We got Comcast to make progress on its use of clean and renewable energy! Thanks to over 8,800 Green Americans demanding Comcast increase its use of renewable energy, and an extensive social media campaign, the company has listened to us and made big progress on clean energy.
In the last year, Comcast doubled its use of renewable energy and its Scope 2 emissions, which mostly come from energy use, fell 15%.
Comcast is one of the largest communications companies in the US. It owns Universal and NBC -- giving it a huge climate footprint and market influence. A large portion of its climate emissions come from its electricity use. Comcast uses millions of megawatts of energy each year to power servers, buildings, and amusement parks.
We profiled Comcast in our Clean and Just Energy is Calling report and scorecard and shared these results with company executives, hosted a petition to the company signed by 8,815 people, reached out to their board, raised the issue of their energy use at their annual general meeting of shareowners, and promoted social media posts and videos to encourage the company to move forward on clean energy.
Comcast’s move to clean energy follows successful campaigns by Green America that got Amazon, T-Mobile, and Verizon to commit to 100% renewable energy.
Comcast now reports that 33% of its electricity comes from clean (carbon-free) energy sources. And 14% of all its energy comes from renewables (solar and wind), double the amount in 2023. When we began our campaign, Comcast’s total emissions from electricity resulted in 1.15 million mtCO2e in 2023, the equivalent to nearly 270,000 cars on the road for a year. So getting the company to move forward on clean energy has a big impact.
Comcast still has a long way to go. The company’s definition of clean energy includes large-scale hydropower and nuclear. These are not renewable sources of energy, and each has significant downsides. That’s why we’re urging Comcast to adopt a goal of 100% renewable energy by 2030, and ensure these purchases ensure energy justice, as an important step in reducing the company’s climate footprint in line with the progress we need on climate change to keep overall temperature increases to less than 1.5 degrees C.
