As Collectively launches We Got Power, we reveal what our partners are doing in pursuit of clean energy.
Clean energy is surging across the globe, and smart companies are catching the wave. Some are joining initiatives like RE100 – under which major businesses commit to 100% renewable energy (RE).
In the US, a group of corporations have signed up to President Obama’s Climate Action Plan, agreeing to invest $140 billion in low carbon technology, including 1,600MW of renewable energy, by 2030. And many companies are involved in the Corporate Renewables Partnership, which brings together business and NGOs to make renewables happen. Others are plotting their own path – and many are taking direct action to cut carbon emissions in other ways, too.
So here is what Collectively partners are up to. There’s a long way to go, of course, and some are further down the track than others. But there’s some pretty impressive achievements here. How does your employer or college compare? Let us know!
Accenture
Global professional services firm Accenture is buying increasing amounts of renewable energy. In 2013-14 alone, this rose by 30%. In India, 25% of its total energy consumption comes from renewables, notably wind power in Bangalore.
On carbon, Accenture aims to cut emissions per employee by 50% by 2020 (compared to 2007 levels) and looks set to exceed that. The company is also advising clients on the feasibility of shifting to renewables and curbing emissions, and this is becoming a significant part of its overall work.
BT
BT aims to source 100% of their global electricity from renewable sources by 2020. A founding member of RE100, they already purchase 100% renewable electricity in the UK, Belgium, Luxembourg and Spain. Overall, renewable energy represents 94% of their global power footprint. In Britain, around 20% comes directly from solar and wind power plants, such as the Fallago Rig wind farm in Scotland.
On carbon, BT aims to cut its global carbon emissions intensity by 80% compared to 1996/97 levels by December 2020; as of 2015 they have achieved a 79% reduction.
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola has no overall clean energy goal, but regional divisions have made good progress on their own targets. In Europe, 17% of energy consumption in 2014 came from renewable sources, and there is a 30% target for 2020. The UK has a target of 40% by the same date, and all plants in Spain currently use electricity from clean sources. Coca-Cola also developed a Clean Energy Toolkit that helps local teams invest in renewables. For example, Coca-Cola FEMSA, the company’s largest independent bottler, intends to source 85% of its manufacturing energy in Mexico from clean energy by 2020.
On carbon, the company aims to cut the footprint of the “drink in your hand”, across its value chain, by 25% by 2020. Total carbon emissions increased by 1% between 2013 and 2014; just about in line with the aim to keep them level whilst growing the business.
Dentsu Aegis Network
Multinational media and communications company Dentsu Aegis Network doesn’t have specific clean energy goals. On carbon, however, it has group level targets to reduce the footprint of products and services by 20% per employee based on 2010 levels. It had set a deadline of 2015 for this, but actually achieved it two years early, in 2013, mainly through behaviour change, and its green office investment programme. New targets for 2020 will be announced in January 2016.
Diageo
British beverage company Diageo has introduced some innovative onsite renewable energy generation, using by-products such as biogas in its Scottish whisky plant. It states that 58.5% of the electricity used in production comes from low carbon sources (though this includes nuclear).
On greenhouse gases, it has a 2020 target to reduce emissions by 50% on its direct operations, and 30% across its supply chain, compared to 2007.
Dow
Under its 2025 Sustainability Goals, The Dow Chemical Company aims to obtain 400 MW of its power demand from renewable sources. It’s announced a long-term agreement with a new wind farm to supply Dow’s Texas Operations manufacturing facility with 200 MW of wind energy annually – making it the first company in the US to power a manufacturing site with renewable energy at this scale, as well as the third-largest corporate purchaser of wind energy in the country.
On greenhouse gases: although Dow will grow over the next 10 years, its 2025 goal includes a commitment to maintain absolute emissions at or below the 2006 baseline. And it seeks to ensure that its trajectory for absolute emissions from operations and purchased power meet internationally recognised targets for a 2°C maximum global temperature rise.
Facebook
Facebook’s long term goal is to source 100% of its energy from renewable sources. It has set some specific roadmap targets as part of that, including a 25% renewables target for 2015, which it is on track to meet. The next target is 50% by 2018. They have joined the Corporate Renewables Partnership. Facebook has not set carbon emissions targets.
