Navigating the Nuances of Corporate Renewable Electricity Procurement

An executive summary of a special edition of the Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor evaluating the renewable electricity targets of 10 major fashion and tech companies. The document highlights the inadequacy of standalone Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs), the potential of 24/7 hourly matching, and the lack of incentive from major initiatives like the GHG protocol and RE100 to adopt high-quality procurement strategies.

• The actual greenhouse gas emission reduction from corporate renewable electricity claims is frequently lower than implied, largely because companies like H&M Group, Inditex, and Samsung Electronics rely on standalone Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). These instruments are unlikely to add new renewable capacity and often lack a physical link between the generation grid and the consumption grid, such as using RECs from Norway to claim renewable use in Bulgaria.
• Google and Microsoft are implementing a 24/7 hourly matching method to align electricity consumption with renewable generation on the same grid every hour. This approach is described as superior to annual matching, which obscures a reliance on fossil fuels, and it creates demand for new renewable energy generation and storage technologies.
• Major initiatives including the GHG protocol, RE100, and SBTi provide insufficient incentives for high-quality procurement strategies and may act as barriers. Their guidelines do not align with best practices like hourly matching and fail to differentiate between high-impact strategies and low-quality methods like standalone RECs.
• Renewable electricity in the supply chain is a blind spot for most of the 10 assessed companies. Only Apple and H&M Group have committed to 100% renewable electricity in their supply chains, but both targets have caveats: Apple's target applies only to Apple output, and H&M Group's target does not commit to electrifying manufacturing processes.

APA

NewClimate Institute (2024). Navigating the Nuances of Corporate Renewable Electricity Procurement. http://www.newclimate.org/resources/publications/navigating-the-nuances-of-corporate-renewable-electricity-procurement

Chicago

NewClimate Institute. Navigating the Nuances of Corporate Renewable Electricity Procurement. 2024. http://www.newclimate.org/resources/publications/navigating-the-nuances-of-corporate-renewable-electricity-procurement.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=NewClimate Institute |title=Navigating the Nuances of Corporate Renewable Electricity Procurement |date=16 January 2024 |url=http://www.newclimate.org/resources/publications/navigating-the-nuances-of-corporate-renewable-electricity-procurement |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{newclimateinstitute2024navigating, author = {{NewClimate Institute}}, title = {{Navigating the Nuances of Corporate Renewable Electricity Procurement}}, institution = {NewClimate Institute}, year = {2024}, month = jan, url = {http://www.newclimate.org/resources/publications/navigating-the-nuances-of-corporate-renewable-electricity-procurement}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }