(Photo Credit: Angie Warren, Unsplash)
Over the next two years, the eBay office in Draper, Utah, will have 100% renewable energy through a partnership the retailer formed with Rocky Mountain Power and their Blue Sky program.
This partnership allows the company to purchase renewable energy certificates to offset its energy usage with renewable sources as well as participate in developing small-scale renewable projects in the communities that Rocky Mountain Power serves, according to eBay. The local utility provider presented eBay leaders with a plaque this week in the Draper office to recognize their renewable energy achievement.
“We are impressed with eBay and the efforts the company has made to reduce their carbon footprint and support renewable energy sources,” Draper City Mayor Troy Walker said.
This step in Utah moves the e-commerce company closer to sourcing 100% renewable energy in their electricity supply by 2025 for eBay-controlled data centers and offices. In 2017, 45% of their electricity came from renewables and last year that rose to 50%, according to eBay’s 2018 progress report.
For company headquarters in San Jose, California, eBay describes participating in a program managed by the city that provides nearly 50% renewable energy for the campus. In addition, eBay reported that offices in Berlin and Dreilinden, Germany, Dublin, Ireland and Portland, Oregon are powered by 100% renewable energy through local utility programs.
In addition to being a member of RE100 and the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance, eBay’s Salt Lake City-area data center earned the Energy Star for Data Centers Label last year. The data center also participates in the Blue Sky program as part of a larger strategy to get that facility to 100% renewable energy, the company said.
“We are also actively pursuing power purchase agreements (PPAs), and are assessing the feasibility of other onsite renewables in addition to our solar array in Salt Lake City, Utah,” the company noted in 2018.