Amsterdam, the Netherlands – Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, today reported further progress in its sustainability performance in 2018 with a significant reduction of its carbon footprint by 10% compared to 2017, driven by a 53% decrease in total CO2 emissions from Philips’ own manufacturing operations. The Philips 2018 sustainability update is an integral part of the Philips Annual Report 2018.
At the UN Climate Change Conference COP21 in 2015, Philips pledged to play its part in fighting climate change, “the greatest threat to global health in the 21st century” according to Dr. Margaret Chan, Former Director of the World Health Organization. The company committed to becoming fully carbon neutral in its own operations, and to sourcing all its electricity usage from 100% renewable sources by 2020. Delivering on that commitment, in 2018 the company increased its global renewable electricity share to 90% from 79% in 2017. All Philips’ US operations were powered by renewable electricity from the Los Mirasoles windfarm in 2018. In addition, the Krammer and Bouwdokken windfarms in the Dutch province of Zeeland, with whom the company closed long-term contracts through its renewable electricity purchasing consortium with AkzoNobel, DSM and Google, have started powering all Philips’ operations in the Netherlands. Combined with the Los Mirasoles windfarm this covers more than half of the company’s total electricity demand.