As the latest RE100 progress report, one of the key corporate leadership initiatives promoted by We Mean Business, is showing: big businses goes 100% RE  driven by economic benefits. In 2017, more than 6,300 companies with some 55% of global market capitalization disclosed environmental data through the Climate Disclosure Project, at the request of over 800 investors with combined assets of US$100 trillion. With the recent announcements from Google, Wells Fargo and the LEGO Group, 28 members now run entirely on renewable power. In 2016, Autodesk, Elopak, Interface, Marks & Spencer and Sky join companies like Microsoft and Starbucks in meeting their 100% goal. Together with new commitments from Danone, Reckitt Benckiser Group, and Hatsun Agro Products Ltd, RE100 now brings together 122 of the world’s pioneering companies, that have pledged to source 100% of their global electricity use from renewables.

The new RE100 report shows that almost all RE100 members are motivated by the need to slash their greenhouse gas emissions; 88% of companies responding to our survey say they are also motivated by the economics of renewable energy and 41% of respondents – including retailer H&M – report that switching to renewable electricity has already led to savings on their energy bills.

Telefonica for example has forecast that switching to renewable power will save 6% of its operational costs by 2020 – and up to 26% by 2030. Meanwhile, companies from Google and Microsoft to Infosys all say that renewable electricity provides better cost stability.

These developments confirm the World Economic Forum’s finding that unsubsidized renewables were the cheapest source of electricity in 30 countries last year, or that IRENA has estimated renewables will be consistently cheaper than fossil fuels by 2020.

Photo: courtesy Postauto Fuel Cells Bus in Davos in 2014