The initiative extends beyond direct operations to cover suppliers, logistics, and consumer use, creating new demand for large-scale renewable buildout.
Mars launches first U.S. clean energy contracts with Enel, securing 1.8 TWh of annual renewable power.
The company’s Renewable Acceleration program targets a 10% reduction in its total carbon footprint by 2030, equivalent to 3 million tonnes of CO₂.
A New Corporate Energy Strategy
Mars, Incorporated is moving to reframe corporate energy procurement with a strategy that stretches beyond its own factories and offices. Under its newly launched Renewable Acceleration program, the food and pet care group has signed its first U.S. clean power contracts with Enel North America to cover not only direct operations but also its broader supply chain and downstream use.
The approach aims to pool demand for renewable electricity across the company’s entire value chain, from farms producing raw ingredients to refrigerated trucks and even consumer use of Mars products at home. By aggregating this demand, Mars intends to unlock capacity for large-scale renewables that traditional corporate power purchase agreements (PPAs) cannot reach.
If executed globally, the company estimates the program could remove around 3 million tonnes of carbon emissions — roughly 10% of its current footprint — by 2030 compared to a 2015 baseline.
Scaling Beyond Direct Operations
Mars’s direct operations consume about 2 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity annually, the equivalent of The Bahamas’ total yearly use. When its value chain is included, the number rises to between 8 and 9 TWh, on par with Estonia.
Kevin Rabinovitch, Global Vice President of Sustainability at Mars, said the company was seeking to move faster than conventional supplier engagement allows. “Renewable Acceleration is a performance accelerator, cutting emissions at a scale and speed we could never achieve through traditional approaches,” he said. “The more demand we create together, the faster we can build the future we all want. And clean energy means cleaner air for our communities, our people, and our partners.”
The first three Enel contracts will supply 1.8 TWh annually, equivalent to around 700,000 tonnes of avoided CO₂ emissions per year. Mars will secure the full output from three solar plants in Texas. The sites will also host large-scale solar grazing programs using sheep, a land management method Enel has expanded across the United States.
Enel’s Largest Global PPA With an Industrial Buyer
For Enel, one of Europe’s largest power utilities, the agreement marks its biggest PPA worldwide with a commercial and industrial customer. Michele Di Murro, CEO of Enel North America, described the program as a turning point for corporate energy procurement. “Mars is raising the bar for corporate sustainability strategies, taking a comprehensive and direct approach to addressing emissions across its entire value chain,” he said. “Renewable Acceleration is a bold initiative to support the buildout of more clean energy capacity, which we know is among the fastest and most economical ways to decarbonize.”
The contracts are part of a broader pipeline of global agreements Mars expects to announce in the coming months.
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Governance, Finance and ESG Implications
Mars is not the first multinational to secure renewable PPAs, but few companies have attempted to extend contracts to cover value chain electricity consumption at this scale. The strategy directly addresses Scope 3 emissions — the hardest to measure and the most politically sensitive — by embedding clean energy into upstream agriculture and downstream consumer use.
For regulators and investors, the program’s design raises questions about how emissions accounting frameworks will capture indirect electricity savings and whether such aggregation models can be replicated across other sectors. Governance and assurance standards will be crucial in validating the approach.
Financially, the program positions Mars to hedge against energy market volatility by locking in long-term clean power contracts, while also demonstrating to lenders and shareholders that the company is addressing transition risk in a visible, scalable way.
Broader Climate Commitments
Renewable Acceleration sits alongside Mars’s efforts to eliminate deforestation from its supply chains, advance climate-smart agriculture, and overhaul logistics networks. Each is framed as part of a corporate-wide strategy to meet science-based targets.
The company is encouraging peers to join in similar models of pooled renewable demand, arguing that collective action can accelerate grid decarbonization more quickly than individual site-level contracts.
Global Significance
The Mars-Enel partnership offers a test case for how multinational corporations can extend clean energy procurement beyond operational boundaries. For C-suite leaders and investors, the initiative highlights the potential for scaling corporate PPAs to cover Scope 3 emissions — a critical step for aligning with net-zero frameworks and investor expectations.
As more global agreements roll out under Renewable Acceleration, the model could inform policy debates on energy market design, corporate disclosure, and climate accountability. For now, the contracts in Texas mark the first tangible step in what Mars hopes will become a template for value chain-wide decarbonization.
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