Dive Brief:
- Salesforce unveiled three separate climate investments Tuesday aimed at curbing its carbon emissions and fast-tracking its shift to clean energy. The new projects will build on the company’s goal to reduce its absolute emissions by 50% by 2030, and 90% by 2040.
- The cloud-based software company said it joined Frontier, a decarbonization initiative which aims to spend around $1 billion on permanent carbon removal between 2022 and 2030. The initiative is also backed by Stripe, Alphabet, Meta, McKinsey, JPMorgan Chase and others.
- The tech company is also expanding its renewable energy portfolio by executing a virtual power purchase agreement with Qualitas Energy for a 27-megawatt solar project in Italy, marking its first European VPPA. Additionally, Salesforce designated $3.95 million to philanthropic grants for seven organizations to utilize to develop clean energy solutions.
Dive Insight:
As part of its Frontier membership, Salesforce said it would commit $25 million to “accelerate, scale, and commercialize the most promising carbon removal technologies.” By joining Frontier, the company said it would be able to achieve its goal of contracting $100 million in carbon dioxide removal solutions. Salesforce made the commitment when it joined the First Movers Coalition, which aims to “leverage corporate purchasing power” to slash emissions in hard-to-abate industries.
Experts from Frontier will facilitate purchases on behalf of Salesforce from early-stage carbon removal companies. They will especially target companies that can store carbon for over 1,000 years and are on track to scale and accelerate their project, according to the release.
The solar energy project with Qualitas — which will span 15 years — is anticipated to generate an amount of electricity that can power over 4,200 homes per year and prevent over 21,500 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually, according to Salesforce. This solar portfolio, which has projects in six Italy-based regions, is expected to become operational in 2024 and early 2025, the release said.
Salesforce said its grant funding will be awarded to nonprofits who work toward “making clean energy affordable and equitable for underrepresented communities, supporting early-stage climate startups, and creating green jobs.” The funding will be accessible to RE-volv, Groundswell, GRID Alternatives, Planet Reimagined, Working Power, Honnold Foundation and Evergreen Climate Innovations.
The tech company’s flurry of climate-focused investments comes on the heels of its collaboration with Google, Meta and Microsoft last month to contract up to 20 million tons of nature-based carbon removal credits by 2030, under the banner of the Symbiosis Coalition.
