Tim Cook did alright by the environment — but AI could upend his climate legacy

As he steps down from his post as Apple CEO today, Tim Cook leaves behind a mostly positive environmental record. As far as billionaire tech moguls and the environment go, Cook will likely be remembered as one of the better ones — certainly far from the worst. But it will become harder for the company to meet the climate goals Cook set in place as Apple tries to catch up in the AI race.

Under his watch, Apple set industry-leading goals for reducing the amount of pollution created by its products and suppliers. It has managed to keep its carbon footprint from growing while other tech giants see their emissions rise with the energy-needs of AI.

Even so, Apple has faced a series of accusations that it misled customers with its sustainability claims. And many of the environmental problems the company has grappled with under Cook are poised to become even bigger with the explosion of generative AI.

“If Tim Cook wants his legacy to be of a company that held its climate commitments he may have chosen the right time to leave - right now against a dark backdrop the picture is comparatively rosy,” Rachel Kitchin, senior campaign manager at the environmental group Stand.earth, says in an email to The Verge. “Depending on the choices the company makes moving forward it may not stay that way.”

The company pumped out 15.3 million metric tons of gross carbon dioxide emissions in 2025, according to the company’s latest environmental report. That’s about as much as the pollution from 40 gas-fired power plants over a year. In 2020, Apple set a goal of cutting its carbon emissions by 75 percent by the end of the decade (compared to its emissions in 2015). So far, it has reduced its emissions by 60 percent, which Apple touted in its announcement of Cook’s transition to executive chairman. Apple’s carbon pollution shrank each year since 2021 before flatlining over the past year, “holding constant from 2024 even in a year of significant business growth,” the company said in a press release.

Cook was clear during his tenure that the company’s move toward cleaner energy wouldn’t come at the cost of that growth. “I want to see that it pencils out, because I want other people to copy it. And I know they’re not going to copy a decision that’s not a good economic decision,” Cook told CBS News of its renewable energy investments in 2023. Meanwhile, Google’s and Microsoft’s greenhouse gas emissions have ballooned in recent years as generative AI demands more data centers and chip manufacturing.

Apple set itself apart with high standards it created for its suppliers, garnering approval from environmental groups that typically have a lot of negative things to point out about Big Tech companies. A 2023 report by Stand.earth assessed Apple, Dell, Google, HP, Microsoft, and Nvidia and found that Apple was the only one at the time that had set a 100 percent renewable electricity target for its suppliers.

In 2025, Apple earned a B+ rating from Greenpeace East Asia for its push for more renewable energy along its supply chains. “It’s a sharp contrast to companies such as Nvidia, whose supply chain is also concentrated in East Asia but has no clear renewable energy target or concrete support for them,” Avex Li, supply chain project lead at Greenpeace East Asia, says in an email.

It’s worth mentioning, though, that there have been allegations of forced labor and conflict minerals along Apple’s supply chain. Apple has also faced sharp criticism over marketing some of its products as “carbon neutral,” claiming the company didn’t produce more carbon dioxide emissions than it could capture or offset while making the device. Apple introduced “select case and band combinations” of its Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Ultra 2, and Apple Watch SE as the company’s first carbon neutral devices in 2023. Later that year, the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs found that Apple had stopped requiring its suppliers to publicly disclose their greenhouse gas emissions, alleging that the lack of transparency made it difficult to verify the company’s carbon neutral claims.

“Apple needs more transparency and should invest more directly in new renewable capacity, particularly in Taiwan and South Korea, where much of its chip supply chain is concentrated and access to renewable energy remains constrained,” Li writes, adding that the company doesn’t disclose suppliers’ total electricity consumption nor the overall share powered by renewable energy.

The company faced a class action lawsuit last year filed on behalf of customers who bought the watches, accusing the company of “false and misleading carbon neutrality claims.” A federal judge in California dismissed the case this year. And Apple dropped its carbon neutral advertising after the EU moved to bar the use of the term to describe products.

Cook has been a savvy statesman when it comes to shielding Apple’s supply chains. Despite its own reductions in pollution, Apple — alongside Amazon, GM and dozens of other large companies — has opposed efforts to develop stricter international guidelines for reporting greenhouse gas emissions. In the US, Cook joined other chief executives at President Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2025, ushering in a wave of policies designed to derail climate action and kill renewable energy projects in favor of fossil fuels. Cook donated $1 million to the inauguration committee, and gave Trump a gold and glass statue later that year apparently to commemorate US manufacturing. In his second term, Trump has prioritized rolling back environmental rules to speed the development of new power plants and AI data centers.

When reached for comment, Apple spokesperson Sean Redding pointed The Verge to its most recent environmental progress report and its prior statements on Cook’s transition.

With growing demand for more advanced chips and cloud infrastructure, “AI will be the defining test of Apple’s climate commitments,” Li says. “To preserve Tim Cook’s environmental legacy, the company will need to show that AI growth can be accommodated within its existing climate commitments through absolute emissions reductions, additional renewable energy investment, and longer-lasting products.”