Not long after I started at Adobe in 2013, I fondly recall sitting in a room at Symantec in Sunnyvale with my peers from Facebook, Autodesk, eBay, Salesforce, and Hewlett-Packard in a meeting called by BSR to figure out the Future of Internet Power (FOIP), now an initiative of the Clean Energy Buyers Association.  At that time, the FoIP was not a tangible thing.  We knew one thing: it meant powering our digital supply chain – data centers – with renewable energy.   

In 2014, after aligning with all internal stakeholders, Adobe decided to pursue instead a clear, focused strategy that was intended to responsibly meet our goals and bring true, renewable energy not to just our business, but also to the communities where we work and live.  This means offsets or unbundled renewable energy credits (RECs) are not part of any contingency:  we are working on decarbonizing our grids, powering our operations directly with renewable energy, and fuel switching – or #electrifyeverything – to meet our ambitions. 

Adobe is a part of an increasingly energy intensive industry and has made a conscious effort to reduce its impact on the environment through strategies to improve operational and energy efficiency and renewable energy procurement. Setting ambitious targets—like achieving 100% renewable energy by 2035, without the use of unbundled RECs or offsets—requires collaborating with our peers and industry groups. The Clean Energy Buyers Association (CEBA) has provided Adobe the platform to learn best practices and engage like-minded organizations, but the goal is to go beyond just achieving our science-based targets. 

Ultimately, participating in CEBA provides an opportunity to create fundamental change in the energy landscape.  And that is what is necessary.  Again, the goal should not be to simply offset our carbon footprint, but to fundamentally change it: decrease consumption through energy efficiency, switch from fossil fuels to clean energy when possible, and work together to get renewable electricity powering the grids in our communities.  

CEBA has the expertise through its founding members to be able to help you reach your renewable energy goals.  When it comes to sustainability, working together allows us to make bigger strides toward our shared sustainability goals—and collaboration is the only way forward.  We all start this journey with many questions and few answers, but the answers are out there. All you have to do is join us.