The Climate Pledge announces nearly 100 new signatories, including Tech Mahindra, Maersk, SAP, and HARMAN, bringing the total to more than 300 companies committed worldwide

Bangalore (Karnataka) [India], March 19 (ANI/BusinessWire India): Today, Amazon and Global Optimism announced that more than 300 companies have now signed The Climate Pledge, a nearly 600 per cent growth in signatories over the past year. Among the nearly 100 new signatories joining today are Tech Mahindra, a leading provider of digital transformation, consulting, and business re-engineering services and solutions; the world's largest container shipping company, Maersk; the leading enterprise software developer SAP; and the leading brand in connected car and audio services, HARMAN. Pledge signatories in total generate over $3.5 trillion in global annual revenues and have more than 8 million employees across 51 industries in 29 countries.
Signatories to The Climate Pledge must agree to:
-Measure and report greenhouse gas emissions on a regular basis.
-Implement decarbonization strategies in line with the Paris Agreement through real business changes and innovations, including efficiency improvements, renewable energy, materials reductions, and other carbon emission elimination strategies.
-Neutralize any remaining emissions with additional, quantifiable, real, permanent, and socially beneficial offsets to achieve net-zero annual carbon emissions by 2040.
"The effects of climate change are becoming more and more apparent in our surroundings and daily lives, and we firmly believe that the private sector must continue to innovate and collaborate across regions and industries in order to decarbonize the global economy at scale," said Andy Jassy, Amazon CEO. "It's an encouraging sign that more than 300 businesses have now signed The Climate Pledge, which commits them to confronting climate change head-on by incorporating real business changes that will make a lasting impact on our planet. We can only do it together."
Many of the new Pledge signatories are already making great strides toward reducing their carbon emissions:
-Tech Mahindra has taken medium-term and long-term targets approved by SBTi (Science Based Target Initiative) and is a signatory to Business Ambition 1.5 degree Celsius. It has adopted a climate action plan that provides roadmap to become carbon neutral by 2030 and be Net Zero much before 2050. It has also implemented Carbon Price to abate GHG emissions and invested in various sustainability projects like increasing renewable energy mix, improving resource efficiency, implementing Environmental Management Systems, and investing in LEED and Green Building Certifications.
-Maersk is providing industry-leading green customer offerings across the supply chain, including Maersk ECO Delivery, which targets emission reductions in ocean shipping. Amazon began participating in this service in 2020 and continues today. Amazon's participation reduced emissions by approximately 20 KTonnes of CO2e (the equivalent of 50 million average passenger vehicle miles) in 2021.
-SAP recently accelerated its target for achieving net-zero carbon emissions to 2030--20 years earlier than originally targeted.
-With a long-standing focus on purpose, sustainability is one of HARMAN's key strategic business pillars. As part of HARMAN's commitment to achieving net-zero carbon across Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions by 2040, it's working toward ambitious, measurable shorter-term targets that aim to reduce emissions, energy usage, and waste across its value chain. HARMAN has introduced new product lines made from responsibly sourced and recycled materials and has committed to 100 per cent renewable energy in all HARMAN factories by 2025.
Today, The Climate Pledge also welcomes several companies that have previously received investments through the $2 billion Climate Pledge Fund, Amazon's corporate venture capital fund that invests in companies that can help accelerate a path to meeting The Climate Pledge. These companies include BETA Technologies, an electric aerospace company, and Infinium, a renewable fuels technology company, which both aim to support decarbonization efforts in the global transportation sector. The sector was responsible for approximately 7.3 billion metric tons of carbon emissions in 2020. In fact, 13 per cent of signatories represent transportation, aviation, and logistics sectors, sending an important signal that there will be rapid growth in demand for products and services that help reduce carbon emissions in this key sector. Additionally, Climate Pledge Fund investee and new signatory Pachama is bringing quality, transparency, and scale to nature-based carbon markets. Pachama uses remote sensing and machine learning to measure carbon stored in forests and monitor them over time, allowing organizations and individuals to compensate for their emissions with confidence by supporting reforestation and forest conservation projects.

