By Juliano Oliveira
Over 90% of the electricity consumed by Coles in Queensland will come from clean energy from Jully 2022.
The giant retailer has announced a 10-year agreement with the state-owned company CleanCo. Coles will purchase 400 GWh of electricity annually through the contract.
The emission of electricity carbon dioxide will be nationally reduced by an estimated 20% or 240,000 tonnes annually, which is the annual equivalent of taking 100,000 vehicles off the road, expects the retailer.
It also secures the development of both projects, which together with CleanCo’s Karara wind farm, will create 800 local jobs in Queensland’s Western and Southern Downs.
Three-quarters of the energy utilised by Coles will come from the Western Downs Green Power Hub and the MacIntyre Wind Farm, solar farms set to be built.
“We have already made changes throughout our business to use energy more efficiently, which has enabled us to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 36.5% since 2009, while growing our team member base and store network,” says Coles Group CEO Steven Cain.
Renewable energy is derived from natural processes that are regenerative over short periods of time and cannot be depleted. The most common renewable energy resources are biomass, geothermal, hydropower, solar, and wind, according to the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association (NCSEA).