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In support of COP21, the White House is gathering commitments from companies across the American economy that are willing to join the “American Business Act on Climate Pledge.” To date, nearly 100 companies – including 12 members of The Green Grid – have signed the Pledge to voice their support for a strong Paris outcome and to demonstrate their ongoing commitments to climate action. The following are our member company statements:

Dell (Board Member)
At Dell, we believe technology has an important role to play in both mitigating and adapting to climate change. While we will continue to focus on better understanding and managing our carbon footprint, we see our most important role as a provider of technology that will drive research, innovation, and meaningful action. With this in mind, Dell puts forth the following pledges for action by 2020 that will reduce our footprint and help our customers to reduce theirs.

Dell pledges to:

• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions from our facilities and logistics operations by 50 percent by 2020, compared to our 2012 baseline
• Increase purchases of renewable energy to at least 50 percent of our total by 2020
• Reduce the energy intensity of our product portfolio by 80 percent by 2020, compared to our 2011 baseline
• Implement zero-waste packaging across our product offerings by 2020, sourcing all packaging materials from sustainable/renewable sources and ensuring all packaging materials are recyclable or compostable
• Plant 1 million trees by 2020 (beginning 2008) to help sequester carbon and restore habitats
• Incorporate 50 million pounds of recycled-content plastics and other sustainable materials into our products by 2020 (beginning 2013) as part of our transition to a more circular economy. Dell has already used more than 21 million pounds of recycled-content plastics in our products, including 4 million pounds of closed-loop recycled plastics recovered through Dell’s world-class electronics take back programs

Dell is also committed to demonstrating how technology solutions can create net positive effects – enabling customers to achieve social and environmental benefits that exceed the footprint of the technology used to deliver them. By 2020, we will demonstrate this net positive effect is 10 times greater than the footprint of the technology used to achieve it.

We encourage others to join us in setting meaningful targets, taking action, and supporting global cooperation to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and address climate change.

EMC (Board Member)
In support of our goal to achieve 80 percent absolute reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 in accordance with the 2007 Bali Climate Declaration, EMC Corporation pledges to:

• Realize a 40 percent absolute reduction of global Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions below 2010 levels by 2020
• Obtain at least 20 percent of global grid electricity needs from renewable sources by 2020
• Have all hardware and software products achieve increased efficiency in each subsequent version by 2020
• Reduce energy intensity of storage products 60 percent at a given raw capacity and 80 percent for computational tasks from 2013 to 2020

IBM (Board Member)
IBM has been a global leader regarding energy efficiency and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions for decades. For example:

• Between 1990 and 2014 IBM saved 6.8 million megawatt hours of electricity consumption, avoided 4.2 million metric tons of CO2 emissions, and saved $550 million through energy conservation actions
• We have deployed new I/T solutions for managing the energy efficiency of buildings and data centers. These solutions have typically driven 10 percent reductions in energy consumption for the systems they monitor
• In 2014 we used 683,000 megawatt hours of renewable electricity, representing 14.2 percent of IBM's global electricity consumption and a 17.9 percent increase from 2013
• We have already reduced IBM's operational CO2 emissions over 25 percent against a 2005 baseline

We put forth our pledges as follows:

• Reduce CO2 emissions associated with IBM’s energy consumption 35 percent by year-end 2020 against base year 2005 adjusted for acquisitions and divestitures
• Procure electricity from renewable sources for 20 percent of IBM's annual electricity consumption by 2020
• Achieve annual energy conservation savings equal to 3.5 percent of IBM's total energy use

Intel (Board Member)
Over 20 years ago, Intel established public environmental goals to reduce its environmental footprint, including greenhouse gas emissions. Since 2000, we have reduced our absolute greenhouse gas emissions nearly 40 percent and our emission intensity by approximately 60 percent. That substantial progress has been accomplished in part due to aggressive efforts to reduce our emissions of fluorinated gases, a critical component in semiconductor manufacturing. We have installed 20 on-site renewable energy projects to date and will purchase over 3 billion kW-hrs of green power this year, making Intel the largest purchaser in the US for the 7th consecutive year.

To further build on these efforts we pledge to accomplish the following by 2020:

• Continue 100 percent green power in our US operations and increase renewable energy use for our international operations
• Grow the installation and use of on-site renewable energy to triple our current levels
• Building upon our 60 percent reduction in emission intensity, further reduce our greenhouse gas emission intensity an additional 10 percent over a 2010 baseline
• Achieve 4 billion kW-hours of energy savings through implementation of energy efficiency projects at our global facilities
• Build all new buildings to high energy efficiency standards by meeting the US Green Building Council’s LEED gold designation or better
• Increase the energy efficiency of our notebook and datacenter products 25 fold from a 2010 baseline

In addition to the numerical goals above we will aggressively deploy new products and technologies that assist others in reducing their carbon emissions and we will publicly track our progress to reduce our carbon footprint and compare our results to a widely-accepted international benchmark, the IPCC’s 2050 target.

