member The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. has reached 100% renewable electricity (RE100) in the U.S. and Canada ahead of schedule. This success is attributed to the company’s renewable energy solutions in its portfolio.
Led by The Climate Group in partnership with CDP, RE100 is a global leadership initiative bringing together influential companies committed to sourcing 100% renewable power for their global operations.
Through RE100, the beauty giant has set a target to source renewable electricity for its full operations by the end of 2020 and is now moving faster than expected in North America. Today, the company announced they have signed a virtual power purchase agreement (VPPA) for wind energy, making The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. the first prestige beauty company to execute a VPPA.
The VPPA is the company’s largest renewable energy contract globally and will support the development of the Ponderosa wind farm in Beaver County, Oklahoma. The Ponderosa wind farm alone will cover more than half of the company’s global electricity footprint with renewable energy technologies, putting the company on target to meet its global 2020 RE100 commitment.
Amy Davidsen, Executive Director – North America, The Climate Group, said: “We’re so excited to see that The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. has reached 100% renewable electricity in the U.S. and Canada ahead of schedule. This is a significant milestone toward the company’s global RE100 goal and demonstrates it is possible to go further and faster on renewable energy.”
“The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. is committed to innovating to help achieve a low-carbon future,” said Nancy Mahon, Senior Vice President, Global Corporate Citizenship and Sustainability of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. “We’re so pleased to meet our 2020 RE100 commitment for North America early. Projects like the Ponderosa wind farm and others in our Net Zero portfolio are all significant achievements toward our commitments to address climate change.”
A forward-looking investment
Under the VPPA, the company will purchase the energy produced by 22 megawatts (MW) of the Ponderosa wind farm, owned and operated by a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources, which equates to approximately 10 wind turbines.
The wind energy the company will buy from Ponderosa is equivalent to powering more than 9,000 typical U.S. homes and will reduce fossil fuel emissions equivalent to removing more than 14,000 cars from the road annually.
According to NextEra, the project will provide economic benefits for the local community including an estimated 200 construction jobs, $30 million in landowner payments, and $70 million in tax revenue.
The Ponderosa VPPA is the latest renewable energy project in the company’s renewables portfolio, which also includes a 1 MW solar PV system at its Whitman Laboratories in the U.K. and 1.4 MW ground-mounted solar array recently constructed at the company’s Melville campus in New York, among other projects in the pipeline.
“By installing solar panels and signing a virtual power purchase agreement for wind energy, The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. is directly adding renewable energy capacity to the grid. This is leading by example and we want many more companies to follow suit,” added Amy Davidsen.
Read here to learn more about RE100.
