Salesforce Announces Largest Renewable Energy Agreement to Date, on Path to Achieving 100 Percent Renewable Energy

By STS News Desk On Aug 31, 2018

Salesforce to celebrate company’s commitment to sustainability and local community at the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco September 12-14

Salesforce (NYSE : CRM ), the global leader in CRM, today announced the company’s largest renewable energy agreement to date, the Bright Stalk Project, supporting 80 megawatts (MW) of new wind energy in Illinois—a critical milestone in the company’s ongoing sustainability journey. This 15-year virtual power purchase agreement (VPPA) builds upon the company’s previous two agreements, and further advances Salesforce’s commitment to reaching 100 percent renewable energy by 2022.

Salesforce is committed to harnessing the company’s culture of innovation to improve the state of the world and drive toward equality for all. The company has achieved net-zero greenhouse gas emissions globally and delivers a carbon neutral cloud to all our customers.

Salesforce’s new investment in wind energy is expected to generate enough clean electricity to power more than 27,000 Illinois homes annually. The Bright Stalk Project, which is owned and will be operated by EDP Renewables, is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2019 and will also create hundreds of full-time jobs during construction and several permanent jobs during the life of the project.

Salesforce Steps Up at Global Climate Action Summit

As a major sponsor of Global Climate Action Summit (GCAS), taking place September 12-14 in San Francisco, Salesforce will join state and local governments, businesses and citizens from around the world to highlight the actions already underway, report on game-changing climate innovations, and catalyze bold new commitments to drive urgently needed climate change solutions.

In May 2018, Christiana Figueres, Convenor of Mission 2020, issued a global challenge to the technology sector to dramatically “step up” climate action and drive down their company’s carbon emissions by 2020. In response to this challenge, Salesforce is proud to announce it has been working with a diverse group of companies to accelerate climate action within individual businesses, via their value chains and across the global economy, to help bend the curve of emissions by 2020. This group of companies are aligning behind a new declaration, and delivering a series of associated commitments that will be announced at GCAS on September 13 at 4pm PT.

Comments on the News:

“At Salesforce, we are committed to a sustainable future and healthy planet for everyone,” said Suzanne DiBianca, Salesforce executive vice president, corporate relations and chief philanthropy officer. “In addition to reaching Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions and delivering a carbon neutral cloud to all our customers, today’s announcement is a critical step toward our goal in powering our operations with 100 percent renewable energy by 2022. All of our commitments reinforce the notion that businesses are an important platform for change and should operate in a way that protects our planet for future generations.”
“We have a collective responsibility to raise ambition, scale up our actions and move forward faster together to safeguard the sustainable development goals and protect the inalienable right to life of our and future generations,” said Christiana Figueres, Convenor of Mission 2020. “It’s inspiring to see companies like Salesforce step up their commitments to climate leadership and I look forward to seeing additional future contributions as we all work together to secure a turning point on greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.”
“EDP Renewables applauds Salesforce’s commitment to powering its operations by renewable energy sources,” said João Manso Neto, EDP Renewables CEO. “Investments by corporate purchasers like Salesforce continue to drive the growth of EDP Renewables’ North American platform as well as the wind industry as a whole.”