Schneider Electric (Board Member)
At Schneider Electric we believe that energy and digital transitions provide new efficient solutions to shift to a low carbon society and that access to energy is a basic human right. We are committed to providing innovative solutions to address the energy paradox: balancing the planet’s carbon footprint with irrefutable human right to quality energy. Schneider Electric has delivered on its commitments to sustainability in the last four years with a series of actions for the company’s direct emissions and in the supply chain:

• Through the years, we have developed a solid portfolio of solutions on renewables, energy efficiency, and grid connections that facilitate energy transition
• Avoided 220,000 tons of CO2 in energy consumption, transportation, and site emissions
• Reduced water intensity of our most water intensive sites by 23 percent since 2011
• Increased the number of our products that are considered “Green Premium” and carry an ecolabel to 75 percent
• 2.4 million underprivileged households equipped with energy solutions through Access to Energy program

Because what is good for climate is good for the economy, we recognize that delaying action on climate change will be costly in economic and human terms, while accelerating the transition to a low-carbon economy will produce multiple benefits with regard to sustainable economic growth, public health, resilience to natural disasters, and the health of the global environment.

We put forth our pledges as follows:

• Achieve 10 percent energy savings by the end of 2017 by reducing the company’s energy intensity
• 120,000 tons of CO2 avoided through end-of-life products by the end of 2017, 75 percent of products in R&D to be designed as Green Premium, with an ecolabel, and 75 percent of product revenue to come from Green Premium by the end of 2017
• Zero waste to landfill in 100 industrial sites by the end of 2017
• 50 million underprivileged people obtaining lighting and communication systems with low carbon solutions by 2025 through the Access to Energy program
• Invest over $11 billion over 10 years on R&D in innovation in sustainability

Siemens (Board Member)
We put forth our pledge as follows:

• Siemens pledges to cut our global carbon footprint by 50 percent by 2020 and to reduce our net carbon emissions to zero by 2030
• To achieve this goal, we have identified key emission reduction levers that will contribute to cutting CO2-emissions from our own operations and enable Siemens to become CO2-neutral in the long term
  • Energy Efficiency: Invest nearly $110 million globally in energy efficiency measures for our major factories within the next three years, including measures at a significant number of our total 84 Siemens sites in the U.S. Measures will include investments in buildings and production processes and will result in sustainable annual savings of more than $20 million in energy costs. In Charlotte, at our LEED Gold certified advanced gas turbine manufacturing facility, we were able to cut costs and emissions both during construction and during operation by building the plant on a footprint requiring 18 percent  less area than traditional production sites. We have already begun to transition to LED light fixtures at many of our facilities in the U.S., including Charlotte, Bartlesville, Beltsville, and Sacramento
  • Distributed Energy Systems: Implement innovative solutions at Siemens sites, combining power generation with storage solutions and intelligent energy management technologies. Our facility in Sacramento is already powered by up to 80 percent solar energy. In Charlotte, the generator office building has a solar array on-site combined with energy management software
  • Company Car Fleet: Focus on global roll-out of best practice examples for Siemens’ car fleet around the world, including clear emissions-related requirements, a bonus/malus system to set incentives for low emission cars, the development of an E-mobility solution concept, and the promotion of alternatives to driving such as the use of public transit and telecommuting
  • Electricity Purchasing: Change our power purchasing guidelines and move towards a significantly cleaner power mix with a strong focus on renewable energies. As part of this commitment, we will buy electricity produced by our own technologies at our customers’ facilities. The world is transitioning away from fossil fuels and inefficient power grids. With this approach, we will support the transition of the energy system towards coordinated solutions that lead to fewer emissions, more efficient power generation, and less consumption of natural resources
  • Supporting Our Customers’ Emissions Efficiency: We will continue to support our customers in reducing energy costs and improving their CO2 footprints with products and solutions from our Environmental Portfolio, which helped them save approximately 430 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2014

Walt Disney (Contributing Member)
Disney has a long-term goal of zero net greenhouse gas emissions.

• By 2020, Disney will reduce net emissions by 50 percent from 2012 levels by following the hierarchy of avoiding emissions, reducing emissions through efficiencies, replacing high-carbon fuels with low-carbon alternatives, and then using certified offsets for our remaining emissions
• Disney has also put an internal price on carbon, which has helped inspire innovation within the company, helped integrate the consideration of carbon emissions into decision-making, and resulted in the protection or rehabilitation of over 156,000 acres of forests
• As of 2014, Disney has decreased net emissions by 31 percent from 2012 levels

Bloomberg (General Member)
Bloomberg recognizes that carbon emissions have global environmental, social, and economic implications. And we are committed to addressing them through a combination of actions: reducing consumption, buying renewable products and services, helping to set standards, encouraging disclosure, and promoting clean technologies.

