Green News

Entire global workforce is to undertake training programme that has been developed in conjunction with WWF

All 330,000 employees at global consultancy giant Deloitte are to be enrolled in a climate learning programme designed to strengthen their understanding of both the huge risks presented by the climate crisis and the opportunities that could arise from the push to decarbonise the world's economy.

The programme has been developed in collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund and aims to "inform, challenge and inspire Deloitte employees to learn about the impacts of climate change and empower them to confidently navigate their contribution to addressing climate change by making responsible choices at home and at work, and in advising our clients", the company said in a statement released yesterday.

The firm said the initiative makes it the first global business to run a climate focused training programme on this scale, adding that improving the 'climate literacy' of its staff and building out the skills required to tackle the climate crisis should inspire its employees to take action.

"To address climate change, we need to understand it. Through dedicated learning, we can help make the right choices necessary to combat the crisis," said Punit Renjen, Deloitte Global CEO. "Deloitte's climate learning program is a powerful tool to unlock the climate ambition of our most valuable asset and superpower - our people. By educating and inspiring all 330,000 of us, we can help drive collective action at the scale required to help address climate change."

The digital learning program comprises a module which features videos, 'interactive data visualisations', and personal testimonials from Deloitte staff etailing how they are already taking climate action around the globe.

The training programme is now due to be rolled out over the next six months.

Carter Roberts, president and CEO of World Wildlife Fund, said: "Climate change brings global impacts that demand global solutions. But we also know that companies have a big role to play in driving progress, and that the actions and voices of their employees really matter. Leading companies today are not only setting science-based targets to slash emissions and drive progress through their supply chains. They're also engaging their customers and employees to make smarter choices and build momentum for broader societal progress. This new initiative from Deloitte taps into that trend and aims to bring it to scale."

The programme forms part of Deloitte's WorldClimate strategy, which was launched last year and set a target to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and promote green operations across all the regions in which the firm operates.

Company announces its data centre storage capacity is now running on 100 per cent renewable power

Data sharing giant Dropbox has provided more detail on its plan to hit carbon neutrality across its operations by 2030, revealing that its data centre storage server power is now covered by 100 per cent  renewable electricity.

In an update released yesterday, the cloud based data storage giant said it was making progress towards its goals of achieving 'carbon neutrality' for its Scope 1 and Scope 2 direct emissions, and its indirect Scope 3 emissions from business travel.

"As a company that runs on data centres, we recognise the impact we have on global energy consumption, and we're proud to announce that all of our data centre storage server power is covered by 100 per cent renewable electricity," it said. "This means when you're storing your data with us, you're not leaving a carbon footprint."

Dropbox said it had achieved its 100 per cent renewable target by focusing on three focus areas: "maintaining best-in-class power usage effectiveness, optimising overall power consumption, and sourcing more renewable energy."

Power usage effectiveness (PUE) is an efficiency metric that tracks how efficiently a data centre operator is leveraging the power it consumes.

"We're proud to say that our PUE rating is top of the class in our industry - by 2020, we were operating at 17 per cent below the industry average," it said. "We achieved this by implementing outside air economisation and thermal containment solutions and by maximising power utilisation throughout our spaces."

The company also pointed to the business benefit of achieving its target, citing the Edelman 2021 Trust Barometer which found that customers are 5.7 per cent more likely to trust companies that embrace sustainable practices. 

The firm said it is also investing in technologies to automatically power down servers when not in use, which saves an estimated five per cent in power use over each server's lifespan.

The company is also working on driving down the use of power when a server is idling, which could yield energy savings of a further 50 per cent.

"In the last year and a half, we've reduced our data centre carbon footprint by 15 percent. In the coming years, we'll continue to find smart, innovative ways to cut back and reach our overall sustainability goals by 2030," the company said.

In the post the firm also revealed an eye-catching method of driving employee engagement for its sustainability goals that sees it encourage staff to use volunteer time for environmental causes. Dropbox employees are entitled to 32 hours paid time off each year to work for a cause close to their hearts.

Customers who use the Big Clean Switch initiative to move energy suppliers are in line for money off their bill

IKEA's customers are to be offered £35 of free green energy if they switch to a green energy supplier through the company's website, after the retail giant moved to expand its partnership with green energy platform Big Clean Switch.

Big Clean Switch runs a comparison website helping consumers select green energy suppliers. In addition to the partnership with IKEA, it works with a host of consumer brands including Tesco, Sky, and Nando's  in a bid to help businesses and consumers make the transition to cleaner energy tariffs.

The free energy offered as part of the IKEA deal is exclusive of any other savings or promotions run by green energy firms themselves, the company said.

Outlining the rationale behind the promotion and tie-in with Big Clean Switch, IKEA pointed to the impact of 18 months of lockdowns on household bills. "With more time spent at home over the last year than ever before, energy bills have soared - which is why IKEA is helping its customers to switch to a low-cost tariff from a number of different green suppliers," the company said.

