What is the Clean Energy Procurement Academy?

The Clean Energy Procurement Academy is launching to equip companies with the skills and knowledge required to access clean energy with foundational support from Apple, Amazon, Meta, Nike, PepsiCo, and REI Co-op.

Procurement Magazine looks into exactly what the academy is looking to achieve, how it will help the sustainability agenda, and how it could change procurement and supply chains in the future.

What is the Clean Energy Procurement Academy?

Designed to speed up the integration of clean energy into global supply chains, the Academy will blend in-person and online training, along with comprehensive educational resources to:

• Boost supply chain companies’ capacity to invest in renewable energy through education and data accessibility.
• Foster synergy among different industries tackling shared challenges in supply chain climate action.
• Encourage supply chain companies to escalate their renewable energy goals and commitments.
• Establish new renewable energy buying communities in pivotal manufacturing regions.

An industry first

With supply chain emissions accounting for more than half of global greenhouse gas emissions it can represent the majority of a company's total carbon footprint. In what is being described as an industry first, leading corporate energy customers are collaborating to launch the Clean Energy Procurement Academy to equip companies with the technical readiness to explore and adopt clean energy, an essential factor in global decarbonization.

“To address the climate crisis, we need to act quickly to expand access to clean energy around the world. Businesses can help drive that change,” said Sarah Chandler, Apple’s Vice President of Environment and Supply Chain Innovation. “As we make progress to ensure every Apple product is carbon neutral by 2030, we will continue to work closely with our global suppliers to support their transition to renewable energy. We’re proud to collaborate with CEBA and others to expand those efforts beyond our supply chain and across industries.”

Apple, Amazon, Meta, Nike, PepsiCo, and REI have collectively initiated The Clean Energy Procurement Academy. This program's primary goal is to enhance the capabilities of specific supply chain partners involved in energy markets with significant greenhouse gas emissions. The founding organisations have combined their knowledge and internal training resources to create a unified training curriculum and efficient delivery methods, facilitating the swift development of these partners into adept clean energy customers.

“At PepsiCo, we are eager to help lead the way toward net-zero. Climate change threatens the prosperity of people and communities, especially those within our business’ agricultural supply chain with threats to biodiversity, temperature extremes, adverse weather events, droughts, and coastal flooding, and more,” said Roberta Barbieri, VP, Global Sustainability, PepsiCo. “Renewable energy plays an important part in helping us reach our climate goals and in our efforts to drive a Positive Value Chain. With the launch of the Clean Energy Procurement Academy, we’re proud to share PepsiCo’s experience and play a role in shaping training and tools to support organisations looking to embed clean energy into their global supply chains.”

The Clean Energy Procurement Academy receives backing from the We Mean Business Coalition and aims to provide valuable insights tailored to assist energy customer companies, supply chain partners, and various regions. This collaborative effort between corporations and suppliers is focused on expediting the adoption of clean energy procurement, tackling Scope 3 emissions, and driving the global supply chain toward decarbonization.

“We continue to leverage our scale to drive impact and support suppliers in mitigating their climate risk,” said Noel Kinder, Chief Sustainability Officer at Nike. “The Clean Energy Procurement Academy is key to breaking down barriers to clean energy adoption, while also helping us demonstrate demand and advocate for clean energy solutions in essential regions. Collaborating cross-industry helps us tackle systemic challenges together.”

The Clean Energy Procurement Academy is the first major initiative of CEBI’s Global Programs, which launched in 2022 with foundational funding support from Google.org.

“Meta recognizes the critical urgency of climate action and has committed to achieving net zero emissions across our value chain in 2030. We know that reaching net zero value chain emissions will not be an easy task, and it will take cross-industry collaboration to raise tides and lift all boats. We are excited to partner with CEBA and our corporate partners here, so climate action can become as easy as possible for our suppliers and their upstream value chain,” said Blair Swedeen, Global Head of Net Zero and Sustainability.

“REI is proud to be part of the Clean Energy Procurement Academy. As a co-op, we believe in collaborating with other leading brands on the greatest problem facing our business and society. We're excited to work alongside our partners to accelerate supplier decarbonization efforts by developing a platform that is more powerful than what any company could develop alone,” said Kate Wendt, VP Strategy, Transformation & Sustainability.

“Accelerating the transition to clean energy is crucial to avoiding the most severe impacts of climate change and meeting our net zero carbon commitment. This is why Amazon has been the world’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy for the last three consecutive years,” said Kara Hurst, Vice President of Worldwide Sustainability at Amazon. “We know that actions to address climate change will be more impactful when we join together with others and all share what we’ve learned. We are excited to collaborate with the Clean Energy Procurement Academy to empower Amazon suppliers and other businesses to decarbonize their energy operations alongside us.”

Read more on how Nike is making strides towards net-zero with sustainable foam. 

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Other magazines that may be of interest - Supply Chain Magazine | Sustainability Magazine

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