Apple in a bid to reduce its carbon footprint or increase its profits, whatever the case maybe, shipped iPhone 12 series (and also some previously released series), without any charger in the box. 

This move from Apple was not well received by the consumer protection organization in Brazil, situated in Sao Paulo. The institute of consumer protection in Brazil has argued that Apple fails to establish if this move had any environmental impact at all. 

Furthermore, the institute stated that Apple also failed to highlight this “removal of charger” from the box effectively to the consumers buying this product. 

It is inconsistent to sell the device unaccompanied by the charger, without reviewing the value of the product and without presenting a plan for collecting old devices, recycling etc. The chargers must be made available to consumers who order them.

- Fernando Capez, executive director of Procon-SP.

The truth of the matter is that this move from Apple was a profit oriented one rather than an environment-friendly one. As now the size/volume of the box was smaller without the charger , so it would take less number of trucks to ship this product across various stores in various countries, but the connecting wire which is shipped with the iPhone 12 series, only connects to a new charger (which only previously shipped with iPhone 11 Pro Max). It is quite obvious that people who have purchased that flagship model (only a year ago), would not go for iPhone 12. So most buyers would still need to buy the new charger.

Consequently, there will still be a lot of trucks which will be shipping the new charger for the consumers. Also buying the new charger is the only option consumers have to get the benefit of fast charging on the iPhone 12 series.

Thus, the shipping miles saved by Apple by not including the charger in the box is offset by the shipping miles incurred due to delivery of separate charges. As a result, Apple did not reduce its carbon imprint rather it gained significant profit by selling the chargers separately.