Leading businesses speed energy transition at Climate Week NYC
Nine new RE100 members were announced at Climate Week NYC 2017, including multinationals The Estee Lauder Companies, DBS Bank, Kellogg Company and JP Morgan Chase & Co.. Media highlights included pieces in Bloomberg, Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), CNBC, The Independent, and IB Times.
Sharing the business case for going 100% renewable
Speakers at the Opening Ceremony of Climate Week NYC included RE100 members Bank of America and Mars, Inc. (sponsors), Carlsberg Group and Walmart. Stephen Badger, Chairman of the Board, Mars, said there was a business rationale to invest in sustainability in supply chains; Mars recently pledged $1bn for its new ‘Sustainable in a Generation Plan’ and also launched its ‘Fans of Wind’ campaign to engage consumers. Flemming Besenbacher, Chairman of the Board, Carlsberg Group, meanwhile spoke on working with other corporate and university partners to ensure open innovation,
Scale and speed of change
‘VELOCITY – Accelerating Climate Action’ saw the launch of The Climate Group’s new EV100 initiative on electric mobility, with RE100 members IKEA Group, HP Inc, and Unilever among the first global companies to join. Speakers also talked about the business case for joining RE100. Diane Holdorf of Kellogg said consumers expect global brands to act responsibly, highlighting the company's recent work with utilities; Mike Power from DBS Bank highlighted the fall in costs of renewable energy technology.
Meanwhile, RE100 members including AB InBev and Goldman Sachs gave updates on their renewables progress. David Tulauskas, General Motors, underlined the expectations of consumers and employees, and said GM would power its Ohio and Indiana plants entirely with wind energy. H&M spoke of also being a member of The Climate Group's energy productivity campaign, EP100, and Philips Lighting urged businesses to ready themselves for rapidly advancing smart technology like connected LED lighting.
RE100 members Dalmia Cement, DBS Bank, H&M, IKEA Group, Infosys, and Swiss Re shared their experiences of going 100% renewable in India, at a high-level RE100 roundtable. Mahendra Singhi, Group CEO and Whole Time Director, Dalmia Bharat Ltd., said social responsibility and carbon pricing were key factors in persuading the Board to invest in renewable energy. Read a recent blog from Infosys about its decision to lead on corporate sourcing of renewables in India.
Bringing renewables to Southeast US
More than 80 people attended a joint RE100-Business Renewables Center (BRC) webinar on bringing renewables to the Southeast US – featuring Kenneth Davies (Microsoft). The Southeast region of the US is where 40% of US electricity production but only 5% of corporate renewable deals takes place, but a new inter-state transmission line will open up procurement options in the region.
Maximising uptake in Europe
With the current update to the European Union’s energy policy framework set to impact the European energy market for years to come, Sam Kimmins, Head of RE100 at The Climate Group, recently blogged on an important change needed to the Renewable Energy Directive (REDII) to maximize corporate uptake of renewables in Europe.
Dates for your diaries
October 5, 2017: RE100 Technical webinar – Alberto Carrillo Pineda, Director of Science Based Targets and Renewable Energy Procurement at CDP, Owen Hewlett, Chief Technical Officer at Gold Standard and Oliver Edberg, renewable energy specialist at Tetra Pak, will present on the new Gold Standard label for renewable energy market instruments.
October 10 - 11, 2017: RE-Source 2017 and RE100 peer learning event, Brussels, Belgium – RE-Source 2017 will discuss scaling up renewables in Europe. There will be a bespoke RE100 peer-learning session on October 10, featuring discussions led by Apple, BT Group, IKEA, CDP and The Climate Group.
November 6-17, 2017: UNFCCC COP 23, Bonn, Germany – The 23rd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP23) to the UN Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will be organized by Fiji and hosted at the headquarters of the UNFCCC Secretariat. RE100 will be taking part.
November 9, 2017: Business Green Leaders Summit, London, UK – The Climate Group will be moderating a roundtable workshop answering questions such as ‘Is 100% renewable energy a commercially viable option?’ and ‘How do you build a robust business case?’. Click here for more information.
November, 2017 (date tbc): RE100-BRC webinar on the Dutch wind consortium – Four RE100 and BRC members, AkzoNobel, Royal DSM, Google and Royal Philips, have set up a consortium in the Netherlands to jointly sign PPAs with large wind projects. Speakers will share their stories and tips for executing successful aggregation deals.