Unilever has recently announced that it now uses 100% renewable electricity across five continents! All their factories, offices, R&D facilities, data centers, warehouses and distribution centers – across Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and North America – are currently powered by 100% renewable grid electricity. What’s more, it’s a goal met ahead of schedule for these 5 continents.
Their global goal for 2020 was to have all facilities reach 100% renewable electricity usage. Unilever managed to transition to 100% renewable electricity in 5 continents already by supporting the development of local renewable energy markets however possible. This strategy has made it where 38% of their grid electricity is supplied through a combination of corporate Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) and green electricity tariffs. Where this has not been feasible, they have purchased Renewable Electricity Certificates (RECs) – an openly traded certificate which states that one party has generated renewable electricity and then sold it to another party, who ‘retires’ the REC to show they’ve used it.
Sam Kimmins, Head of RE100 at The Climate Group, said:
Congratulations to Unilever – achieving 100% renewable electricity across five continents means the company is quickly advancing on its RE100 goal as it works to become a ‘carbon neutral’ company by 2030. Through its membership of RE100, global companies like Unilever are sending a strong demand signal to the few markets where renewables remain harder to access. They want to be able to source renewable electricity locally at an affordable price – and they want to do that now.
This great achievement is only the first step towards Unilever’s target to become a carbon-neutral company before 2030. As part of its efforts to reach this bigger goal, the company has been working with partners around the world to generate renewable electricity at its own sites, with solar power currently in use at Unilever facilities in 18 countries. At the moment, it already has 16 manufacturing sites that are completely carbon-neutral in their energy use!
Marc Engel, Chief Supply Chain Officer at Unilever, says:
The climate emergency is one of the most urgent challenges we’re all facing. Our teams have worked hard to secure renewable energy contracts for our sites across five continents, accelerating the delivery of our 100% renewable energy targets.
Of course, there is more work to do. But we hope that today’s announcement will inspire further action elsewhere and help to prove that it is possible to combat the climate crisis and hold global warming at 1.5° Celsius. Renewable is doable.
Unilever is an active member in international climate change meetings like Climate Week NYC and the UN Secretary General’s Climate Action Summit – where they join leaders from government and business in advocating for the importance of limiting global average temperature rise to 1.5°C – in line with the Paris Agreement.
This goes to show that there is hope. Some big companies like Unilever are working towards making a change in how they run their company and are taking into consideration what they put out into the world.
