Helping companies in their green transition

Morten Dyrholm
Group Senior Vice President of Vestas for Marketing, Communications and Public Affairs at Vestas
Published on the 13th of September 2019

Climate change is the biggest challenge of our times and along with governments and civil society, corporate businesses play a tremendous role in creating more sustainable businesses and a more sustainable society. In a world where the annual revenues of giant corporations are sometimes bigger than the GDPs of entire countries, it has a serious impact when companies decide to go green. 

Every day, Vestas works with partners globally to help create a world powered by wind and other renewable energies. An important part of this mission is supporting customers and other partners in their journey to become more sustainable. That is why Vestas – together with more than 500 other global companies – has signed on to the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) to improve its sustainability performance and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

As more and more national governments introduce green legislation and as renewable energy has become cost-competitive globally, it is now much more possible for private sector companies to adopt environmentally-friendly solutions, while also boosting profits.

Vestas recently announced it has entered into an agreement to sell a majority of shares in its subsidiary-owned Romanian wind power plants in Pantelimon, Pegasus, and Apollo. 

We are now happy to announce that the buyer is Ingka Group, the home furnishing retailer, which is a strategic partner in the IKEA franchise system, operating 367 IKEA stores in 30 countries. This deal is part of Vestas’ strategy to partner with our customers in project development and asset management, in order to fulfill our mission to help our corporate customers become more sustainable in their operations. 

Ingka Group has ambitious sustainability targets in place, including an ambition to produce as much renewable energy as it consumes, by 2020. With the Romanian wind parks, their global portfolio of Vestas turbines alone will cover around 500 MW of clean and renewable wind energy. 

This project represents another step in a historic relationship between Vestas and Ingka Group. Furthermore, it is a great example of how Vestas partners with businesses from other sectors to make their operations more sustainable. Agreements of this kind signal an acceleration of the global transition to a world powered by renewable energy, and Vestas is thrilled to support as a global leader in renewable energy solutions.