Business Wire IndiaToday, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Global Optimism announced the second major signatory to The Climate Pledge—Infosys— making a commitment to meet the Paris Agreement 10 years early. The Climate Pledge calls on new signatories to be net zero carbon across their businesses by 2040—a decade ahead of the Paris Accord’s goal of 2050.
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Planet Earth (Photo: Business Wire)
Infosys and other companies that sign The Climate Pledge agree to:
- Measure and report greenhouse gas emissions on a regular basis;
- Implement decarbonization strategies in line with the Paris Agreement through real business changes and innovations, including efficiency improvements, renewable energy, materials reductions, and other carbon emission elimination strategies;
- Neutralize any remaining emissions with additional, quantifiable, real, permanent, and socially-beneficial offsets to achieve net zero annual carbon emissions by 2040.
“Infosys is showing bold leadership by signing up to The Climate Pledge and committing to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement ten years early,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO. “When significant companies like Infosys join The Climate Pledge, they send an important signal to the market that it’s time to invest in low carbon products and services.”
“At Infosys, we recognized climate change as a serious threat to our planet early on, and realized our responsibility as a corporate institution to mitigate its impact by taking concrete steps,” said Salil Parekh, CEO and MD, Infosys. “We believe that the way in which global organizations responded to this crisis would play a big role in defining how the rest of the world takes up the cause. As a result, we committed to climate action over a decade ago, and since then, the impact on climate and environment have been important considerations in the decisions we make as an organization. We are pleased to partner with Amazon and Global Optimism in The Climate Pledge initiative with a collective aim to work towards a low-carbon future.”
“The Paris Agreement set out a unifying roadmap for all countries and all people to address the climate crisis by taking action. The IPCC has informed us that we cannot warm the planet beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius.” said Christiana Figueres, the UN’s former climate change chief and founding partner of Global Optimism. “By committing to achieve net zero emissions by 2040, Infosys is not just making a statement of commitment to the future, it is committing to significant actions and investments that will create jobs, spur innovation, regenerate the natural environment and help consumers to buy better in the short term. This is what leadership looks like in resetting the global economy.”
Infosys Is All Set to Turn Carbon Neutral
Infosys made a voluntary commitment in 2011, long before the Paris Agreement, to become carbon neutral and is on track to achieve it well ahead of 2040. Infosys is the first signatory to RE100 from India and is committed to completely transitioning to renewable power for its electricity requirements. Infosys has already invested in 60 MW of captive solar photovoltaic capacity and nearly 45% of its electricity is coming from renewable sources. Infosys is committed to transitioning to 100% renewable energy.
Infosys was one of the first few companies to place an internal price on carbon. It also has a highly successful energy efficiency program that helped the company reduce its per-capita electricity consumption by 55% since 2008. As part of its path to climate neutrality, Infosys has made significant investments to a portfolio of community-based emission reduction projects to help meet its net zero carbon goal. These projects not only address climate change, but also benefit over 100,000 families today, contributing to the socio-economic development of rural India.
By joining The Climate Pledge and agreeing to decarbonize on a faster time horizon, Infosys will play a critical role in stimulating investment in the development of low carbon products and services that will be required to help companies meet the pledge. Amazon previously announced an order of 100,000 electric delivery vehicles from Rivian, the largest order ever of electric vehicles, with vans starting to deliver packages to customers in 2021. Amazon plans to have 10,000 of the new electric vehicles on the road as early as 2022 and all 100,000 vehicles on the road by 2030 – saving millions of metric tons of carbon per year by 2030. Amazon plans to announce many more signatories throughout 2020.
About Infosys
Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. We enable clients in 46 countries to navigate their digital transformation. With nearly four decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we expertly steer our clients through their digital journey. We do it by enabling the enterprise with an AI-powered core that helps prioritize the execution of change. We also empower the business with agile digital at scale to deliver unprecedented levels of performance and customer delight. Our always-on learning agenda drives their continuous improvement through building and transferring digital skills, expertise, and ideas from our innovation ecosystem.
About Global Optimism
Global Optimism exists to precipitate transformational, sector-wide change. Achieving a zero emissions future is not a far-off challenge. It’s one we must get on track for now. Every scientific assessment shows that to meet the goal of net zero emissions by 2050, to keep global heating below 1.5°C, we must halve our emissions between 2020 and 2030. Tackling the climate crisis is only possible when everyone, everywhere plays their part. We work with like-minded collectives from all sectors who are willing to invest in the choices required to be on this challenging – and life-affirming – journey. For more information, visit https://globaloptimism.com/.
About Amazon
Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit www.amazon.com/about.
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