Westcon-Comstor, a technology provider and specialist distributor, has announced a target to meet 100 per cent of its electricity needs worldwide through renewable sources by 2030.
The target will see Westcon-Comstor, which operates in more than 70 countries, transition to powering its global operations purely by renewable electricity. It complements the company’s existing emissions reduction targets and supports its over-arching objective of achieving Net Zero by 2050.
Purchased electricity currently accounts for around 70 per cent of Westcon-Comstor’s Scope 1 and 2 emissions, which are defined as those that the company owns or controls either directly or indirectly. The company has already stated its intention to reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 50 per cent by 2030, and the new target is designed to accelerate progress towards this.
Mark McLardie, Head of ESG at Westcon-Comstor said, “sustainability is a huge priority for our business and by moving to renewable electricity we are effectively eliminating emissions linked to electricity generation. We had already planned to significantly increase the proportion of electricity derived from renewable sources, but we’re pushing this further to hit the 100 per cent mark by 2030 because we want to go above and beyond what’s needed to meet our existing emission reduction targets.”
Westcon-Comstor, which connects leading IT vendors with a channel of technology resellers, systems integrators, and service providers, has already taken a series of steps in support of its Net Zero 2050 ambition.
These include establishing its baseline emissions, defining a five-year roadmap toward decarbonisation, and joining the Business Ambition for 1.5°C campaign launched by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTI), to which Westcon-Comstor has also submitted its Net Zero 2050 targets for validation.
Future focus areas for the company include improving data quality and growing its sustainability employee resource groups (ERGs).
By setting the 100 per cent renewable electricity target, Westcon-Comstor is aligning with the objectives of RE100, the global corporate renewable energy initiative bringing together hundreds of large and ambitious businesses committed to 100 per cent renewable electricity.
