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Corporations Trash Dirty Energy, Opt for Clean Solutions While the national policy is traditionally the driving force behind green investment, there have been significant movements in this space in recent years. The private sector increasingly impacts energy trends and accounts for more than half of the world's energy consumption. The RE 100 campaign is a global initiative of 84 multi-national companies that are committed to procuring 100% of their electricity from renewable sources of energy by a specified date. 84 companies are members of the RE 100 campaign, an increase from 53 companies in 2015. Some of the big world players that have made this commitment include Google, Apple, Facebook, IKEA and Nike. Google is seen as the renewable energy trailblazer. In 2010, Google was one of the first corporations to begin investing in renewables when they signed a $40m deal to invest in two wind farms in North Dakota. By 2015, the organization was purchasing 5.7TWh of energy from wind and solar projects. The company currently sources 44% of their energy needs from renewables but the overall goal is for 100% of its operations to be powered by renewable energy by 2017. While Google is doing their part to tackle climate change, they openly share that investing in green energy makes sense as renewable energy becomes increasingly cheaper to produce.

The International Energy Agency predicts that the cost of large scale solar will drop by a further 25% by 2025.

Some companies, such as IKEA, have invested heavily in onsite solar generation. The Swedish retailer has installed solar panels on more than 300 of its stores and distribution centers. As these stores generally have large footprints, (the Seoul stores is a colossal 59,000 sqm) it means they can install very large systems and meet the entire energy needs of the site via solar energy at some locations. The company also invests in off-site wind turbines, and to-date, they have invested more than $1.5m in wind and solar projects. Large energy users such as Google have the finances to take an equity stake in a wind farm, but these options may not be readily available to smaller businesses. However, it is still possible to invest in renewables through other means such as onsite renewables, community energy projects and Corporate Power Purchase Agreements.

WHAT IS RENEWABLE ENERGY AND WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT?

Renewable energy is energy that is derived from natural processes that are replenished at a higher rate than they are consumed. Renewable energy is considered sustainable as it is obtained from sources that are inexhaustible, such as sunlight and wind. Renewable energy is also considered a ‘clean’ source of energy as it has a lower environmental impact in comparison to traditional energy sources like coal generation.

Renewable energy, in partnership with energy efficiency, is essential to the delivery of a low carbon global economy as agreed United Nations’ 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21). The main goal of this agreement is to maintain the increase in the global average temperature to below 2 °C above pre- industrial levels.

52 The Occupier Edge