It’s been a busy year for corporate social responsibility and renewable energy. Walmart (NYSE: WMT), Ikea and Starbucks (NasdaqNM: SBUX) have all recently reported on their sustainability targets, highlighting both wins and losses in a refreshing round of transparency.
AT&T (NYSE: T) joins the corporate gang by announcing they will be adding new renewable energy installations to their operations this year, adding to their existing 3 megawatt renewable energy commitment and bringing an overall capacity of 8 megawatts of renewable energy to their portfolio.
Altruism isn’t necessarily the name of the game here. John Schinter, AT&T’s director of energy said, “As renewable and alternative energy costs continue to become more cost-comparable to traditional energy prices, we will look for new and innovative opportunities to utilize these resources.”
But whichever way you slice it, AT&T is making bold sustainability commitments, having announced in 2009 that it would spend up to $565 million to operate 15,000 alternative fuel vehicles by 2018 (currently they are at 3,500) and avoiding the use of 1 million gallons of gas last year by using compressed natural gas in their corporate fleet vehicles.
AT&T was recently added to Corporate Responsibility Magazine’s 12th Annual 100 Best Corporate Citizens List and was also included in the 2010 Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index.
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