RE100 companies are more profitable than their peers, a new report reveals today – underlining the business case for putting sustainability at the heart of corporate growth strategies. The RE100 report with Capgemini Invent, which draws on 2016-17 data from a sample of 3,500 companies, shows RE100 businesses (committed to 100% renewable electricity) consistently perform better than non-members on two key financial indicators: net profit margin and EBIT margin (Earnings Before Interests and Taxes). The difference is significant (up to 7.7 percentage points), and is true across all sectors (most prominently for IT, telecommunications, construction and real estate).
The report comes from Climate Week NYC, where for the 10th year running The Climate Group is convening business and government leaders from around the world to advance climate action.
Helen Clarkson, CEO The Climate Group, speaking from ‘Ambition. Pace. Scale.’, The Climate Group’s flagship business event at Climate Week NYC, said: “Being energy-smart and being business-smart goes hand in hand and this has to be norm, sooner rather than later to keep warming well below 2 degrees Celsius. We congratulate those going further and faster on climate action and we urge others to do the same – a win-win for emissions and the bottom line.”
With the addition of today’s new members and of PVH Corp. (Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Speedo) last week, RE100 now brings together 152 leading companies from a wide range of sectors, representing over US$3.8 trillion in revenue. Committed to sourcing 100% renewable electricity for their global operations in more than 120 countries, they are creating demand for over 184 TWh of renewable energy per year – more than enough to power New York State and Connecticut combined.