Major companies including Amazon, Nike, Meta, Apple, PepsiCo, and more, have banded together to launch the Clean Energy Procurement Academy, a program that aims to decarbonize supply chains.
Supply chain emissions account for more than half of global greenhouse gas emissions and can even represent the majority of a company’s carbon footprint. The academy aims to “equip companies with the technical readiness to explore and adopt clean energy, an essential factor in global decarbonization,” according to the group.
The project was initiated by Apple and Nike through the Clean Energy Buyers Institute (CEBI), a non-profit organization focused on solving market and policy barriers to achieve a carbon-free energy system. Amazon, Meta, PepsiCo, and REI Co-op also join the program as founding organizations.
“To address the climate crisis, we need to act quickly to expand access to clean energy around the world. Businesses can help drive that change,” Sarah Chandler, Apple’s vice president of environment and supply chain innovation, said in a statement. “As we make progress to ensure every Apple product is carbon neutral by 2030, we will continue to work closely with our global suppliers to support their transition to renewable energy. We’re proud to collaborate with CEBA and others to expand those efforts beyond our supply chain and across industries.”
The academy will leverage online and in-person training as well as comprehensive educational resources.
Namely, the resources target boosting supply chain companies’ capacity to invest in renewable energy through education and data accessibility. In addition, the companies are looking to foster synergies across industries to tackle shared climate change challenges. Plus, the Academy wants to encourage supply chain companies to push their renewable energy goals and commitments, as well as establish new renewable energy buying communities in key manufacturing regions.
“Accelerating the transition to clean energy is crucial to avoiding the most severe impacts of climate change and meeting our net zero carbon commitment. This is why Amazon has been the world’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy for the last three consecutive years,” said Kara Hurst, vice president of worldwide sustainability at Amazon. “We know that actions to address climate change will be more impactful when we join together with others and all share what we’ve learned. We are excited to collaborate with the Clean Energy Procurement Academy to empower Amazon suppliers and other businesses to decarbonize their energy operations alongside us.”
The founding members of the program created a shared training curriculum and delivery processes to train others to become clean energy customers.
The academy is also supported by the We Mean Business Coalition, which aims to catalyze business and policy action to halve emissions by 2030.
