Yingli’s Goal: World Cup’s First-Ever Carbon Neutral Sponsor

Yingli Green Energy plans to become the first-ever carbon neutral sponsor of the FIFA World Cup, which kicks off today in Brazil.

The company plans to offset all carbon emissions arising from its promotional activities in Brazil as part of its mission to help make the 2014 World Cup the greenest in history.

Yingli says it plans to have a carbon neutral footprint for all of the Company's promotional events and activities on-site in Brazil during the World Cup, including all solar powered stadiums, commercial displays, customer hospitality, media activities, and employee travel and accommodation. To achieve carbon neutrality, Yingli has:

• Supplied more than 5,000 Yingli solar panels and nearly 30 off-grid solar energy systems to help power matches at multiple stadiums.
• Partnered with ClimatePartner, an independent, certified environmental agency, to accurately calculate and verify emissions data for the duration of Yingli's sponsorship activation in Brazil.
• Committed to investing in carbon emission reduction certificates that are generated by a local Brazilian project, and that are certified by the Bureau Veritas Certification Holding SAS.

In September FIFA said it expects the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and the Confederations Cup to generate just over 2.7 millions metric tons of CO2e and said it will offset those carbon emissions.

The 2010 World Cup’s total carbon footprint came to about 2.8 million tons of CO2e, according to a study by Ernst & Young, an eight-fold increase over the previous World Cup in Germany.