Industry News - AM

Cargill commits to White House climate change plan


By Tom Johnston on 7/29/2015

Cargill and a dozen other major U.S. corporations committed Monday to helping the Obama administration combat climate change.

Alcoa, Apple, Bank of America, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Coca-Cola, General Motors, Goldman Sachs, Google, Microsoft, PepsiCo, UPS, and Walmart also are in on the American Business Act on Climate Pledge. The goal of the effort is to cut nearly 6 billion tons of carbon pollution through 2030, an amount equivalent to taking all the cars in the U.S. off the road for more than 4 years

The effort amounts to at least $140 billion in new low-carbon investment and more than 1,600 megawatts of new renewable energy, in addition to company-specific goals to cut emissions by as much as 50 percent, reduce water intensity by as much as 15 percent, purchase 100 percent renewable energy, and pursue zero net deforestation in supply chains.

The companies making pledges represent more than $1.3 trillion in revenue in 2014 and a combined market capitalization of at least $2.5 trillion.

Cargill

For Cargill’s part, the company, from its 2015 baseline, is pledging over the next five years to:

  • Improve greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity by 5 percent
  • Improve freshwater efficiency by 5 percent
  • Improve energy efficiency by 5 percent
  • Increase renewable energy to 18 percent of our total energy use, up from 14 percent

Cargill, meanwhile, is a signatory to the United Nations’ New York Declaration on Forests, committed to doing its part to cut natural forest loss in half by 2020, and trying to end it by 2030.

Cargill’s focus areas for building sustainable supply chains to address climate change concerns are palm, soy and beef. In the beef realm, the company is a founding member of the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (GRSB) and the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (USRSB). Through those organizations the company has committed to conserving, reducing and more efficiently managing resources, and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.


 
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