GE
Despite becoming one of the largest renewable energy technology providers in the world, GE’s reporting focus has remained on greenhouse gas emissions, with no commitment on renewable energy use in their operations and supply chain.
It has however invested in a number of renewables companies, including Sungeity, which helps homeowners switch to solar and Pentalum, who improve wind turbine efficiency. And its major Ecomagination business has enabled the installation of 40GW of clean energy.
On greenhouse gases, it has cut emissions by 31% compared to 2005, with a further 20% reduction targeted for 2020. An additional $10 billion investment in cleantech R&D promised by 2020 will boost its renewables and low-carbon business.
Google
Google aims to source 100% renewable energy; at present, it has reached 37%. It has invested $1 billion in renewable generation at its own sites, including a major solar installation at its Mountain View campus. It also buys renewable power from other providers, and ensures that this comes from new, additional clean energy sources that are built either directly or indirectly because of its involvement. If that is not the case (for example, if the power plant is already on the grid or it’s going to occur anyway), Google won’t buy the power. It is committed to tripling its purchase of renewables by 2025.
It has invested nearly $2.5 billion in wind and solar projects, including $300 million in residential solar provider SolarCity, $100 million in one of the world’s largest wind farms in Oklahoma and $145 million with SunEdison to repurpose an oil and gas field for solar generation.
Google states it has been carbon neutral since 2007: while total emissions have risen, renewable energy purchases and carbon offsets have brought the footprint back down to zero.
Havas
Global communications company Havas has no specific clean energy target, but it aims to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2015 compared to 2011 levels. By 2014, they had achieved a 6% cut.
IPG
Interpublic, a global marketing and communications company, is promoting energy efficiency in its operations, buildings and travel. It has reduced agencies’ rentable office space per employee by 31% from 2004 to 2014. This cuts the resources needed and their associated emissions. IPG has begun to measure its greenhouse emissions at its 11 largest buildings in the US, establishing a baseline which will enable it to set strategic targets for the future.
Johnson & Johnson
Global pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson have committed to RE100, and aim to power 100% of their facilities with renewables by 2050, with an interim target of 20% by 2020. They have signed up to the Corporate Renewables Partnership, and joined the Business Renewables Centre to accelerate solar and wind procurement. So far, onsite wind generation has been installed in Cork, Ireland, and solar fuel cells in California and Puerto Rico.
On carbon, they are committed to cut emissions by 20% by 2020 (based on 2010 levels) and by 80% by 2050.
Lenovo
Although it doesn’t have specific renewables targets, computer technology company Lenovo aims to reduce direct emissions (from their own operations) and indirect ones (from purchased energy), by 40% based on 2010 levels. Direct emissions have been offset since 2010, and indirect emissions were cut by 15% in 2014-15.
Marks and Spencer
M&S is committed to RE100 with a target to make all directly purchased electricity renewable by 2020. Since 2012, all the electricity M&S has purchased for stores, offices and warehouses in the UK and Ireland has come from green tariff renewable sources. Of this, 21% is sourced from small scale renewables through direct purchase agreements. M&S has also struck a landmark deal for the use of bio-methane gas, and is increasing onsite electricity generation, with the UK’s largest single roof-mounted solar panel array installed on its East Midlands distribution centre. It recently launched the M&S Energy Community Fund, providing £400,000 to help communities make the switch to renewable energy.
Since the launch of its sustainability Plan A in 2007, M&S’s carbon emissions have been reduced by 19% and it is carbon neutral worldwide. It plans to continue to offset gross greenhouse gas emissions so that it has net zero impact.
Nestle
Nestle is a member of RE100 and aims to increase its use of renewables in the coming years. It is making progress at some of its local sites. For example, in Mexico, wind power generates 85% of Nestlé’s electricity needs; and 22 Nescafé factories worldwide use coffee grounds as a source of renewable energy.
On greenhouse gases, Nestlé’s published target is to cut emissions per weight of product by 35% over 2005-2015. It has already succeeded in halving its emissions per product weight from its manufacturing process.
NRG
US energy utility NRG is the country’s third largest renewable energy generator: roughly 8% of the electricity it produces is from renewable sources. It sees itself as pioneering new technologies and models of sustainable power to support a customer-driven transition to a low-carbon economy.
