Business Journal:

Two years ago, Apple bought 3,600 acres in Brunswick County.

The goal, however, wasn’t to turn the sprawling forest into a manufacturing plant or to construct a gigantic Apple store. It’s purpose is to create a “working forest” that supplies Apple with paper products for packaging, while at the same time protecting the state’s environmental resources.

According to The Conservation Fund, the Arlington, Virginia-based group Apple tapped to manage the effort, the project is starting to show returns – both for Apple and for the state of North Carolina.

When this purchase was first news two years ago, a lot of people assumed it was for construction. It’s really interesting to read what Apple is doing with the land instead.