Mars, Incorporated has announced a major step in its decarbonization journey under its new program called Renewable Acceleration by teaming up with energy partner Enel. This initiative is designed to speed up the shift from fossil fuels to clean energy – not just for Mars owned sites, but across its entire value chain by bringing the totality of their electricity usage to the renewables market.
This means sourcing renewable electricity to cover everything from the farms that grow ingredients to the trucks that deliver products, and even the energy used by consumers at home to enjoy their favorite Mars products, like Ben’s Original™ and SNICKERS® Ice Cream, or at their BANFIELD™ veterinarian’s office. By implementing this Renewable Acceleration strategy, Mars could cut around 3 million tonnes of carbon emissions from its full value chain – about 10% of its current total footprint. Renewable electricity is one of the best understood, widely accepted and low-cost decarbonization solutions available – this new approach maximizes and accelerates its delivery potential.
“Many large companies are well on their way to sourcing renewable electricity for their own operations, but that’s just a part of the picture,” Kevin Rabinovitch, Global VP Sustainability said. “For Mars, Renewable Acceleration is a performance accelerator, cutting emissions at a scale and speed we could never achieve through traditional value chain engagement approaches. It lets us bring demand for all the electricity used in our value chain to the clean energy market in a highly efficient manner. The more demand we create together, the faster we can build the future we all want. And clean energy means cleaner air for our communities, our people, and our partners.”
Direct operations across the business globally use approximately 2 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity each year, roughly the equivalent of the annual consumption of The Bahamas. But when you include the full Mars value chain under Renewables Acceleration to include our suppliers, customers and our consumers, that number jumps to 8-9 TWh – the annual equivalent of Estonia.1
Mars has signed its first Renewable Acceleration program contract with energy provider, Enel North America. A part of the Enel Group, this is their largest-ever power purchase agreement (PPA) transaction with a commercial and industrial customer worldwide as well as Mars largest contract to date. Additional global agreements are in the pipeline. These contracts support the development of renewable energy projects that serve both Mars and its suppliers while building energy resilience for the business.
The first three contracts with Enel will generate a combined 1.8 TWh annually, avoiding approximately 700ktCO₂e per year2. The agreement means that Mars value chain will benefit from the entire output from Enel’s three solar plants in Texas, U.S.A. Vegetation at all three sites will be managed through sheep grazing, a sustainable dual-use solar practice that Enel expanded through the largest solar grazing agreement signed in the United States.
“Renewable Acceleration is a bold initiative to support the buildout of more clean energy capacity, which we know is among the fastest and most economical ways to decarbonize,” said Michele Di Murro, CEO of Enel North America. “Mars is raising the bar for corporate sustainability strategies, taking a comprehensive and direct approach to addressing emissions across its entire value chain. Enel is proud to partner with Mars in launching this new program.”
With each additional contract signed by Mars, the company expects Renewable Acceleration to contribute towards a 10% reduction of its total carbon footprint by 2030. Renewable Acceleration is part of the company’s broader sustainability strategy, which also includes tackling deforestation, supporting climate-smart agriculture3, improving transport, and embedding sustainability across the business.
Learn more about the Mars Renewable Acceleration program here.
