While some may seek to dismiss renewable energy as fringe technology, or even as being bad for business a new report indicates that for some of the world major companies it is saving them large amounts of money.
The report put out by environmental think tank Ceres, the lobby group WWF, David Gardiner and Associates and Calvert Investments shows that major companies in the Fortune 500 list are collectively saving US$1.1 billion every year by using renewable energy.
According to the report some of the companies are saving hundreds of millions of dollars a year by using renewable energy according to the Ceres report.
Some of the companies and their annual savings are:
- UPS (US$200 million)
- Cisco Systems (US$151 million)
- PepsiCo (US$120 million)
- United Continental (US$104 million)
- General Motors (US$73 million)
The Ceres report says that as of last year telecommunications giant AT&T has installed 11MW of renewable energy.
Technology company Hewlett-Packard purchased 13 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources in 2012, while IBM has saved about $477 million from its efforts to conserve energy.
Both retailer Wal-Mart and computer company Dell could save about $1 billion each through similar efforts, the Ceres report said.
“The world’s largest companies are demonstrating that investments in clean energy drive strong returns, explained Bennett Freeman, a sustainability research and policy executive at Calvert.
“Setting and meeting renewable energy targets helps companies and their shareholders to address clear risks and seize concrete opportunities.”
UPS invests in renewable energy because it sees it as a viable business opportunity.
At UPS, investment in renewable energy production is subject to a rigorous for return on investment, the company said in a statement.
UPS has created a viable business model by developing, engineering, purchasing, overseeing construction, and operating the solar panel arrays in-house.
By utilising a direct ownership approach, UPS has uncovered valuable best practices to produce a strong return on its investment in current and future developments.”
Pepsico reportedly gets about four per cent of its energy from renewable sources and plans to go fossil fuel free by 2023 in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Retailer Wal-Mart is a leader among companies for solar power capacity, with about 89MW of solar capacity.
The huge chain has also been accused of overstating its efforts to be green and using them as a public relations strategy, but the company does have an ambition to use 100 per cent renewable energy.
The same Fortune 500 companies listed in the Ceres report have also reduced their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 58.3 million tonnes, which is similar to retiring about 15 coal-fired power plants.
