Wesfarmers Signs Agreement With Renewable Energy Company

As part of their commitment to use 100% renewable electricity by 2025, iconic Australian retailers, Bunnings, Kmart, Target and Officeworks have signed an agreement with CleanCo, the Queensland Government-owned renewables, low-emissions and hydro company, to provide the retailers with 100% renewable electricity across their 147 sites in Queensland.

This results in participating stores using a combined ~140,000 MWh of renewable energy each year by mid-2025, following a staggered onboarding of sites starting July 2022. This is equivalent to the energy consumption of approximately 23,000 Australian households each year and will result in the removal of carbon emissions from the environment equivalent to taking about 48,000 cars off the road. This represents 30 per cent of Scope 2 emissions from Bunnings and about 18 per cent of Scope 2 emissions for each of the other businesses.

Renewable electricity will be provided primarily from Western Downs Green Power Hub, one of Australia’s largest solar farms and MacIntyre Wind Farm, which, once completed, will be one of the largest wind farms in the southern hemisphere.

The new partnership is a step towards all four retailers sourcing 100 per cent renewable electricity by 2025, and supporting each retailer's achievement of net zero Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030, targets they announced in September 2020. The approach is consistent with the retailers’ approach of investing in energy efficiency initiatives to reduce usage in the first instance, installing onsite solar generation and storage where feasible, and sourcing the balance of needs from large-scale renewable electricity generation.

The Wesfarmers retail divisions were pleased to join forces and work with CleanCo to structure a unique arrangement that allowed them to contract separately while leveraging their combined energy loads, demand profiles and number of sites.

The Wesfarmers retail businesses will continue working towards their 2025 commitments through using both onsite generation and renewable electricity procurement.

From L-R: David Riby (Kmart), Tracey Warren (Officeworks), Mick De Brenni (Queensland Energy Minister), Margaret Walford (Bunnings) and Nathan Woolnough (Target).

Quote Michael Schneider Managing Director Bunnings Group

Partnering with CleanCo is an exciting step in our sustainability journey, as we continue to make progress towards our commitment to source 100 per cent renewable electricity by 2025. This builds on the work we have already done to increase our renewable power use by installing solar PV systems at 88 sites across Australia, generating the equivalent capacity to power over 4,600 households.

While we’ve made positive headway, we recognise we have a lot more to do in this space, and we look forward to pursuing more initiatives to reduce our footprint.

Quote Ian Bailey Managing Director Kmart Group (Kmart Australia & Target Australia)

Climate change is one of the major challenges we face in our lifetime. This partnership with CleanCo is a step towards achieving our 100 per cent renewable electricity target by 2025 and builds on our programs that have improved store energy efficiency by around 27 per cent while reducing emissions by 34 per cent since 2015. We know that the road ahead to achieve our sustainability goals is long and challenging, but with solid action like this partnership with the Queensland Government we are making meaningful progress and doing our part on the race to net zero.

Quote Sarah Hunter Managing Director Officeworks

The decarbonisation of the electricity sector is a crucial step in the pathway to a net-zero future, and one in which we all have a role to play. By choosing where we purchase our electricity, and how it is generated, we have the opportunity to contribute to that transition. We are excited to work with our industry peers, and CleanCo, as we work towards our goal of using 100 per cent renewable electricity by 2025, and shaping a cleaner energy sector in the process.

Quote Queensland Energy Minister Mick de Brenni

This is proof our publicly-owned CleanCo is getting on with the job of connecting businesses in Queensland to clean, reliable energy from Queensland renewables and helping decarbonise our economy.

Every time Queenslanders visit these iconic retailers - whether to Bunnings for mowers, Officeworks for school supplies or Kmart or Target for clothes for the kids - they are now supporting Queensland renewables jobs.

They join CleanCo’s growing portfolio of partners, leading to further opportunity for our publicly owned renewables, low-emissions, and hydro business, to now grow its footprint of built, owned and operated assets.

Quote Lindsay Soutar, REenergise Campaign Director, Greenpeace Australia Pacific

Many of the stores Australians shop in every day will soon be entirely powered by the wind and sun, with four of Australia’s best known and loved brands joining forces on a huge power purchase agreement. The deal these brands have struck with Queensland renewables company CleanCo won’t just help these brands hit their target of switching to 100% renewable electricity by 2025, but will also bring even more clean, reliable renewable power into our energy mix, creating jobs along the way. Ending reliance on fossil fuels like coal and switching to renewable energy is critical for tackling climate change, and these companies are showing how it can be done.

Source : Wesfarmers

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