Overwhelming support for the founding of the Business Renewables Centre-Australia

NEWS | 14 Dec 2018

Friday 14 December Since its launch nearly 2 months ago, over sixty organisations, including councils, project developers and some of Australia’s best known and biggest companies, have joined the Business Renewables Centre-Australia as founding members. These include: Aldi, ANZ, ARUP, Brambles, CBA, Country Road, Carlton & United Breweries, David Jones, Fulton Hogan, Goldman Sachs, GPT, IKEA, Macquarie Capital, NextDC, NRMA Motoring, Optus, Suncorp, The Star Entertainment Group, Transurban, Unilever, and Woolworths. Several councils have come on board including the City of Melbourne, City of Sydney, Tweed Shire Council, Inner West Council, Eastern Alliance for Greenhouse Action Councils, City of Darebin, City of Newcastle, as well as universities such as Charles Sturt University, Monash University, and University of Technology Sydney. The BRC-A is supported by service organisations and associations such as Australian Energy Storage Alliance, ARUP, Baker McKenzie, Better Buildings Partnership, Clean Energy Council, City Switch, Energetics, Energy Estate, Green Building Council, Norton Rose Fulbright, Presync, REBA, RE100, Smart Energy Council, and Zinc, and 16 project developers who are keen to build renewables. The BRC-A website and initiative has now been launched in Sydney and Melbourne to packed rooms. Working with the above founding members and partners, the BRC-A will drive best practice principles for negotiating and delivering, and eventually standardising corporate renewable power purchase agreements (PPAs) that reduce costs for the purchasers, deliver fair returns for developers and financiers, and contribute to local and regional economies around Australia. A program of events including member ‘bootcamps’, workshops, conferences, webinars and PPA guides which be released over the coming months tool development including Deal Dream Team and Deal Structures before the end of this year. ‘It just goes to show that switching to renewable energy is a sound business decision, and one that is being considered in boardrooms and planning meetings all around Australia,’ said Monica Richter, Project Director for BRC-A. ‘Our founding members have been very enthusiastic to form a community that will help other businesses do the same. Renewable energy is not only economically sensible, it is the right thing to do for the future of our world.’ The Business Renewables Centre – Australia is an initiative of ClimateKIC, WWF and the UTS/ISF with generous initial funding from ARENA, and the NSW and Victorian governments. For more details please see website or contact – info@businessrenewables.org.au Contact:  Monica Richter – 0488 001 273  or  Christopher Lee – 0457 836 694