- In a groundbreaking move for South African businesses, Nedbank Group Limited has become one of the first major companies to offset its carbon emissions by purchasing renewable energy certificates (RECs) from Growthpoint Properties Limited.
- This groundbreaking initiative provides tenants with a scalable solution to address the historically difficult issue of electricity emissions in leased buildings.
The agreement will see Nedbank offset its Scope 2 emissions – which come from purchased electricity – in 26 of its branches. These stores are located in Growthpoint shopping centers and offices and span five provinces and over 8,200 square meters of retail space, including prominent locations from La Lucia Mall in KwaZulu-Natal to Constantia Village in the Western Cape.
For businesses in multi-tenant buildings, reducing Scope 2 emissions has presented a significant hurdle because tenants control their consumption but cannot control the source of coal-intensive grid power. Growthpoint's REC initiative addresses this gap head-on by certifying the clean solar power generated on its properties and offering the verified certificates to tenants, providing a verifiable method for reducing emissions.
Nedbank welcomed the solution as a major step forward in its sustainability journey. Charl de Kock, Executive Head of Group Business Services at Nedbank, said the partnership provides the bank with an immediate and credible opportunity to reduce its Scope 2 emissions where direct generation or input of renewable energy is too complex. He also highlighted Nedbank's proven climate expertise, noting that the bank has been carbon neutral since 2010 and recently achieved its 30% energy savings target two years ahead of schedule.
The initiative is underpinned by Growthpoint's significant investments in renewable energy, which include one of the country's largest fleets of small embedded generators with 80 rooftop solar arrays with a capacity of 61.2 MWp. Almost half of these solar installations are already registered on the international I-REC registry in collaboration with Fuel Switch, Africa's first blockchain-enabled REC exchange, ensuring transparency and verification.
Werner van Antwerpen, Head of Corporate Advisory at Growthpoint, described the launch of Nedbank as a “game changer” for carbon reporting in South Africa. “Transparent carbon offsets are urgently needed, especially for companies in rented spaces, as they cannot meet the challenge alone,” he said.
The collaboration between the two companies, both leaders in South Africa's green building movement, aims to set a new benchmark for business decarbonization. By validating this model, Nedbank and Growthpoint are not only advancing their own climate ambitions, but also creating a path for companies of all sizes to achieve credible Scope 2 emissions offsets, boosting the local green economy.