After having a brilliant run in the market for past some quarters, Apple (AAPL, Financial) now looks toward expanding its environmental efforts by investing in a new Chinese solar power project and preserving 36,000 acres of "sustainable" timberland in Maine and North Carolina.
The tech giant had set a goal earlier last year of powering all its U.S. operations with renewable energy to reduce carbon emissions. Last week, Apple announced a new focus on using paper from trees harvested under environmentally sound conditions.
The new solar project in China has a capacity of 40 megawatts, which is smaller than some projects Apple has announced in the United States. By comparison, Apple is spending $850 million for rights to nearly half the output of a 280-megawatt solar facility planned for construction south of Apple's Cupertino, California, headquarters. That project will produce enough energy to power all of Apple's California offices, a computer center and 52 retail stores. In spite of this fact, the project in China will produce more than the amount of energy consumed by Apple's 19 corporate offices and 21 retail stores in China and Hong Kong, announced a company’s official.
The company has refused to reveal exactly how much they plan to invest in the plant, which is being built in partnership with U.S. energy company SunPower and four Chinese firms. What has come to light, however, is that the company is planning to pledge an undisclosed amount for Virginia-based nonprofit, the Conservation Fund, to purchase two large tracts of timberland on the East Coast. The Conservation Fund will resell the land to commercial interests under legally binding terms that require future owners to preserve the forest.
Larry Selzer, the group's chief executive, said that will protect the forest while keeping it in the hands of private owners who pay taxes and create jobs. Selzer said he'll use proceeds from reselling the land to buy and protect additional tracts.
Apple won't necessarily buy paper made from trees on that land, but a company source said that the investment will increase the supply of sustainable wood fiber. She also said that the two tracts would produce about half the non-recycled wood fiber used in Apple's product packaging last year.
It wouldn’t therefore be wrong to say that Apple would be half-way through to its goal if it uses all its non-recycled paper products from sustainable timber. Apple has a market cap of 726.64 billion and P/E ratio of 16.81. The stock closed at $126.14 on Friday and is down trading at 1.13%.
