In 2024, Cisco signed a 15-year agreement to purchase approximately 60,000 MWh per year of solar energy from a Spanish renewable energy provider. As a result, a new solar plant was built in the region of Aragón, creating more than a hundred jobs during construction, and a permanent team was hired for operation and maintenance. The agreement is expected to provide enough solar energy to match 100% of the annual electricity needs for Cisco’s operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa for the next 15 years.
The Ringsted District Heating Utility in Denmark, which is responsible for heating more than 7,000 homes, schools, stores, sporting facilities and other local buildings, pledged to achieve 95% carbon-free heat by 2020. To achieve this lofty ambition, Honeywell and several project partners designed a 21st-century, energy-efficient heat plant that, among other sustainability features, improved efficiency and reduced costs by recovering and recycling waste heat. As a result of these innovations, the heat plant produced 97% carbon-free heat after just one year.
Wabtec’s Piossasco plant near Turin, Italy employs a combination of solar energy projects, biodiversity preservation and improved industrial processes to reduce its carbon footprint. The site expanded its solar panel system in 2024 to cover 64% of the plant’s energy needs, an increase from 29% in 2023. In addition, it has planted trees, introduced beehives and installed a 20,000-litre tank to collect rainwater and irrigate the green areas, among other innovations.
Read more about AmCham EU members’ decarbonisation initiatives on Invested in Europe, our platform for stories of American companies’ positive impacts on communities across the continent.