700+ leading companies are now driving climate action
We Mean Business coalition
More than 700 leading businesses around the world are now embracing the low-carbon transition, with many now delivering on the climate commitments they have made through the We Mean Business coalition’s Take Action campaign.
Collectively, these companies are achieving real impact, representing 2.62 gigatons of Scope 1+2 emissions, equivalent to the total annual emissions of India. The 700+ companies, which have a collective market cap of over $16.7 trillion, have made more than 1,170 commitments to ambitious climate action.
Of those 700+ companies, now more than 100 have approved science-based targets (SBT), including Mahindra Sanyo Special Steel, the first steel company to have its science-based targets approved by the Science Based Targets initiative as being aligned with the Paris Agreement goals. The company’s approved targets include reducing Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions per tonne of steel produced by 35% by 2030, from a 2016 base-year.
Other companies to have their SBT approved this month include: French cosmetics giant L’ORÉAL, Swedish home-appliance manufacturer Electrolux and US industrial group Tennant Company. While those committing to set SBTs this month include: US consumer electronics chain Best Buy, Japanese electronics major Mitsubishi Electric and the Italian power utility A2A.
The total number of companies committed to setting, or with an approved SBT, has now reached over 390, which is well on the way to hitting the challenge laid down by Anand Mahindra, chairman of the Mahindra Group – to have over 500 companies committed by the Global Climate Action Summit in September. Earlier this month, Anirban Gosh, Chief Sustainability Officer at the Indian industrial giant, reissued the challenge at World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s Liaison Delegate Meeting in Montreux, Switzerland.
The 700+ companies represented by the Take Action campaign also includes 130+ that have committed to go 100% renewable, as part of the RE100 initiative, led by The Climate Group in partnership with CDP. RE100 members are now creating demand of over 162 TWh of renewable electricity annually, more than enough to power Poland or Malaysia.
More and more of these companies are reaching their targets ahead of schedule, including tech giants Apple and Google, which are now both powered by 100% renewables having joined the initiative in just 2016.
23 of Apple’s manufacturers are also committed to operating on 100% renewable electricity for all their Apple productions. The combined action by Apple’s suppliers represents a carbon saving of 1.5 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions in 2017 – the equivalent of taking more than 300,000 cars off the road.
Such strong evidence of business action on climate ambitions sends a clear message to policy makers around the world – business is stepping up and embracing the transition to the low-carbon economy.