More Companies Join RE100, Commit To 100% Renewable Energy
BMW Group, Coca-Cola, and others join Microsoft, Adobe, and Google in committing to source 100% of their electricity from renewable energy as part of the RE100 campaign.
RE100 bills itself as “a collaborative initiative of influential businesses committed to 100% renewable electricity,” and are working to gather more businesses to their cause, while at the same time using their growing cache to promote change. The initiative believes that switching the private sector’s electricity consumption to renewables “will accelerate the transformation of the global energy market and aid the transition to a low carbon economy.” RE100 is led by The Climate Group in partnership with CDP, as part of the We Mean Business coalition.
The total number of companies committed to RE100 now sits at 53, following the signing of BMW Group, Coca-Cola Enterprises, International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. (IFF), Nordea Bank AB, Pearson, and Swiss Post.
The Climate Group and CDP also revealed new figures that highlight the potential impact of the RE100 campaign.
Specifically, it is predicted that when all 53 companies are powered entirely by renewable energy, they will create demand for 90.1 TWh of clean electricity — which is approximately 0.4% of global electricity, or 1% of electricity used by industry, which is enough to power Hong Kong and Singapore combined.
“Many companies are switching to renewable power at a remarkable rate, and encouraging their suppliers and customers to do the same,” said Emily Farnworth, RE100 Campaign Director at The Climate Group. “Our analysis of the private sector’s electricity consumption and carbon emissions indicated that a switch to power from renewable sources could cut global CO2 by nearly 15%.”
The news comes at the same time as the Science Based Targets initiative has reported the number of companies it has approved has grown to 114, including Coca-Cola, among others.
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So, is there any website that has a reliable ranking of company sustainability? Something that’s a quick reference guide?
Because, quite honestly, I have a lot of products that I could swap that would be inconsequential to me. Eg, while I have a small predilection for Pepsi, if Coke was more sustainable, I could easily change my purchase.
(Reliability of information and ease of access is key here – don’t want to find that one company switched to RE to boost their score, but then supports deforestation for unsustainable palm oil production, or similar)
PepsiCo are one of the companies involved in unsustainable palm oil production, leading to the current forest fires in Indonesia.
Starbucks are another
Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola, in addition to having 100% renewable energy should have water conservation and water table rejuvenation projects.