About 75% of Apple offices worldwide, including its headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., are now powered by renewable energy -- more than double the amount of green buildings the company had in the last year.
Apple posted an update to its environmental page on Thursday, highlighting how it is increasing efforts to become more sustainable. The company, like many today, aims to reduce its environmental impact and drop its carbon footprint even more in the years ahead.
Although Apple says it hopes to get all facilities running on renewable energy soon, its campuses in Austin, Texas, Sacramento, Calif., and Cork, Ireland, are already there.
Meanwhile, its data center in Maiden N.C. -- which 100% runs on sources such as solar, wind, hydro and geothermal energy -- is the largest user-owned, onsite solar photovoltaic operation in the U.S. Its operations is equivalent to taking 24,000 cars off the road each year.
The facility opened in 2012 and earned LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council — the only data center of its size and type so honored, according to Apple.
"Data centers are just part of the renewable energy story at Apple," the company said on its website. "We’re investing in plans to achieve net zero throughout Apple — using 100% renewable energy and generating zero emissions at all of our facilities around the world."
At its California headquarters, it's already using biogas-powered fuel cell and built rooftop solar photovoltaic systems at two building locations.
"We’ve also cut energy use by over 30% at a time when occupancy increased by more than 12%. As a result of all our work, we’ve increased the proportion of renewable energy used throughout Apple from 35% in 2010 to 75 percent at the end of 2012."
In addition to making its offices and data centers more efficient, designing environmentally friendly products is also top of mind.
"Over the past decade, Apple designers and engineers have continued to pioneer new ways to build our products," Apple said. "Manufacturing innovations such as unibody construction have allowed MacBook and iPad products to become thinner while being even more resilient. And the latest iMac features a process called friction-stir welding, which helps enable iMac to use 68% less material and also generate 67% fewer carbon emissions than earlier generations."
In addition to removing toxins such as lead and mercury, Apple said it is using recycled plastics, recycled paper, biopolymers and vegetable-based ink to develop products. It's also cut down on packaging over the years.
"Making thinner, lighter, and more material-efficient products not only reduces their carbon footprint, but it also means that we can ship them in smaller packaging," Apple said. "For example, the packaging for iPhone 5 is 28% smaller than the packaging for the original iPhone shipped in 2007. That means that up to 60% more iPhone 5 boxes fit on each shipping pallet and fewer boats and planes are used — resulting in fewer CO2 emissions."
According to Greenpeace -- as told to Fortune -- Apple's decision to reveal more about its sustainable steps is a good move forward, but there are still challenges ahead.
"As it keeps growing [iCloud], Apple still has major roadblocks to meeting its 100% clean energy commitment in North Carolina, where renewable energy policies are under siege and electric utility Duke Energy is intent on blocking wind and solar energy from entering the grid," it told Fortune.