On carbon, NRG has the goal of cutting absolute CO2 emissions by 50% by 2030 and by 90% by 2050, using 2014 as a baseline, through a mix of renewable energy, efficiency measures and carbon reduction projects.
Omnicom
American marketing and communications company Omnicom currently procures 10% of their energy through renewable sources and intend to increase this proportion, although they haven’t set any specific targets.
They have cut their total carbon footprint by more than 12% since 2007, but again have no specific goal on CO2.
Philips
An RE100 member, technology giant Philips is committed to sourcing 100% of their energy from renewables; currently the figure is 55%. They have no target date for going 100%, and are currently making the switch one manufacturing plant at a time. They are also a leader in creating renewably powered lighting products, and invested $2.5 million in 2012-15 in 100 renewable light centres in Africa.
On carbon, they achieved a 25% reduction in operational emissions in 2007-12, and have the ultimate aim of becoming carbon neutral.
SAB Miller
Global brewer SABMiller makes use of local renewable energy, mainly from agricultural by-products such as rice husks in India and selective solar projects. It is also exploring the potential of solar refrigeration.
Its main climate focus is on curbing greenhouse gas emissions. It has set a target of reducing emissions from energy use per hectolitre of lager in its breweries by 50% by 2020 (compared to 2008), and cutting total value chain carbon emissions by 25% over the same period. As of 2015, a 35% saving in brewery emissions had been achieved, mainly by improving energy efficiency and through fuel switch projects, such as a shift to natural gas.
Salesforce
Salesforce is committed to powering 100% of its global operations with renewable energy. In fiscal year 2015, more than 25% of its electricity came from renewable sources. It is a member of RE100 and the Net Zero Pledge, and also backs renewables through the Business Renewables Center and the Corporate Renewable Partnership.
On carbon, it aims to emit zero carbon emissions by 2050. Salesforce states that its multi-tenant cloud platform is 98% more carbon efficient on average than on-premise software.
Thomson Reuters
Mass media company Thomson Reuters reduced their carbon footprint by 5% between 2010 and 2015. Although they have a stated commitment to sustainability, they have no new targets and have set no commitments for renewable energy uptake.
Unilever
Unilever has committed to sourcing 100% renewable energy by 2030, and to source 100% of grid-supplied electricity from renewables by 2020. It has set itself the goal of being ‘carbon positive’ by 2030. To achieve that, it will directly support the generation of more renewable energy than it consumes, making the surplus available to the markets and communities in which it operates. It has also stated it will eliminate coal from its energy mix by 2020.
Currently it uses 100% renewable energy across its US and European operations, and has committed to source 40% of all energy needs renewably by 2020. At present, 28% of the energy used by its factories is from renewable sources (including biomass fuel at 38 manufacturing sites), and 39% of the company’s total electricity needs is met by renewables.
On carbon, it has committed to halve the greenhouse gas impact of its products across the lifecycle by 2020. Manufacturing carbon emissions have fallen by 37% since 2008; however, emissions per consumer use have increased 4% since 2010. (Unilever is one of the very few companies to measure this.) With two-thirds of its greenhouse gas impacts occurring in consumer use, this is a concern, and many behaviour change campaigns have been launched to tackle it, such as Persil’s Wash At 30 Degrees initiative.
Wellcome Trust
Wellcome Trust is working towards becoming fully renewably powered, with the aim of moving to renewable energy supplies at the next major contract negotiation. In the meantime, it is exploring the potential of generating electricity from solar power on a number of the buildings it operates.
Wellcome is a member of the UK Green Building Council and has won awards for its sustainable and healthy building initiatives, which include being an active member of the London Air Quality Network.
WPP
British advertising and PR company WPP aims to increase its proportion of renewable energy to 20% by 2015 and 25% by 2020. At present renewables account for 15%. The company has invested £150,000 in 2014 to support four renewable energy generation projects in faster-developing economies – Brazil, China, India and Turkey.
On carbon, it aims to reduce emissions by 47% per employee, compared to 2006 levels. Progress is on track with reductions reaching 33% in 2014.
Yahoo
Yahoo has no specific targets on clean energy or carbon emissions, but it is working on reducing carbon intensity in its data centres – such as the one in Lockport, NY, where new designs have reduced the power needed to cool servers. Alongside this, renewables have been on the agenda, including the 2014 purchase of a wind farm to offset much of their energy consumption in the Great Plains area.
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