Apple announces second Impact Accelerator class
Apple has announced its second Impact Accelerator class, 16 Black-, Hispanic/Latinx-, and Indigenous-owned businesses working on the cutting edge of environmental services and solutions.
Making a difference the good way
The Impact Accelerator program launched last year with the goal of ensuring that the company’s strategic work and investments to protect the environment also help expand access to opportunity for communities of color.
This is a company wide mission. Apple CEO, Tim Cook, has said:
“While our laws have changed, the reality is that their protections are still not universally applied. We’ve seen progress since the America I grew up in, but it is similarly true that communities of color continue to endure discrimination and trauma,” Cook has said in the past.
Part of the company’s Racial Equity and Justice Initiative, the Impact Accelerator will provide training and mentorship to help grow these chosen businesses while advancing a shared goal of creating a greener world.
What happens to these companies?
The companies will participate in a three-month program aimed at accelerating progress toward their goals. Executives and their teams will receive customized training that provides the knowledge and tools needed to succeed as an Apple supplier, access to Apple mentors and experts to help align business priorities with environmental goals, and scholarship opportunities with leading executive education programs focused on supply chain and growth.
Following the program, the companies will be considered for business opportunities with Apple as it works to achieve carbon neutrality across its entire manufacturing supply chain by 2030. Apple has been carbon neutral for its corporate operations since 2020.
What Apple says
“The fight to address climate change demands that we band together to develop innovative solutions while empowering and uplifting the communities we’re working to protect,” said Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives.
“We are thrilled for this dynamic group of innovators to take their important work to the next level with help from our Impact Accelerator, and we are proud to deepen our commitment to working with partners around the country to ensure that environmental progress and equity go hand in hand.”
What happens next
From creating the world’s largest water database to developing clean energy projects on tribal lands to helping farmers improve soil management, the 16 Impact Accelerator businesses are driving innovations in clean energy, water, recycling, carbon removal, and energy efficiency. You can find out much more about them here — all these ideas are worth your time.
They span six time zones across the United States, and include family-owned small businesses, woman-owned enterprises, and public benefit corporations. Each share Apple’s commitment to serving communities disproportionately affected by climate change and other environmental challenges.
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