Climate change was top of mind for voters in recent election, fueling momentum for a Green New Deal. Corporations in New York State are also looking at ways to reduce their carbon footprint. Last month, JP Morgan Chase officially signed a deal with Brookfield Renewable Partners that will supply 90 percent of their New York State operations with renewable, hydro-electric power. The company has been leading the charge by committing to source 100 percent of its energy from renewable sources by the year 2020.
“The customers will read about it, they’’ll see that we’re being good citizens. It’s for our customers, it’s for our clients... it’s for our employees alike. We’re trying to again stay to that commitment we announced in 2017 to source renewable energy wherever possible.”
Mike Norton is the managing director of projects of JP Morgan Chase, and over the past few years, he along with his team, have been making substantive changes to reduce energy output. Back in 2016 the company signed the largest LED and commercial lighting retro fit ever with over 4,500 branches and 50 commercial office spaces across the US. Changes that Norton says were the first in the process of reaching neutral-carbon emissions.
“That was really the first phase of our… what I would say would I say was our low hanging fruit that we attacked first. So, we did a lot of… sort of upfront legwork before we really started really looking at the big component of it which is the consumption; bringing in the green power.”
This latest step is a large one in JP Morgan’s carbon-neutral goal. However, as Norton explains, it’s complicated for a company of its size and scope to reach 100-percent renewable energy.
“You never want to box yourself in on renewable 100 percent and there’s other reasons. Sometimes you can’t definitely push this hydropower electrons through certain parts of the grid. We like to say that one glove doesn’t fit all; we try to fit as much as we can with the model and we’re striving for that 100 percent. But, there’s always going to be that fluctuation because of how we buy and sell buildings.”
Norton says that the company is working on a second potential deal with Brookfield Renewable Partners to incorporate wind and solar components. The move to 90 percent renewable power at more than 500 of JP Morgan Chase properties across New York State is also an effort to assist the state in achieving its goal to acquire 70 percent of its electricity from emisisons-free resources by 2030, according a company press release.
