One way Apple promoted its products is by labeling them as "carbon neutral." However, the company has started distancing itself from it after some recent legal trouble in the EU region.
The new Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3 are no longer advertised as "carbon neutral," and the company has omitted any references to this worldwide, as spotted by a French blog WatchGeneration (via MacRumors).
This change also trickled down to the M4 Mac mini, which is also no longer advertised as a "carbon neutral" product. Apple updated the device's product page around the time of the September iPhone launch event.
While the company reiterates its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2030, Apple Watch models released in 2023 were advertised as the first "carbon neutral" products from Apple, only with select case and band combinations. Apple supported its claims by stating:
Each carbon neutral Apple Watch model meets the following strict criteria: 100 percent clean electricity for manufacturing and product use, 30 percent recycled or renewable material by weight, and 50 percent of shipping without the use of air transportation.
These combined efforts result in at least a 75 percent reduction in product emissions for each model. The company will use high-quality carbon credits to address the small amount of remaining emissions, resulting in a carbon neutral product footprint.
The removal of carbon neutrality claims from Apple's marketing materials began after Deutsche Umwelthilfe, a German environmental group, accused the company of "greenwashing" and misleading customers. A German court ruling in August barred Apple from advertising the Apple Watch as a carbon-neutral product.
The company removed all such mentions from its German website shortly after the court's ruling, and eventually from other countries. An Apple spokesperson told Reuters that it would phase out the carbon-neutral label for Apple Watches to comply with an upcoming EU legislation, which restricts the use of such claims when they are associated with "carbon credits" or "net-zero carbon offset projects."
Apple's carbon neutrality claims were based on a tree plantation project in Paraguay, which aimed to offset emissions by planting eucalyptus trees on leased land. However, ecologists claimed that such monocultures would harm biodiversity, and the German court noted that Apple had not secured the lease for 75% of the project area beyond 2029 with no guarantee that the contracts would be extended.
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