A roof-breaking record for Apple’s campus by Dubai

Dubai has manufactured the world’s ‘largest freestanding carbon-fibre roof’ which has been installed on Apple’s new $5 billion (AED18.35bn) Cupertino headquarters. The circular roof has been made of 44 identical radial panels, measuring 70 feet long and 11 feet wide and weighing 80 tonnes. Each panel is connected to a small central hub positioned in the middle. The panels were tested locally before being sent to California. The campus is spread over 175 acres.

In the 2017 edition of Apple’s Environmental Responsibility Report, Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives, who reports directly to CEO Tim Cook, has called the new HQ “the greenest corporate headquarters on the planet”. The Apple Park in Cupertino is on its way to become the largest LEED Platinum certified office building in North America, she has added. The park is being powered by 100 per cent renewable energy, out of which 75 percent is generated onsite by a 17-megawatt rooftop solar installation and 4 megawatts of baseload biogas fuel cells. Over 80 percent of the campus is open space and accommodates more than 9000 drought-tolerant trees. The campus also uses 75 percent recycled non-potable water to care for its dense forest and to run other onsite facilities where fresh water isn’t required, the report said.