IBM's first formal environmental and energy corporate policies date back to 1971 and 1974 respectively, and programs supporting them have been embedded within the company's corporate wide environmental programs and global environmental management system since that time. IBM has been a leader in addressing climate change through our energy conservation and climate protection programs for decades.
From 1990 through 2019, IBM conserved 7.7 million megawatt-hours of electricity, avoiding 4.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and saving $646 million.
In 2018, IBM established a second-generation goal for the use of renewable electricity and a fourth-generation goal to reduce CO2 emissions. We also updated our longstanding energy conservation goal. These goals are to:
- Conserve energy equal to 3% of IBM's annual energy consumption.
- Procure 55% of the electricity IBM consumes worldwide
from renewable sources by 2025.
- Focusing on consumption, this includes renewable electricity in the grid mix IBM receives from utilities or energy retailers, and renewable electricity for which IBM specifically contracts over and above the renewables in the grid mix.
- We do not include the purchase of unbundled Renewable Energy Certificates for electricity IBM will not actually consume.
- Reduce operational CO2 emissions associated with IBM's energy consumption 40% by 2025 against base year 2005, adjusted for acquisitions and divestitures.
Our energy and emissions goals and reporting cover all activities taking place in IBM-owned or leased facilities. These facilities include IBM data centers located in facilities managed by third parties where IBM does not procure the energy or control the operations of the buildings — also known as co-location data centers.