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2018 Corporate Responsibility Report

Renewable energy and RE100/EP100

Purchasing power from renewable rather than conventional sources has been a principal measure of our Greenhouse Neutral Programme. Concluding a gradual build-up that started in 2005, we are now using 100% renewable power at all the Group’s locations where it is available in reliable and trustworthy quality (ie at a total of 30 locations in Asia, Europe, North America and Oceania). This means that approximately 94% of our total power consumption came from renewable sources at the end of 2018.

To assess the quality of the renewable power available in individual locations and select suitable sources, we use a “minimum standard” that clearly states how we define renewable power and what requirements it needs to meet.

In particular, we pursue the following impactful green power options, with decreasing preference:

  • Direct investments in our own solar plants (eg at Armonk, Swiss Re Next);
  • Indirect investments via long-term virtual power purchase agreements from newly built plants (see Focus: Entering into a virtual power purchase agreement (VPPA));
  • Sourcing of high-quality renewable energy certificates (eg naturemade star in Switzerland and NaturEnergie in Germany).

RE100 AND EP100

At the end of 2018, approximately 94% of the power we purchased across the Group came from renewable energy sources. We are committed to raising this figure to 100%, which is why we helped establish the Climate Group’s RE100 initiative in 2014 as a founding member.

The goal of this initiative is to unite the world’s most influential companies in a shared commitment to use 100% renewable power by 2020. To achieve this, the RE100 group approaches policymakers and regulators at national and sub-national level to make renewable energy more available. RE100 grew substantially again in 2018 and now includes more than 160 of the world’s largest companies. www.theRE100.org

Going beyond these collective efforts, we have recently started to build solar power plants at our own offices.

In 2016, we also signed up to the EP100 initiative, launched by the Climate Group (www.theclimategroup.org) and the Global Alliance for Energy Productivity (www.globalproductivity.org). This is a shared commitment by leading global companies to double their energy productivity or, in other words, to get more economic output from each unit of energy. www.theclimategroup.org/project/ep100/