Mars Australia has announced its transition to using 100 per cent renewable energy at its six factories and two offices in Australia generated from a Victoria-based solar farm.
This marks a key step in advancing Mars’ global ‘Sustainable in a Generation’ goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 27 per cent by 2025 and 67 per cent by 2050 and underlines the global company’s US$1 billion investment in fighting climate change.
Australia is one of the highest emitters of greenhouse gas per capita in the world, with electricity generation a major contributor. The power generated at the newly launched Kiamal Solar Farm near Ouyen in Victoria goes to the national grid, which increases the ratio of renewable energy in the National Energy Market.
The Kiamal Solar Farm has an eventual grid output of 200MW and spans more than 4.6km2, featuring 718,000 solar panels.
To put it into perspective, the 50MW that the solar farm generates for Mars Australia is enough renewable electricity to power the production of 185 million 180g bags of Peanut M&Ms or 30 million 3kg bags of Pedigree or 2.5 billion packets of Extra.
The launch and now commencement of generation of the Solar Farm developed by renewable energy Independent Power Producer (IPP) Total Eren, follows announcements from the Federal Government to modernise Australian manufacturing.
It reiterates the need for government and businesses to continue working together to drive renewables investment and help fight climate change.
Kevin Rabinovitch, Mars Global VP Sustainability said: “Climate change is one of the most urgent issues of our time, and we recognise Mars has a responsibility – and opportunity – to improve our impact on the planet.
“Australia is important to Mars, and our switch to 100 per cent renewable electricity locally supports Mars’ global transformation to reduce our emissions as part of the Sustainable In a Generation plan. I am proud to have worked with our amazing Associates in Australia to make this switch and excited to see where the market can go next.”
