BEIJING - Apple announced recently that the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) had certified approximately 320,000 acres of working forest that the company supports in China, enough for all its product packaging.

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), an international non-profit NGO established in 1993, promotes responsible management of the world's forests with standards on forest products, along with certifying and labeling them as eco-friendly.

According to an email from Apple, two-thirds of the forest is owned and managed by Maoyuan Forestry, a private company in Central China's Hunan province. The rest is owned and managed by State-owned Qinlian Forestry Company in Southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. The land includes semi-natural forests and forest plantations.

Apple launched its forestry program in 2015, aiming to have over one million acres of forest responsibly managed by 2020, but achieved this goal in just two years.

In addition, the company also protects the forest by designing smaller packaging and using more recycled paper.

In recent years, Apple has made efforts to improve the environmental impact of its production and operation. Today, the company is powering 100 percent of its operations in China with renewable energy, and more than 96 percent in the world.

In the coming years, Apple will work with suppliers in China to install more than 2 gigawatts of new clean energy, and these clean energy programs will help avoid over 20 million metric tons of greenhouse gas pollution in the country by 2020.