The Estée Lauder Companies has signed its largest renewable energy contract globally, an agreement which will enable the US beauty group to advance its goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2020.
The virtual power purchase agreement (VPPA) is tied to the Ponderosa Wind Farm in Beaver County, Oklahoma and will bolster Estée Lauder’s renewable electricity footprint in the US and Canada. The company claims the deal makes it the first prestige beauty company to execute a VPPA, based on the Business Renewables Center Deal Tracker.
According to Estée Lauder – whose brands in travel retail include Clinique, Estée Lauder, Jo Malone London, La Mer, Mac, Origins and Tom Ford, among many others – the Ponderosa supply will cover over half the company’s global electricity footprint with renewable energy technologies. The wind farm, a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources, is scheduled to begin operations in early 2020.
Through the company’s renewable energy solutions, Estée Lauder has achieved 100% renewable electricity (RE100) in the US and Canada ahead of schedule. The beauty multinational is one of a select few RE100 signatories in the cosmetics business.
“Committed to a low-carbon future”
“The Estée Lauder Companies is committed to a low-carbon future,” said Global Corporate Citizenship and Sustainability Senior Vice President Nancy Mahon. “We’re so pleased to meet our 2020 RE100 commitment for North America early. Projects like the Ponderosa Wind Farm and others in our net zero portfolio are significant achievements toward our climate change commitments.”
Under the VPPA, Estée Lauder will purchase the energy produced by 22 megawatts (MW) of the Ponderosa Wind Farm (equal to approximately 10 wind turbines). The wind energy the company will buy from the farm is equivalent to powering more than 9,000 typical US homes and will reduce fossil fuel emissions equivalent to removing more than 14,000 cars from the roads annually.
The Ponderosa VPPA project is the latest in the company’s renewables portfolio. Others includes a 1 MW solar PV system at its Whitman Laboratories in the UK and a 1.4 MW ground-mounted solar array recently constructed at the company’s Melville campus in New York, among other projects in the pipeline.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recognised The Estée Lauder Companies as among the top ten retail partners in its latest Green Power Partnership rankings.
