Renewable Energy Saves Fortune 100 Companies $1.1B Annually

Lucas123 writes: A new report authored by several environmental groups say data shows more than half of Fortune 100 companies collectively saved more than $1.1B annually by reducing carbon emissions and rolling out renewable energy projects. According to the report, 43% of Fortune 500 companies, or 215 in all, have also set targets in one of three categories: greenhouse gas reduction, energy efficiency and renewable energy. When narrowed to just the Fortune 100, 60% of the companies have set the same clean energy goals. Some of the companies leading the industry in annual clean energy savings include UPS ($200M), Cisco ($151M), PepsiCo ($121M) and United Continental ($104M).

Saved?

[Anonymous Coward]

How much of that "savings" is tax breaks/subsidies?

Re:Careful

[funwithBSD]

No,

we ask the obvious question: How much did it cost to save that money?

If they invested 50B to get that 1.1B, it is not that wise of a deal.

Details Please?

[Anonymous Coward]

So, companies saved $1.1 Billion. However, this article fails to state exactly how. In fact, if you look carefully, the article couldn't have been better designed to throw down some numbers while completely avoiding actual data.

Example:
IMPLEMENT CLEAN ENERGY SAVE $1BILLION.

IMPLEMENT (COST $5 billion) CLEAN ENERGY SAVE (Don't pay for) $1 BILLION in energy costs!

Or even worse:

IMPLEMENT (COST $5 billion) CLEAN ENERGY GET $1BILLION TAX BREAK!

I think the article writer could have done a much better job clearly outlining how what was saved where versus cost. And if that level of detail still fit the narrative of clean energy = savings despite the substantial additional cost of actual said clean energy per KW/hr, good. I want to see that.

And if the facts don't fit the narrative....and a careful dance was choreographed around said facts so that the narrative would be satisfied....well, thats called lying amongst honest folks who care about actual results.

Re:So... how much did they spend to get this savin

[Anonymous Coward]

These companies would not stay in business for long if it wasn't saving them more than it was costing them. Put the tinfoil hat away.

Re:Careful

[Kenja]

How much did it cost Saint Reagan to remove the solar panels from the White House?

Re:So... how much did they spend to get this savin

[TapeCutter]

Jebus do you people not understand the word "save"? In your example you have spent $80K. Aside from that some very effective measures don't even need capital expenditure, for example, the giant multi-national I work for has saved millions by implementing simple things such as getting people to turn their desktop off before going home, teleconferencing in preference to flying, etc. When you have 180K employees these two simple measures alone will add up to millions in savings.

Re:Actual savings?

[wiredlogic]

Most huge commercial operations are using fluorescent lighting in their facilities. Switching to LED en masse would entail a loss.

drops in the bucket

[Jeremy Erwin]

Some of the companies leading the industry in annual clean energy savings include UPS ($200M), Cisco ($151M), PepsiCo ($121M) and United Continental ($104M).

Annual Revenues:

UPS: 55.4 billion
Cisco: 48.6 billion
PepsiCo: 66.4 billion
United Continental: 38.3 billion

United Continental only posted 571 million in profits last year, so yes, those savings definitely helped.
The others? Cisco: 9.9 billion; PepsiCo: $6.7 billion, UPS: $4.3 billion-- the savings reported are akin to rounding errors. It's not all that persuasive.

Re:So... how much did they spend to get this savin

[riverat1]

So if I spend 80k on a new car to save 1k a year in energy costs, is this a win too?

That depends on the difference in price between a non-energy saving car you might have bought and the energy saving car you might have bought. Same think with renewable energy. If you need some new source of energy to replace an old source that's worn out what's the cost difference between your various options vs. what you save in production costs after it's installed.

drops in the bucket

[Anonymous Coward]

wtf is wrong with you people?

its turns out that making modest cuts in energy consumption isn't that painful, saves some money,
and may have longer term benefits

maybe I can understand the 'saving the purple spotted toad is costing jobs damn liberals' attitude, but
you guys have to piss on this? turning off the lights at night?

god fucking forbid we didn't waste as much energy as possible. imagonna leave my truck running all night
just to show i'm a true patriot

assholes