SWITZERLAND – Tetra Pak, a multinational packaging company, has obtained half of its global electricity supply from renewable sources, putting the company firmly on course to meet its RE100 commitment of using only renewable electricity across all global operations by 2030.

RE100 is a global, collaborative business initiative led by The Climate Group in partnership with CDP which drives demand for, and delivery of, renewable power.

According to the company, in just two years, the company’s use of renewable electricity has increased by a factor of 2.5, up from 20% in 2016.

This has been achieved through a combination of initiatives, including the purchase of International Renewable Energy Certificates (I-RECs) and solar power installations at its own facilities.

“Using renewable energy is an important part of our journey to reduce the carbon impact of our own operations and so help tackle climate change,” said Mario Abreu, Vice President Sustainability at Tetra Pak.

“Through the purchase of renewable energy certificates, we are investing in the development of infrastructure to increase the availability of renewable electricity. Meanwhile, we are also exploring opportunities to scale up our own on-site solar power installations.”

Tetra Pak’s factories in Sweden, Denmark, Finland and South Africa use electricity from 100% renewable sources and 17 of its major sites now run exclusively on renewable electricity.

The company was the first to source Gold-Standard I-RECs in Thailand, where its local factory will soon also generate an additional 1MW renewable electricity from solar panels.

Elsewhere in the world, it is a major purchaser of I-REC certificates in China, and was the first to source Ekoenergy solar power in South Africa.