivalent of driving from Washington, DC, to Philadelphia — applying that to all the smartphones Apple shipped in 2022 brings emissions to about 15 million metric tons. That’s roughly four times more than Washington, DC’s annual emissions from buildings. And while Apple continues to work on new materials that are more recyclable, they've also begun to eliminate the use of plastic shrink-wrap packaging on retail iPhone boxes.  

Today the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that relates to an iPhone that could include circuitry that measures power delivered to the device and one or more processors configured to calculate power or energy drawn from a power grid by the device over a time period based on one or more measurements of power delivered to the device.

The one or more processors could be further configured to estimate a carbon footprint of the device from the calculated power or energy drawn from the power grid by the device over the time period.

The one or more processors can be further configured to communicate the estimated carbon footprint to an external device.

Apple's patent FIG. 1 below illustrates an electronic device with various energy sources and mechanism for estimating energy use and carbon footprint.

Apple's patent FIG. 5A above illustrates a flow chart of measuring device power consumption and deriving grid energy consumption and carbon footprint therefrom; FIG. 6 illustrates a system for deriving carbon footprint from energy consumption using grid data and for reporting such data to external servers.

While a user's iPhone will produce a larger carbon footprint, Apple's new system could equally apply to all future devices from Macs to the iPad, Apple Watch, HomePod devices, accessories and Apple Pencil, according to the patent filing.  

If you're a Green New Deal type of person, then you'll probably appreciate Apple's work on trying to reduce the carbon foot of your digital devices and provide you with an individual report on your daily footprint. While the patent describes how they calculate a device's carbon footprint, including the provision of a user's report, I didn't really understand it's purpose.

With the Biden administration pushing electric vehicles, trying to ban gas stoves and barbeques and so forth, will there be a  time when the government will monitor your household carbon footprint and tax those generating too high a carbon footprint? Or is this simply a possible new marketing feature for future Apple devices as part of their own carbon neutral goals? While only time will tell, what are your thoughts on this?

For full details, review patent application 20230394496 titled "Energy and Carbon Accounting in Electronic Devices."