By Solar Times Bureau
Mumbai: 23 April, 2020: Royal DSM, a global science-based company in Nutrition, Health and Sustainable Living, today announces that it will reduce its CO2 emissions by approximately 85,000 tons/year through the signing of its largest renewable energy Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) to date. These PPAs, one in Europe and one in the USA, cover approximately one quarter of DSM’s current total annual electricity consumption. With these deals DSM is well positioned to outpace its target of achieving 75% of purchased electricity from renewable sources by 2030. In 2019, DSM purchased 50% of its electricity from renewable resources.
The PPA in Europe has been signed with EDPR, a global leader in the renewable energy sector and one of the world’s largest wind energy producers. DSM will source renewable electricity from one wind farm and two solar power plants in Spain with a total capacity of 76 MW. The other large PPA in the USA has been signed with Origis Energy, a global solar company, for a solar plant with a total capacity of 78 MW. With these long-term agreements DSM enables the owners to secure financing for the construction of their new renewable energy parks and ensures additional renewable electricity capacity for the planet.
DSM is committed to sourcing 75% of its electricity from renewable resources by 2030 and, reaching 100% at the earliest possibility. DSM is a member of the RE100 initiative led by The Climate Change Group in partnership with CDP. RE100 brings together the world’s most influential companies committed to 100% renewable power.
Dimitri de Vreeze, Co-CEO Royal DSM, commented: “Sustainability is not only DSM’s core value, it is also an important business driver that is fully engrained in our purpose, strategy, business and operations. Our approach for bringing about positive change in all our sustainability efforts is to improve, enable and advocate. With these two large renewable electricity deals we are significantly improving the environmental footprint of our operations and are well on track to achieve our ambitious 75% purchased renewable electricity target ahead of schedule. I am proud that we are proactively delivering on our contribution to the Paris Agreement and that we continue to lead the way in our industry to move to a low carbon future.”
João Manso Neto, CEO EDPR, said: “Although the challenging health environment we are facing nowadays, we are very pleased with today’s announcement. DSM is at the forefront of embedding sustainable practices into their business and we are very pleased with our partnership. This PPA rewards our compromise to continuously seek corporate agreements with industrial leaders and is a chance to increase our pipeline in a core market for us like Spain. We are steadfast in our commitment to keep growing responsibly and with the clear goals of continuing to generate value for all of our stakeholders, and to make a decisive contribution to the energy transition”.
Johan Vanhee, Chief Commercial Officer & Chief Procurement Officer for Origis Energy, said: “Our team is very pleased to work with DSM in the fulfillment of their RE100 goals. Providing clean energy
solutions for the world’s leading companies, including those who have made these important 100% renewable energy commitments, inspires us every day. We thank the DSM team for the opportunity to collaborate with them.”
Sam Kimmins, head of RE100, commented: “Congratulations to DSM on the accelerated progress towards their renewable electricity target. The purchase of two new PPAs ensures they are well placed to reach their ambition, and is an important milestone in the clean energy transition they are driving. We applaud the work done to move forward with their RE100 goal, particularly in the current challenging global context.”
In addition to achieving this major milestone, other highlights of DSM’s commitment to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 (‘Affordable and Clean Energy’) and SDG 13 (‘Climate Action’) include:
- Powering 100% of its Netherlands operations with renewable electricity through agreements with windfarm Krammer, Bouwdokken and energy supplier Eneco since 2018.
- Realizing 69% renewable purchased electricity in the USA in 2019. The wind power agreement with NextEra Energy Resources in Minco, Oklahoma contributed 39% in 2019.
- Opening of solar parks in Belvidere (USA) in 2019, Pune (India) in 2014 and one of Switzerland’s largest and most efficient biomass power plants in Sisseln in 2019.
- Being the first European company in its sector with greenhouse gasses (GHG) reduction targets validated by the Science Based Targets initiative in 2019.
- Being one of the first companies to make the commitment to a long-term pathway toward net-zero GHG emissions across its operations and value chain by 2050 in 2019.
- Applying an internal carbon price €50 per ton of CO2 equivalents since 2015 – incorporating the cost of all GHG emission-based decisions that require significant capital expenditure.
- Engaging with multiple key suppliers to proactively reduce and report GHG emissions reductions related to the products supplied to DSM under its CO2REDUCE program since 2018.
- Joining the European Green Recovery alliance, a pan-European call for mobilization on post-COVID-19 crisis green investment packages in 2020.
Royal DSM is a global, purpose-led, science-based company active in Nutrition, Health and Sustainable Living. DSM’s purpose is to create brighter lives for all. DSM addresses with its products and solutions some of the world’s biggest challenges while simultaneously creating economic, environmental and societal value for all its stakeholders – customers, employees, shareholders, and society at large. DSM delivers innovative solutions for human nutrition, animal nutrition, personal care and aroma, medical devices, green products and applications, and new mobility and connectivity. DSM and its associated companies deliver annual net sales of about €10 billion with approximately 23,000 employees. The company was founded in 1902 and is listed on Euronext Amsterdam.