Isabel Ge Mahe

Apple was the fastest-growing smartphone maker in China in the second quarter of 2020, staging a swift recovery after sales sank in the first quarter when it shuttered all its China stores at the start of the coronavirus outbreak in late January. China—where half the world’s iPhones are made—will be crucial to the company’s plan to reach carbon neutrality by 2030, a goal it announced in July. Isabel Ge Mahe, who runs Apple’s China operations, will oversee the firm’s sustainable shift in China. She told Chinese state news agency Xinhua in July that Apple plans to achieve its carbon neutral goal by obtaining commitments from Chinese suppliers to use 100% renewable energy sources to produce Apple goods. “We need strong policies that support climate action from governments around the world. The private sector can’t do it alone,” Ge Mahe told Xinhua. Apple in July also announced a partnership with the U.S.-China Green Fund that will invest $100 million in energy efficiency projects for its suppliers, on top of its existing China Clean Energy Fund, which aims to invest almost $300 million by 2022 to develop renewable energy projects.