{"id":42001,"date":"2020-10-21T12:56:23","date_gmt":"2020-10-21T19:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/?p=42001"},"modified":"2020-10-21T14:14:13","modified_gmt":"2020-10-21T21:14:13","slug":"international-renewable-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/news\/stories\/international-renewable-energy\/","title":{"rendered":"Salesforce Announces First International Renewable Energy Agreement to Date, Milestone on Path to Achieving 100 Percent Renewable Energy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Australians are increasingly being affected by climate change and the extreme weather events it creates. We\u2019ve just gone through our worst bushfire season<\/a> ever in New South Wales. The Great Barrier Reef has lost half its coral since 1995<\/a>. We are entering a La Ni\u00f1a weather pattern<\/a> again, with memories of the 2011 Queensland cyclone season and floods fresh in the minds of many.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just as COVID-19 has exposed the fragility in our systems and the inequalities facing the world today, so too has the climate crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Climate change is one of the biggest and most complex challenges that we\u2019ve ever faced. It impacts everyone \u2013 every individual, company and nation \u2013 and we are learning that those with the least are often impacted the most. It\u2019s why I believe that combating climate change is everyone’s job, because it’s everyone’s planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, just like the multi-faceted crisis we are in, our solutions must be multi-faceted.\u00a0That\u2019s why I\u2019m proud we have announced<\/a> the company\u2019s first international renewable energy agreement, with X-ELIO<\/a>\u2019s Blue Grass solar farm, located in the Western Downs region of Queensland. Salesforce has contracted with 25% of the 200MW project which in total is expected to generate enough energy to power the equivalent of 80,000 Queensland homes, and save more than 320,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a cloud pioneer and sustainability leader, Salesforce is responsible for the transition to clean and renewable sources of electricity this decade. We want a future in which clean and renewable energy is powering the world around the clock. To that end, we have committed to reaching 100% renewable energy by 2022. The Blue Grass solar farm is a key milestone on that journey and will match our electricity use for our operations in Australia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why the Blue Grass solar farm in Queensland?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On our renewable energy journey we quickly learned that not all renewable energy is created equal. Two projects with identical transactional details can have enormously different impacts. Some renewable energy projects displace more fossil fuels than others, some are built at the cost of critical habitat for plants and animals, and others provide invaluable support for their local community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To better evaluate project impacts, we created a renewable energy procurement matrix<\/a> \u2014 a tool for scoring projects across different economic, environmental, and social criteria. Each of which is weighted according to Salesforce\u2019s own prioritization to reflect the tradeoffs being made between them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Blue Grass solar farm is an excellent example of how the matrix can help identify projects that better improve the state of the world. While there will inevitably be tradeoffs with this criteria, this project checks a number of boxes, including: <\/p>\n\n\n\n