Huhtamaki signs Virtual Power Purchase Agreement in US

Thomas Guest, deputy CEO of Huhtamaki, said: ‘We believe in protecting food, people and the planet. This agreement marks an important milestone on our journey towards delivering on our ambitious 2030 sustainability agenda. The agreement builds on the European VPPA agreement announced late in 2021, which covers 80 percent of our European electricity usage.’  

 

The renewable energy covered by the agreement will be sourced from a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources’ Inertia Wind Energy Center in the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) North Zone, in Texas. The approximately 300-megawatt project is expected to be operational by the end of 2022 and to save more than 71,000 tons of CO2 emissions annually, equivalent to the average electricity usage of more than 12,000 homes in the United States, according to Huhtamaki.  

 

Matt Handel, senior vice president of Development for NextEra Energy Resources, said: ‘We applaud Huhtamaki’s commitment to sustainability and are pleased to be able to support the company’s renewable energy goals. This will also create significant economic stimulus for the local community, creating good jobs and additional tax revenue.’  

 

Thomasine Kamerling, EVP Sustainability and Communications, added: ‘We have already taken a series of pioneering steps on our journey to a sustainable future, with the intent to reach carbon-neutral production by 2030 while optimizing usage of resources, including energy, water, and waste. The VPPA enables us to make a significant leap forward in delivering on our ambitious sustainability agenda and Scope 2 emissions reduction target in line with our science-based targets. It also contributes to adding more green electricity into the U.S. energy mix.’  

 

Huhtamaki’s science-based targets were validated and approved by the Science-Based Targets initiative in 2021. The company is committed to limiting the global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius in its operations and value chain. It claims to reduce its electricity greenhouse gas emissions by 27.5 percent by 2030 and greenhouse gas emissions from its product end-of-life by 13.5 percent also by the same timeframe.  

 

To achieve these targets, the company has to address its Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. Currently, a large portion of Huhtamaki’s Scope 2 emissions relate to purchased electricity and can thus be addressed with further adoption of renewable electricity.