Commercial | Page 77

Amazon will be deploying 40 electric vans to its distribution center in Munich Daglfing and installing 60 charging stations at its location there through a new European partnership.

Sprint announced Jan. 16 that all of its 800 Virginia locations will now be running on renewable energy, including its retail locations, cell phone towers and corporate offices, which account for more than 88,000 MWh of electricity per year.

Visa has successfully reached its goal to use 100% renewable electricity across its 131 offices in 76 countries and four global processing centers, just in time for its 2020 target.

PepsiCo announced Jan. 15 its plan to achieve 100% renewable energy for its U.S. direct operations in 2020 by targeting a portfolio of PPAs, VPPAs, RECs and onsite solar.

Stop & Shop will begin to power 40 of its Massachusetts and New York stores with clean energy from a 24/7 microgrid, the company announced Jan. 14.

AB InBev, the maker of beers including Budweiser, will begin to power all its European operation with 100% renewable energy through a 10-year VPPA in the largest Pan-European corporate solar deal to date.

Google has entered into an agreement to power its new $600 million data center in Henderson, Nev., with a hybrid system combining 350 MW of solar energy capacity with up to 280 MW of battery storage.

Smithfield Foods entered into a partnership with a local utility to produce renewable natural gas from the wastewater treatment system at their Tar Heel, N.C., pork processing facility, which will then be used to power the local area.

As we look forward to the next Smart Energy Decisions event, the 2020 Innovation Summit in Houston, March 9-11, let’s look back at one of our signature events from 2019, the 4th Renewable Energy Sourcing Forum, which brought together large electric power users from commercial, industrial, institutional and government sectors, along with suppliers and utilities, all united in the goal to accelerate the adoption of renewable energy.

As we welcome the new decade, the devastating impacts of our warming world are more present than ever and the need to reduce greenhouse emissions has never been more urgent. This column from Ceres details the progress being made by companies across a variety of sectors who are pledging to reduce emissions and increase renewable energy sourcing.