eBay Joins EPA’s Green Power Partnership

October 22, 2020

*This blog originally appeared on eBayinc.com

In our efforts to help advance a sustainable future, at eBay we strive to integrate environmental best practices in the communities where we work and live. As part of this commitment, we recently were designated as an official member of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Green Power Partnership, a voluntary program that encourages organizations to use green power as a way to reduce the environmental impacts associated with conventional electricity. Just this week, the Partnership announced that eBay ranks 14th on its Top 30 Tech & Telecom list, which highlights the annual use of leading Green Power Partners in the tech industry.

“We’re honored to be recognized by the U.S. EPA for our commitment to renewable energy," said Renee Morin, Chief Sustainability Officer for eBay Inc. "We remain dedicated to advancing a sustainable future, ensuring our global business operates responsibly.” 

As a company, we continuously aim to better understand, track and quantify our environmental footprint in terms of our facilities’ operations and maintenance. Our goal is to source 100 percent of our electricity supply from renewable energy sources by 2025 for eBay data centers and offices. Already, according to the EPA, eBay’s green power use of more than 251 million kilowatt-hours of electricity in the U.S. is equivalent to the annual electricity use of nearly 23,000 average American homes annually.

Further on the path to our goal, from 2018 to 2019, we decreased our overall emissions by 16 percent and increased our renewable energy supply by 24 percent, bringing us to an overall achievement of 64 percent renewable energy globally. Many of our offices already operate on 100 percent renewable energy including our headquarters in San Jose, California, as well as our offices in Dreilinden, Germany; London, UK; Portland, Oregon; Draper, Utah; and more. Across the company’s global offices, we invest in clean energy, diverting waste from landfills and creating efficiencies in water usage. 

Our membership in the EPA Green Power Partnership is another step on our sustainability path. The Green Power Partnership was established in 2001 to protect human health and the environment by increasing organizations’ voluntary green power use. To that end, the program is helping to build the American green power industry by advancing the American market for green power and the development of those renewable electricity sources. Current partners’ green power use represents more than 45 percent of the U.S. voluntary green power market. 

"EPA applauds eBay for its commitment to using green power and for taking a leadership position on the environment," said James Critchfield, Program Manager of EPA's Green Power Partnership. "eBay is helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provides an excellent example for other businesses to invest in environmental progress."

To be included as a partner, eBay has committed to use green power for part of our annual electricity consumption. Our inclusion in this program is one of the many ways we enable a more inclusive, sustainable and circular economy for communities all around the world.  

eBay is also proud to be named to the 2019 Dow Jones Sustainability World and North America Indices and a member of the RE100; learn more about eBay’s sustainability work at ebayinc.com/impact