During Climate Week NYC 2016 this week, several companies made bold commitments through The Climate Group’s two leading corporate energy campaigns: RE100, which is focused on transitioning to 100 percent renewable power, and EP100, a new initiative focused on doubling energy productivity. The Climate Group and its partners work with companies to help them meet their commitments under the programs.
RE100, which is run in partnership with CDP, announced ten new members so far this week. Apple and Bank of America joined the initiative with announcements during the Opening Ceremony of Climate Week NYC on Monday, while eight others announced their pledges on Tuesday. The latter includes Wells Fargo, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Dalmia Cement, cloud computing companies VMware Inc. and Rackspace Inc., VF Corporation – which owns many apparel and footwear brands including The North Face, Timberland, and Wrangler – global alcoholic beverage company Diageo, and Norway’s largest financial services company DNB.
“We are very pleased to have joined RE100 and be in the company of others who have also committed to using 100 percent renewable electricity for their operations,” said Mary Wenzel, Senior Vice President and Head of Environmental Affairs at Wells Fargo. “Learning from RE100 experts and other members is going to be critical as we work toward meeting our 2020 sustainability commitments, including our goal of powering 100 percent of our global operations with renewable electricity by 2017 and transitioning to long-term agreements that directly fund new renewable electricity projects by 2020.”
These commitments are in addition to pledges made by General Motors and Amalgamated Bank last week. All of these companies have committed to transition to 100 percent renewable power across all their operations. Collectively, the new commitments represent over 19.3TWh of energy demand. RE100 now boasts a total of 81 members (such as Johnson & Johnson, Nike, P&G, and Walmart) with a total energy demand over 100TWh.
EP100 was launched much more recently, but the global campaign has already elicited corporate sign-ups from India, China, Europe and the United States. Run in partnership with the Global Alliance for Energy Productivity, EP100 asks companies to double their energy productivity. Research shows that in the U.S. alone, doubling energy productivity by 2030 could save $327 billion annually in energy costs and add 1.3 million jobs to the economy, while carbon dioxide emissions would be cut by approximately 33 percent.
EP100 has welcomed four new members this week: Dalmia Cement, Mahindra Holiday and Resorts India, global energy efficiency technology provider Danfoss Group, and Chinese LED manufacturer Hongbo Group.
The two initiatives are designed to work hand-in-hand to help companies maximize the economic benefits of every unit of energy they consume – and to ensure that what energy they do use for power, is renewable. The Climate Group explains that various studies have shown that adopting both approaches provides the lowest cost decarbonization pathway for businesses.
“It is widely acknowledged that we will not succeed in keeping a global temperature rise below two degrees without significant corporate leadership on energy, and that is what we are seeing here today,” said Damian Ryan, Acting CEO of The Climate Group. “Dozens of world leading companies joining RE100 and EP100 are showing there's a clear business case to invest in cleaner, smarter energy pathways that will accelerate the transition to net-zero emissions economies.
“When it comes to renewables and energy productivity, investors and policymakers must respond to rising corporate demand and ensure that supportive policies are in place.”
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Published Sep 21, 2016 12am EDT / 9pm PDT / 5am BST / 6am CEST