Sony Shifts US 100% Renewable Energy Goal Forward By A Decade
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Only a month after it announced that it was joining the RE100 initiative and committing to sourcing 100% of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2040, entertainment and electronics giant Sony Corporation has announced this week it is bringing forward its US goal by a decade.
In the lead-up to the Global Climate Action Summit held in San Francisco in September, global corporate leadership initiative RE100 — which is led by The Climate Group in partnership with CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project) — announced what it described as “the global entertainment industry’s biggest move on renewable electricity yet,” with one of the world’s largest electronics and entertainment companies, Sony Corporation, joining the RE100 initiative alongside other big names such as management consulting leader McKinsey & Company, global coworking and community company WeWork, and one of the oldest banks in Europe, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).
Sony’s laid out its commitment to use 100% renewable electricity for all its business sites by 2040, with an interim goal of 30% by 2030.
However, a month later almost to the day, Sony has announced that it is bringing forward its US target by 10 years, intending to increase its renewable energy sourcing from its current levels of 25% to 100% through a combination of on-site solar, renewable energy certificates, and other methods. This builds on the company’s existing achievement of 100% in Europe, and following the US the company will focus on China and Japan.
“While the Sony Group continues to work on the energy efficiency of our operations and products, we are increasing our efforts toward renewable electricity usage,” said Mark Khalil, Executive Vice President, Sony Corporation of America. “Our commitment to achieve 100% renewable electricity usage in the North American region by 2030 is a step toward our global goal. By joining RE100 and establishing global and regional targets, we hope to accelerate the usage of renewable electricity at Sony and inspire other companies to do the same.”
The move follows, though is not necessarily directly connected, to the release of a report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which warned that “Limiting global warming to 1.5°C would require rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.”
“We congratulate Sony for seizing the opportunity to make a faster transition to 100% renewable electricity in a well-developed market,” said Sam Kimmins, Head of RE100, The Climate Group, in response to Sony’s decision this week. “In a week when scientists are telling us we need to do more to keep global warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius, you couldn’t have a more powerful message than one of the world’s largest electronics and entertainment companies stepping up the pace on climate action. This shows the business community what can be done, and we encourage all major companies to follow suit.”
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