Sustainability has been at the core of what we do at Best Buy for decades, and now we’re making our biggest commitment yet to positively impact the planet.
Today, we announced we have signed The Climate Pledge, a commitment to be carbon neutral across our business by 2040 — a decade faster than our previous goal of 2050.
The Climate Pledge was co-founded by Amazon and Global Optimism in 2019 to mobilize companies across multiple business sectors to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, 10 years ahead of the United Nations’ Paris Agreement on Climate Change. By signing the pledge, we are joining businesses around the world, including Mercedes-Benz and Verizon, in making this commitment.
As a signatory of The Climate Pledge, we will:
- Measure and report greenhouse gas emissions on a regular basis.
- Implement decarbonization strategies in line with the Paris Agreement through real business change and innovations, including efficiency improvements, renewable energy, materials reductions and other carbon emission elimination strategies.
- Take actions to neutralize any remaining emissions with additional, quantifiable, real, permanent and socially beneficial offsets that achieve net-zero annual carbon emissions by 2040.
“We are a purposeful, values-driven company, with a long history of environmental work that includes meaningfully reducing our carbon footprint and helping our customers do the same,” Best Buy CEO Corie Barry said. “We are proud to take the next step by committing to The Climate Pledge. Simply put, our customers and employees expect this degree of commitment from us and the planet demands it.”
Reducing our carbon footprint
To achieve the goals outlined in the pledge, we will continue to drive energy efficiency programs across all of our stores, reduce transportations emissions, invest in permanent renewable energy sources and offer products to help customers reduce emissions 20 percent by 2030.
Since 2009, we have been working to reduce our carbon emissions and have achieved major milestones through our sustainability program. We have decreased our environmental impact by 55% with initiatives, including the introduction of a Geekmobile fleet comprised of hybrid vehicles and investing in Best Buy Solar Field, which generates enough clean electricity to power the equivalent of 260 Best Buy stores each year.
Additionally, we launched a new product category that helps customers reduce their carbon footprint, and we continue to operate an e-waste recycling program at our stores that has collected more than 2 billion pounds of electronics and appliances from customers.
Over the years, our environmental work has landed us on the top five of Barron’s list of the 100 Most Sustainable Companies in America for three straight years. We’ve also been recognized on the CDP Climate A List, where we ranked in the top tier of companies fighting climate change.
We will continue to push forward in our efforts to take care of the planet and help our customers do the same.
“As the urgency of climate change has grown, so have our commitments to protect our planet,” said Tim Dunn, Best Buy’s head of environmental sustainability. “We look forward to working together with other members of The Climate Pledge to accelerate change and create a more sustainable future for generations to come.”
Click here for more information about Best Buy’s sustainability efforts.