Wesfarmers' businesses Kmart, Target, Bunnings and Officeworks have partnered with Queensland Government-owned renewables, low-emissions and hydro company, CleanCo to source renewable electricity.
The partnership forms part of the businesses commitment to use 100% renewable electricity by 2025.
Once rollout is complete, CleanCo will be providing the retailers with 100% renewable electricity across 147 sites in Queensland.
As a result, the participating stores will use a combined 140,000 MWh of renewable energy each year by mid-2025, which is equivalent to the energy consumption of approximately 23,000 Australian households per year.
The retailers' use of the renewable electricity will result in the removal of carbon emissions from the environment equivalent to taking 48,000 cars off the road.
Kmart Group MD Ian Bailey said climate change is one of the major challenges retailers face and this partnership helps the business to make positive progress on reducing its impact.
"This partnership with CleanCo is a step towards achieving our 100% renewable electricity target by 2025 and builds on our programs that have improved store energy efficiency by around 27% while reducing emissions by 34% since 2015.
"We know that the road ahead to achieve our sustainability goals is long and challenging, but with solid action like this partnership with the Queensland Government we are making meaningful progress and doing our part on the race to net zero," he said.
The retailers' electricity will be sourced primarily from Western Downs Green Power Hub, one of Australia’s largest solar farms and MacIntyre Wind Farm, which, once completed, will be one of the largest wind farms in the southern hemisphere.
Alongside the 100% renewable electricity by 2025 target, the partnership will also assist the businesses achieve their targets of net zero Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030.
This partnership with CleanCo accounts for 30% of Scope 2 emissions from Bunnings and 18% of Scope 2 emissions for each of the other businesses.
Queensland Energy Minister Mick de Brenni said the partnership demonstrates that the public and private sector can work together to create change.
"This is proof our publicly-owned CleanCo is getting on with the job of connecting businesses in Queensland to clean, reliable energy from Queensland renewables and helping decarbonise our economy.
"Every time Queenslanders visit these iconic retailers they are now supporting Queensland renewables jobs," he said.
The Kmart, Target, Bunnings and Officeworks stores will be onboarded in a staggered fashion from July 2022.
Across the businesses, 31 Kmart stores, 16 Target, 28 Officeworks and 61 Bunnings Queensland stores are participating in the program.
