Alibaba Group announced that it has saved 619,944 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents over the past 12 months by using clean energy sources to achieve its goal of carbon neutrality. That savings is equivalent to the amount of carbon dioxide generated by 12,915 U.S. households in a year, according to the platform company’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Report 2022 released in late August. In addition to increasing its use of renewable energy, Alibaba said it is focusing on energy-efficient technologies, greener logistics and incentives for consumers to buy environmentally friendly products.
Alibaba’s greenhouse gas emissions were 13.249 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e) in the 12 months ended March 31. In 2020, its emissions amounted to 9.51 million MtCO2e. Direct greenhouse gas emissions amounted to 927,000 MtCO2e, up from 510,000 MtCO2e in 2010, while indirect greenhouse gas emissions from purchased electricity and heat were 4.45 million MtCO2e, an increase from 3.71 million MtCO2e in 2010, the report said.
In the first half of this year alone, Alibaba purchased more than 800 million kWh of clean energy, up 150 percent from all of last year. The company topped the ranking of Chinese companies that purchased renewable energy last year, according to market research firm Bloomberg NEF. Alibaba Cloud has committed to powering its data centers entirely with clean energy by 2030. In the 12 months ended March 31, 21.6 percent of the energy used was clean energy, the report said. And Alibaba’s customers are going green, too: in March, about 1,700 companies used Alibaba Cloud’s Energy Expert carbon management platform for their energy management and sustainability.
Cainiao, Alibaba’s logistics division, encourages consumers to go greener by reusing and recycling boxes and has used artificial intelligence algorithms to optimize package sizes, reducing packaging material consumption by 15 percent on average. Renewable energy is a growing source of power for Cainiao’s facilities. The company’s logistics warehouses installed 24.9 MW of solar power capacity, which accounted for 16,000 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in the 12 months ended March 31. Cainiao expects all of its logistics warehouses to be powered by solar energy by 2030, the report said.
Alibaba’s platform for trading used goods between consumers in China, Idle Fish, launched a system in January where consumers earn points for trading used goods.
The 2022 ESG report is Alibaba’s first progress announcement since it pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030 and reduce carbon emissions across its digital ecosystem by 1.5 gigatons by 2035. Alibaba’s digital platform is home to 1.3 billion consumers and tens of millions of merchants.
The full report with all details is available here (direct PDF download).
