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Comment by _han | Hacker News Reader

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_han·

> Mac mini is Apple’s first carbon neutral Mac

Hats off! I didn't expect the Mac to be next in line for the carbon neutral goals. But they did it!

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Easy if you just buy meaningless carbon credits.

Given how Apple is pushing the carbon neutral narrative while still not reaching the goal on all its products, I assume just buying the credits would tank their margins enough to push them to actually reduce the footprint first.

This looks to me like one instance where the incentives are decently working, at least to some point.

Maybe. Alternatively it could just be the marketing department milking the narrative over an extended amount of time. Going instantly 100% “carbon neutral” through carbon credits is certainly a worse move in this regard.

You can find this on their website with a bit of clicking around and looking at footnotes:

https://www.apple.com/environment/pdf/products/desktops/Mac_...

> Only after these efforts do we cover residual emissions through high-quality carbon credits that are real, additional, measurable, quantified, and have systems in place to avoid double-counting and ensure permanence.

Better than nothing...

Also interesting:

Maxed out: Mac mini with M4 Pro (64GB memory, 8TB SSD): Product footprint before carbon credits 121 kg CO2e

Min spec: Mac mini with M4 (16GB memory, 256GB SSD): Product footprint before carbon credits 32 kg CO2e

I wouldn't have thought that there is this much of a difference in electronics!

Mac minis are going to be one of the smaller selling product lines, so it's probably easier to offset the carbon emissions with the carbon credits they buy.

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