climate change projects

The Co-operative is combating climate change to make life good for everyone

The Co-operative is among the world’s leading businesses when it comes to taking up the challenge of tackling global climate change. Our approach to the issue is five-fold, focusing on energy efficiency, renewable energy consumption and generation, carbon offsetting, the provision of finance and public policy lobbying.

We have over 4,000 outlets powered by renewable energy, and have significantly cut the energy consumption in our buildings in recent years. An £18 million efficiency programme has been initiated to reduce electricity and gas consumption even further by 2012, by which time we also plan to be generating 15% of our energy from our own renewable sources. Our approach to climate change includes the following projects:

The Solar Tower

The Co-operative Insurance Solar Tower in Manchester is clad in over 7,000 solar panels, making it the UK’s largest solar power installation. We may not always get the best weather in Manchester, but the tower can still generate enough electricity every year to make 9 million cups of tea, potentially saving 78 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

Wind farms

Coldham wind farm on The Co-operative Farms land in Cambridgeshire is a joint venture with Scottish Power. Eight turbines are now generating enough electricity to meet the equivalent needs of over 9,000 UK homes. Plans are currently in place to extend the Coldham wind farm, and to develop a 14-turbine windfarm on Group land in Goole, Humberside. The Merchant Wind project was established in September 2004, through a £4 million, eight-year contract between The Co-operative and green electricity generator, Ecotricity.

The Co-operative walking bus

Community projects

We invested £10.4 million in the community in 2007 alone. Many of the community projects we support have environmental benefits, such as our Green Energy for Schools scheme, which has already provided renewable energy solutions in the form of solar panels to more than 100 UK schools.

Another of our community projects helps schools set up Walking Buses where groups of children walk to school together accompanied by an adult, allowing families to cut down on car journeys.

video transcript - climate change projects

The Co-operative Financial Services

The Co-operative Bank’s Ethical Policy states that it won’t invest in businesses involved in producing or extracting fossil fuels, or those that are involved in the distribution of fuels that have a higher global warming impact, such as tar sands and certain biofuels. The Ethical Engagement Policy of The Co-operative Insurance and Co-operative Investments states that they will encourage the businesses in which they invest to reduce pollution and their environmental impact, and, in particular, their reliance on fossil fuels.

Many of the products and services offered by The Co-operative Bank and The Co-operative Insurance also have additional environmental benefits:

• Car insurance – 20% of the carbon emissions produced by our customers’ cars are offset each year through reforestation, energy efficiency and renewable energy projects.
• Mortgages – The Co-operative Bank offsets an average of 20% of the CO₂ emissions produced by mortgage customers’ homes.
• think credit card – Customers protect half an acre of rainforest the first time they use the card, and enjoy a lower APR when purchasing from our ethical partners.
• Charity credit cards – a range of charities are supported through The Co-operative Bank credit cards, including Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace.

Customers Who Care

Since 1994, The Co-operative Bank has campaigned with customers on a range of important issues, from landmines to safer chemicals. Each campaign addresses a different theme or issue, which links to the bank's Ethical Policy and customers’ concerns. In 2006 and 2007, the bank campaigned in partnership with Friends of the Earth to ‘Combat Climate Change’. Campaign highlights included:

• More than 22,000 customers lobbying their MP on the Climate Change Bill through The Big Ask.
• Nine climate change charities being supported, with donations totalling £280,000.

Find out more about Customers Who Care.

Toxic Fuels

The 2009 Customers Who Care campaign, Toxic Fuels, is in partnership with WWF-UK. The aim is to raise awareness of an emerging global trend to extract oil from unconventional sources, such as oil sands and oil shale. If unchallenged, this threat could make attempts to avoid dangerous levels of climate change almost impossible. Find out more about the toxic fuels campaign.

Carbon offsetting

The Co-operative Travel was the first high street retailer to offer customers the opportunity to offset their flights’ carbon emissions. This scheme has been relaunched in 2008, as part of the new Travel Ethical Strategy. The strategy has seen Travel cement its stance against such issues as additional runways in the developed world. The Co-operative Travel is also funding research into greener tourism, including opportunities for overland (and over-water) travel.

Download the Travel Ethical Strategy customer leaflet PDF [9MB] – Once you've clicked on the link, select save and follow the instructions.

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Find out more about our approach to carbon offsetting.

Awards

Our commitment to tackling climate change has been recognised by numerous awards, including:

European Business Award for the Environment 2008

Business in the Community’s Climate Change Award 2008

Renewable Energy Association’s Pioneer Award 2007

We report on our ecological performance in our annual Sustainability Report. Read more about ecological sustainability.