What you need to know
- Apple's VP of Environment has been speaking during the ARPA-E 2021 Innovation Summit.
- Jackson covered a range of topics including clean electricity.
Apple Vice President of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives, Lisa Jackson has been speaking during the ARPA-E 2021 Innovation Summit and covered a range of topics, including Apple's support for the Clean Electricity Standard.
As reported by Forbes, the conversation was part of a fireside chat in which Jackson told Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm that Apple was already carbon neutral for the entire company's corporate emissions.
Forbes offers up some highlights from the chat between the pair.
Jackson declared Apple's support for [President] Biden's proposed "Clean Energy Standard" in the American Jobs Plan "to bring our electrical grid to 100% clean energy by 2035." She told Granholm and the Summit that, "We support the passage of a Clean Energy Standard which we think will drive large amounts of renewable generation, of new renewable generation, and do so in a way that shows people where they need to go and what they need to get there." Pointing out that it will be a gradual process, she added, that it will need "clear interim targets to motivate progress along the way."
Jackson also took the opportunity to announce the launch of a new Impact Accelerator, too. It's a program "for Black- and Brown-owned businesses," Apple says.
To that end, Jackson also announced the launch of Apple's new "impact accelerator for black- and brown-owned businesses that work in the clean energy economy," which she said is part of Apple's $100 million commitment to racial justice and equity. That spurred Granholm to remind the audience of Biden's EJ40 initiative, which requires that 40% of all the American Jobs Plan investments "would go to communities that are being left behind, including the fossil fuel workers who are losing their jobs for no fault of their own."
You can read more about what Jackson had to say in the longer Forbes article and Apple recently published its 2021 Environmental Progress Report as well.
