Coles confident it can meet targets for 100 per cent renewable electricity by 2025

The grocery giant has reached agreements to power its assets by clean energy farms across Victoria, NSW, South Australia and Queensland.

Every Coles supermarket will be 100 per cent powered by renewable energy in less than four years’ time.

The grocery giant has been aggressively pursuing a sustainability strategy for years and will on Friday announce it has signed the final agreements to source all of its power from clean energy by the end of the 2024-25 financial year.

The latest “large-scale generation certificate” — or LGC — agreements are with Origin Energy, ACCIONA Energía, and ENGIE, meaning the company’s assets will be powered by wind and solar farms across Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland.

Coles has been aggressively pursuing a sustainability strategy for years. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Mariuz

Coles Chief Sustainability Officer Thinus Keevé said the move was not only good for the supermarket chain but would also fuel growth in renewable energy production in Australia.

“Our team is very proud that less than a year after we announced our target to be 100 per cent powered by renewable electricity by the end of the 2025 financial year, we already have agreements in place to meet this commitment which in turn supports the growth of renewable electricity in Australia,” Mr Keevé said.

“We’ve seen a lot of emphasis on setting targets for emission reduction, but it’s vital that business follows through on their sustainability goals.

“Our latest agreements with Origin Energy, ACCIONA Energía, and ENGIE mean we can now say with confidence that Coles will meet our targets for 100 per cent renewable electricity by June 2025.”

The power will come from existing sites such as Willogoleche Wind Farm in South Australia and Mt Gellibrand Wind Farm in Victoria but also a number of wind and solar farms which are currently being built.

The company said the agreements meant Coles had already secured enough renewable electricity to cover its estimated electricity usage from July 1, 2025.

Coles was recently ranked second out of 62 food retailers across the world for sustainable business practices in the 2021 Food and Agriculture Benchmark, which it says is the highest ranking for an Australian supermarket.