Climate projects without benefit? Apple still "proud" of Apple Watch

Apple has responded to a lawsuit filed at the end of February accusing the company of making false claims about the carbon neutrality of its products. In a statement to the US website Appleinsider, the tech company said it was "proud of its carbon-neutral products" and emphasized that they were "the result of industry-leading innovation". Apple has reduced emissions for the Apple Watch by over 75 percent and is investing significantly in nature-based projects to remove hundreds of thousands of tons of carbon from the air.

The lawsuit was filed by seven purchasers from various US states who accuse Apple of making false and misleading claims about climate neutrality (Dib et al v Apple Inc, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 25-02043). In September 2023, Apple introduced its first CO₂-neutral products and declared in a separate press release that every Apple Watch Series 9 or SE with an aluminum case in combination with a Sport Loop is CO₂-neutral. A similar claim was made for the Apple Watch Ultra 2.

Plaintiffs: Projects achieve nothing

In support of their claim, the plaintiffs argue that two projects mentioned by Apple to offset carbon dioxide emissions had already taken place beforehand without the manufacturer's involvement or were simply not necessary. Specifically, it is about a forest project called Chyulu Hills in Kenya and the Guinan project in China. The protection against deforestation in Kenya advertised by Apple is already ruled out by the fact that the forest area has been a nature reserve since 1983, according to the statement of claim. In the Guinan project, which involves the reforestation of barren land, there is hardly any room for additional trees because the area has long been heavily forested, the lawyers claim, citing satellite images.

The plaintiffs, represented by law firms from San Francisco, Scottsdale and Houston, claim that they would not have bought the watches or would only have paid less for them if they had known that the compensation projects were allegedly of no benefit. This is not the first time that Apple's climate projects have been questioned. Even before this lawsuit, consumer advocates from Europe had questioned Apple's climate protection advertising, the German environmental organization Deutsche Umwwelthilfe had filed a lawsuit and Chinese environmental researchers even spoke of "climate-washing".

Hoping for compensation

With their class action lawsuit, the US plaintiffs and their lawyers hope to be awarded damages by the competent US District Court in California. Apple is also to be prohibited from continuing to describe and advertise the products in question as CO₂-neutral.

(mki)