As an information provider for banks, corporations, governments, and others, Bloomberg is leveraging its data, news, and analytics capabilities to help our customers identify, manage, and seize sustainability and climate-related risks and opportunities.

• Reduce absolute emissions 20 percent by 2020 vs. our 2007 baseline
• Improve energy efficiency 50 percent by 2020 vs. our 2007 baseline
• Source 35 percent direct clean energy sources by 2020
• Generate a 20 percent or greater IRR on the investments described above

Facebook (General Member)
Facebook pledges to:

• We are committed to powering our operations with 100 percent clean and renewable energy
• In 2012, we set ourselves the goal of having 25 percent of our energy in 2015 come from clean and renewable sources. We are on target to exceed that goal
• We have doubled our previous target, setting a new goal of having 50 percent of our energy in 2018 come from clean and renewable sources
• We have designed and built some of the world's most energy- and water-efficient data centers and will continue to invest in innovation in our infrastructure aimed at improving their efficiency even further
• We have open-sourced our hardware and data center designs and will continue to collaborate openly to drive efficiency improvements across the industry
• We are working actively with dozens of other companies to scale up corporate purchases of renewable energy – sharing best practices and collaborating on policy changes to increase the options available so that more companies can buy more renewable energy

• We believe in being open and transparent about our environmental performance. We have disclosed facility-level detail on our carbon and energy footprint for the last four years and starting this year are including details on our water footprint. We also have public real-time dashboards for our data centers letting everyone see how efficiently they are operating
• Access to clean and renewable energy is a key criterion in our site selection process for new data centers

Google (General Member)
Google pledges to:

• Renewable energy: Google is committed to powering our operations with 100 percent renewable energy. We have purchased 1.1 gigawatts of renewable energy to power our data centers, and we commit to tripling our purchases of renewable energy by 2025. We believe that by directly investing in renewable energy projects we can help accelerate the shift to zero-carbon power and create a better future for everyone. We commit to continuing our $2 billion/2.5 gigawatts cumulative investments in transformative global clean energy projects, including major investments by 2025 in emerging markets, where there is both great need and great potential
• Transportation: Google shuttles and corporate electric vehicles result in net annual savings of 29,000+ metric tons of CO2, equivalent to taking 5,700 cars off the road or avoiding 87M vehicle miles every year. In our Bay Area headquarters we commit to reducing single occupancy vehicle commuting to 36 percent, a 10 percent reduction from today, by transitioning our employees to shuttles, carpool, public transit, biking, and walking
• Water Usage: Google is committed to reducing our water consumption, particularly in the drought-ridden Western United States, through the use of recycled water irrigation, drought tolerant plants, less turf grass, fixture replacements, and employee awareness efforts. After exceeding our 20 percent energy, water, and waste reduction goals in 2014 associated with the California Best Buildings Challenge, we are now targeting a 30 percent reduction in potable water use by our Bay Area headquarters in 2015 from our 2013 baseline
• Products and Platforms: Google’s products help drive carbon mitigation efforts and inform climate science. Our Google Earth Engine geospatial analysis platform makes more than 40 years of satellite imagery available online so scientists and researchers can analyze real-time changes to the Earth’s surface. Through the Climate Data Initiative, we provided one petabyte of cloud storage for data and climate/weather models, plus 50 million hours of high-performance cloud computing. We commit to continuing to develop products and platforms that can help reduce emissions and bring the power of cloud computing to climate science

Microsoft (General Member)
At Microsoft, we’re committed to driving environmentally sustainable business practices and catalyzing technology innovations that help people and organizations around the world to realize a sustainable future. Microsoft pledges to:

• Maintain carbon neutral operations for our datacenters, offices, labs, manufacturing facilities, and business air travel
• Purchase 100 percent renewable energy for the operations of our datacenters, offices, labs, and manufacturing facilities
• Offset 100 percent of emissions from business air travel through supporting carbon offset projects that also drive social benefits in emerging nations

Salesforce.com (General Member)
At Salesforce, we believe in leveraging the power of our people and our products to reduce the impact that we and our customers have on the planet. From how we deliver our products to our focus on renewable energy, we incorporate sustainability into all aspects of our business.

Salesforce’s multi-tenant cloud platform makes it possible to use a remarkably small number of servers as efficiently as possible. In fact, our core platform is 98 percent more carbon efficient on average than on-premise software.

Salesforce pledges to:

• Work towards powering 100 percent of our global operations with renewable energy
• Continue pursuing LEED certification for our largest office spaces and other innovative green building initiatives
• Leverage our people, technology, and resources to help environmental nonprofits around the world