Athletic apparel company lululemon announced that it has secured renewable electricity to power 100% of its direct operations in North America, through a new virtual power purchase agreement (VPPA) with power provider Enel Green Power North America.
Under the new VPPA, lululemon will purchase the electricity delivered to the grid by a 15 MW portion of Enel Green Power’s “Azure Sky Wind” project in Texas. The procured energy will be equivalent to the electricity used by all of lululemon’s company-operated stores, offices and warehouse facilities in North America.
For its global operations, lululemon aims to achieve 100% renewable electricity through renewable energy credits, while continuing to seek opportunities to support net new renewable energy development in the regions it operates in.
Esther Speck, VP Sustainable Business and Impact, lululemon, said:
“lululemon is committed to helping create an apparel industry that is both sustainable and inclusive, and addresses the serious implications of climate change, including working toward a net-zero future and cutting carbon emissions across our value chain. Science clearly shows the urgent need to act now. That’s why, among others, we’ve partnered with Enel Green Power North America to accelerate the transition to renewable energy and reduce our emissions footprint.”
Based in Throckmorton County, Texas, Enel’s Azure Sky project includes a 350 MW wind project paired with approximately 137 MW of battery storage. The project is scheduled to be operational in the first half of 2022, and is expected to produce enough clean energy to meet the electricity needs of over 118,000 US households annually, avoiding more than 842,000 tons of CO2 emissions a year.
Georgios Papadimitriou, Head of Enel Green Power in the US and Canada, said:
“As increasingly more retailers work to address the circularity of their operations, from product design and manufacturing to packaging and end-of-life, industry leaders like lululemon are also prioritizing renewable energy as a centerpiece of their climate and sustainability efforts. The agreement with lululemon also demonstrates how companies with a distributed operational footprint can leverage solutions like VPPAs to achieve their emissions reduction goals, while also supporting the addition of new renewable energy to the electric grid.”
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