Australian property giant Dexus has been named as the 10th Australian company to join the global RE100 initiative, and the second Australian property group, after Mirvac last week.
The new membership – along with a pledge to source 100 per cent renewables across the company’s entire operations by 2030 – was flagged on Twitter on Thursday by the head of RE100 in Australia, Jon Dee.
Excited to announce that @Dexus has become the 10th Australian company to join @theRE100
Dexus has committed to source 100% renewable electricity across its entire operations by 2030.
Business is leading the way – it’s great to have them on board! @mcannonbrookes @simonahac pic.twitter.com/MDBTk4MeTC
— Jon Dee (JonDee.com) (@JonDeeOz) December 10, 2019
And while no formal statement appears to have been made yet by Dexus, RenewEconomy can confirm the real estate investment trust is listed on the official website.
According to the company website, Dexus – which describes itself as Australia’s largest office landlord – has been operating as “carbon neutral” since 2011.
More recently, however, it has also been making efforts to both procure and generate its own renewable energy, to power its operations.
Just over a year ago, Dexus inked a seven-year deal with Snowy Hydro-owned retailer, Red Energy, to source enough renewables to power the base services of more than 40 buildings in its NSW property portfolio. That contract will kick in in less than a month, in January 2020.
The deal will cover 50 per cent of Dexus’ total energy load, with the option to extend that to 100 per cent.
This, the company says, will enable it to accelerate its pathway to zero emissions and “respond to price volatility in the electricity market with a larger hedge should the price of black energy continue to rise, creating further cost savings.”
“We see that the next decade will present many commercial opportunities to achieve net zero emissions and this energy supply agreement presents a new pathway to get there – one which we think is replicable and can move Australia’s entire property market,” said Dexus’ executive general manager for sustainability, David Yates.
Elsewhere, the property group is also investing in on-site solar PV, such as with the 1.5MW array installed earlier this year by Epho, to cover a new 500-space car park at the Willows Shopping Centre, owned by Dexus Wholesale Property Fund and managed by Dexus.
The 4,800 solar panels are expected to generate around 2,500MWh of solar power a year, and significantly reduce the shopping centre’s use of grid electricity and associated emissions.
As noted above, fellow property group Mirvac signed up to RE100 late last week, with a plan to transition to all-electric buildings powered by 100 per cent renewables before 2030.
The commitment to clean energy, announced Friday, follows up on the company’s pledge to be net positive carbon by 2030, and made Mirvac the first Australian property group to join the rapidly growing ranks of RE100.
Another eight Australian companies have joined RE100 since its formal launch in Australia in late 2018: the Commonwealth Bank, Bank Australia, ANZ, NAB, Westpac, Macquarie Bank, QBE and Atlassian.
Sophie is editor of One Step Off The Grid and editor of its sister site, Renew Economy. Sophie has been writing about clean energy for more than a decade.
