Membership of the RE100 initiative has grown by a third in the last year. One in three members are already more than 75 per cent renewable-powered, and three in four are targeting 100 per cent by 2030.
According to RE100’s 2019 annual report, the vast majority are acting on the growing demands of their customers, shareholders and employees, with 87 per cent citing customer expectation was ‘important’ or ‘very important’ in their decision to make the shift. More than half said the policy was beneficial in terms of employee satisfaction and staff retention, and one in two have made cost savings.
Paul Simpson, chief executive of corporate environmental disclosure platform CDP, said: “Corporate demand for renewable power is rapidly growing as the world moves to address the climate emergency. Encouragingly, we see renewable energy increasingly becoming a matter of business competitiveness in numerous markets around the world
“Many companies are now making the shift because it makes business sense – in part due to changing expectations from their key stakeholders – be that investors, customers or employees. Now is the time to meet the demand and speed up the clean energy transition.”
Nearly half (44 per cent) of RE100 members said they were now actively influencing their suppliers on renewable electricity, up from 36 per cent the previous year.
Robert Metzke, global head of sustainability and chief of staff for innovation and strategy at Philips - which upped its share of renewable power to 90 per cent in 2018 - said the move was improving the company’s internal efficiency.
“Switching to 100 per cent renewable electricity drives lateral thinking, combining many people from different disciplines around a common goal,” he explained.