OREANDA-NEWS. Nine major companies including retail giant Walmart today pledged to procure 100pc of their electricity from renewable energy resources.

The companies, which also include Goldman Sachs, Nike, Starbucks, Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, Salesforce, Steelcase and Voya Financial made the pledge by joining a broader coalition of 36 global companies under the RE100 initiative, which seeks to increase the use of renewable energy by major corporations.

The pledges range in ambition from Goldman Sachs committing to reach 100pc renewables by 2020 to Johnson & Johnson aiming for 2050. Walmart did not commit to a specific timeframe, but said it has been working toward the 100pc goal since 2005. Walmart had installed about 105MW of solar generation at its facilities as of February

The RE100 initiative is led by the Climate Group and the Carbon Disclosure Project. The companies announced the pledges at Climate Week NYC.

The pledges represent the latest commitments from the private sector to support cuts in global CO2 emissions ahead of UN climate talks in Paris in December. In addition to procuring clean power, many companies are affixing an internal carbon price to portions of their balance sheets to help drive decisions.

Recent initiatives undertaken by the White House and US Department of Energy have sought to get corporations to prioritize renewable power into their business strategies. The White House this summer unveiled a $140mn investment commitment from the private sector that will add more than 1,600MW of new renewable capacity for corporate procurement. The initial pledge included companies such as Apple, Google Microsoft, Alcoa, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Cargill and General Motors.

Goldman had owned coal mines in Colombia until last month when it sold them to Murray Energy.