£145m fund for trees as Apple goes green: Tech giant boosts its eco credentials with investment in forests around the world

  • The Restore Fund hopes to remove one million tons of carbon dioxide annually 
  • Apple said protecting environment and making money 'not mutually exclusive' 
  • The Daily Mail's Be a Tree Angel campaign raised £1.5million to plant orchards 

Apple is investing in trees to protect forests around the world – and improve its green credentials.

The tech giant has launched a $200million (£145million) drive to put money into well-managed and sustainable forests.

The Restore Fund – together with US-based group Conservation International and bank Goldman Sachs – hopes to remove one million tons of carbon dioxide annually, equivalent to the amount of fuel used by over 200,000 cars.

The fund also aims to make a profit. Lisa Jackson of Apple said that protecting the environment and making money 'were not mutually exclusive'.

She added: 'We're taught to believe that you can have profits or sustainability… we're investing in the idea that you can have both.' 

Last year, The Daily Mail's Be a Tree Angel campaign raised £1.5million to plant orchards, trees and hedgerows across the UK.

Apple is investing in trees to protect forests around the world ¿ and improve its green credentials

Apple is investing in trees to protect forests around the world – and improve its green credentials

Apple has been unpopular with environmentalists in recent years. 

In 2013, the company along with Samsung was accused of 'trashing tropical forests' in Indonesia.

But now it has vowed to ensure all of the wood and paper products it uses are sustainable.

Agustin Silvani, a forestry expert from Conservation International, said the fund would help to financially support forests with areas supporting natural habitats that would not otherwise be economically viable.

The fund would help forests go beyond the legal minimum for protecting nature.

In some areas of Brazil, for example, the law demands that 20 per cent of a forest area is set aside for nature, but this is not followed in many cases, Mr Silvani said.

And the fund's financial support could allowing trees to grow for longer - absorbing more carbon - than they might otherwise do because of short-term economic pressures.

'There needs to be an economic reason to do that and as investors we are able to give that incentive to forest owners.'

Apple said it intended to become carbon neutral across its entire value chain by 2030.

While the company will directly eliminate 75 per cent of emissions for its supply chain and products by 2030, this Fund will help address the remaining 25 per cent of Apple's emissions by removing carbon from the atmosphere.

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