National Australia Bank (NAB) has taken significant steps towards powering its entire operations with renewable electricity, with all branches in Australia expected to have their power offset with renewable energy by the end of 2021 through renewable energy certificates (“RECs”)
The bank has signed a three-year deal with ENGIE to purchase renewable energy certificates. NAB will buy large-scale generation certificates (“LGCs”) generated from multiple wind and solar farms within ENGIE’s renewable portfolio.
NAB Personal Banking Group Executive Rachel Slade said the agreement meant NAB would purchase renewable energy to meet the electricity needs of its network of over 600 branches by the end of 2021. Approximately 80% of NAB’s Australian buildings will be offset by renewable energy by 2023.
“We are proud that we will be providing our customers and colleagues with smarter and more sustainable environments to work and interact in,” Ms Slade said.
“We already have around 70 branches where solar panels produce up to half of each sites’ electricity requirements. This builds on our Victorian branches already being supplied by wind power. This latest agreement takes another step forward to make our branch operations fully renewable by end of 2021.
“As a member of RE100, we have set a clear operational renewable energy objective to be 100% renewable by 2025. This announcement demonstrates our commitment to this and the progress we are making,” Ms Slade said.
The agreement to purchase certificates complements NAB’s commitment to support customers and to align NAB’s lending portfolio to net zero emissions by 2050.
This announcement demonstrates NAB’s progress as a member of the RE100 Initiative, a group of the world’s most influential businesses including Apple and Google committed to using only renewable electricity.
NAB is also the leading financier to the Australian renewable energy market, with renewables making up 72% of NAB’s power generation lending exposures.
Additional Information:
- NAB has entered into an agreement with ENGIE for the supply of renewable electricity certificates in Australia until 2023 to help meet its RE100 commitment.
- The purchase of large-scale generation certificates is common across the industry. They help Australian businesses contribute to the broader decarbonisation of the electricity grid.
- Each large-scale generation certificate represents the purchase of 1MWh of renewable electricity generation.
- By end of 2021, NAB will have purchased renewable energy certificates equivalent to the electricity consumption of all Australian branches.
- Portion of NAB’s electricity covered by renewable energy sourcing arrangements in 2022 and 2023 (Note: Australian operations only and based on current electricity consumption)
- End of 2022: the equivalent of all branches, business banking centres and offices
- End of 2023: the equivalent of branches, business banking centres, offices and half of data centres’ consumption