The initiative is also designed to complement IKEA's wider environmental goals, which have seen parent company Ingka Group pledge to invest €4bn in renewable energy projects as it works to slash emissions across the company's entire value chain.

"With everything we do we hope to enable and inspire people to take small, affordable and simple steps towards living more sustainably," said Greg Lucas, sustainability manager at IKEA UK. "Millions of homes across the UK are already benefiting from IKEA products and services that help to reduce waste, energy and water, as well as to save money, which is why we're so pleased to be able to partner with Big Clean Switch and help our customers switch to green energy suppliers too."

Jon Fletcher, CEO of Big Clean Switch, said the site aimed to encourage bill payers away from energy contracts that do not help the environment - an aim that would be aided by the link up with IKEA.

"Too many UK households are put off switching supplier because they think it will be too much trouble or they don't trust the energy market and as a result, they're often paying hundreds of pounds more than they should be," he said. "We're working with IKEA to provide a different kind of switching service that provides their customers with the support and reassurance they need to make the switch to greener, more affordable energy."

IKEA has already made a number of investments to switch its own energy use to renewables in the UK. All UK stores use LED lighting, while 13 stores have solar panels installed. Six stores across the UK and Ireland currently do not rely on fossil fuels at all, and are 100 per cent powered by renewable energy sources, the company said.

Uniper confirms closure date for its Ratcliffe coal-fired power station, as consortium of top banks reveal plan to accelerate Asian coal power phase out

This week has seen a further blow to the global coal market in both industrialised and emerging economies, as the UK's coal power phase out entered its end game and some of the world's top banks revealed plans to accelerate the closure of coal power plants in Asia.

Energy giant Uniper today confirmed it is to close its Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal power plant in September 2024 once it has fulfilled its current contract to provide capacity under the UK's Capacity Market scheme. It also announced that one of its generating units at the site would be closing earlier in September 2022.

"We are taking this opportunity to reduce coal generation on the GB system by closing one of the four 500MW units, two years ahead of the government's announced coal phase out date," the company said in a statement. "Uniper's strategy includes our ambitious target to make our power stations in Europe carbon neutral by 2035 and this action is part of our ongoing decarbonisation commitment, whilst still continuing to provide reliable power to support the GB system. The remaining three units at Ratcliffe will continue to provide reliable power to support the GB system until the end of September 2024, in line with our existing Capacity Market agreements with the government."

The move is the latest in a string of coal power plant closures in the UK over the past decade, as generators have been squeezed by falling renewables costs and rising carbon prices that have left coal power plants at a major financial disadvantage to clean power generators and lower emission gas plants.

Uniper said it would now work closely with employees and unions, local councils, Local Enterprise Partnerships, and universities as it look to advance plans to turn the Ratcliffe site into a "zero-carbon technology and energy hub for the East Midlands".

"We see the site development creating employment based around modern industrial and manufacturing uses, with sustainable onsite energy generation," the company said, adding that it has already submitted a detailed application for planning permission for the development of an energy recovery facility on part of the Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station site.  

"Over the past 54 years Ratcliffe power station and our colleagues, have made a critical contribution to power generation in the UK," Mike Lockett, UK country chairman and chief commercial office for power at Uniper. "We're proud of the contribution that Ratcliffe has, and continues to make in keeping the UK's lights on. And we'd like to say a big thank you to all those colleagues past and present, who have been part of Ratcliffe's story. We're now looking at what comes next for the site and exploring options with our local and regional stakeholders."

The news came just hours after Reuters and the BBC reported that a coalition of some of the world's largest financial institutions are working on a plan to pull forward the closure dates for coal power plants across Asia, which remains the main growth market for coal globally.

According to reports the initiative has been developed by UK insurance giant Prudential and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and has secured backing from a number of major banks, including HSBC and Citi.

The mooted initiative would see top investors acquire coal power plants in Asia and work to close them ahead of the end of their projected lifespan. The ADB is said to be hopeful the plan can be finalised ahead of the COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow in November, with a pilot programme in development for a leading south east Asian market.

Aspects of the plan are yet to be finalised including what to do with the plants after they are closed and what role carbon credits could play. However, it is hoped that financial institutions could be convinced to take lower than usual returns on their investments in a programme that could play a big role in helping them meet their stated net zero emission goals.

"By purchasing a coal-fired power plant with, say, 50 years of operational life ahead of it and shutting it down within 15 years we can cut up to 35 years of carbon emission," Ahmed M Saeed, ADB's Vice President for East Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific was quoted as saying by the BBC.

Don Kanak, chairman of Prudential Insurance Growth Markets, who developed the initiative, told the broadcaster that accelerating the retirement of existing coal plants was critical if the world is to meet its climate goals. "This is especially true in Asia where existing coal fleets are big and young and will otherwise operate for decades," he added.