Today's announcement underscores the findings of the latest report from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which emphasizes the need for immediate action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to invest in natural climate solutions to limit warming to close to 1.5 degrees Celsius, and to mitigate damages.

"In the face of great peril, which is what the latest science depicts, the business community must have a clear path forward: Step up and accelerate emissions reductions so that we might avoid the worst of the damages yet to come," said Christiana Figueres, founding partner of Global Optimism and the United Nations' former climate chief. "It's encouraging, therefore, that 300 companies are committed to working together to achieve net-zero by 2040 or sooner through The Climate Pledge. But 300 companies are not enough to deliver the transformations we need. I encourage all business leaders to get to grips with the science, translate it for their businesses, and enable the changes we need without delay."

Amazon and Global Optimism welcome the new signatories to The Climate Pledge:
4 Cladding Services
Aberdeen Laundry Services Ltd.
Accordant Solutions Ltd.
ALIANAz Limited
Augenklinik Dardenne SE
BETA Technologies
BetaCarbon Pty Ltd.
Clif Bar
CMP Products
COAT Paints
Cognizant Technology Solutions
Creast
Croatian Post Inc.
DIGITALL
Dynamic Consultants Group
E Ink Holdings Inc.
Earthchain
Electric Driver
Ellers Farm Distillery
Envopap
euNetworks Group Ltd.
Everflow Water
Flor Americas
Flow Water Inc.
Genesys
Gienanth Group GmbH
GO TO-U
GoFor
Ground Control Ltd.
GRUPO GRANSOLAR SL
Hammam Al Andalus
Hardscape Group Limited
HARMAN
Harmony Music School
HRS
Hyzon Motors
Infinium Holdings, Inc.
Intelcom
Ishizaka Inc.
ITinSell
JACK RYAN
KayamutVe Shefa (KVS)
Kin and Carta Plc
Kombuchery GmbH
Letterbox Distribution
LiechtensteinischeLandesbank
Lineage Logistics
Maersk
Making Science
Maya Cosmetics
Meyers
Mighty
Mitie Group
Monogram Media
MultiGreen Properties
Natra
Network Archaeology Ltd.
Novartis
OAC Services, Inc.
Ocean Infinity
Paack Logistics
Pachama
Pallet LOOP Ltd.
Pearson
Perlego
Plan A
Premier Packaging LLC
project44
ProtectBox
ROBUR Industry Service Group GmbH
Rye Demolition
SAP SE
Savvy Freight
Schumacher Packaging Werk Schwarzenberg
Search Laboratory
Silentnight Group
SMS Plc
Sport-Thieme GmbH
Sunrun
Superpedestrian
Syncro Technology Corp
Syneos Health
TBM Co., Ltd.
Tea Venture Limited
Tech Mahindra
Teleion LLC
Teleon Surgical BV
The Vella Group
TransACT Technology Solutions
Up2You
Verdical Group
West Monroe
Weyerhaeuser
Xnrgy Climate Systems
Zephyr Environmental
Information about all 95 new signatories that have committed to The Climate Pledge and the actions they are taking to decarbonize their businesses is available at The Climate Pledge website, including:
Tech Mahindra

Tech Mahindra offers innovative and customer-centric digital experiences, enabling enterprises, associates and the society to Rise. We are a USD 5.1 billion organization with 145,000-plus professionals across 90 countries helping 1191 global customers, including Fortune 500 companies. We are focused on leveraging next-generation technologies including 5G, Blockchain, Quantum Computing, Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence, and more, to enable end-to-end digital transformation for global customers.
At Tech Mahindra, we have robust risk management assessments and processes in place to handle climate-risk-related scenarios, along with business continuity planning, and disaster recovery management. We also intend to reduce emissions throughout our value chain by engaging customers and suppliers in our sustainability strategy. R&D investment and expenditure help us to lower operational costs, enable revenue growth in the green solutions portfolio, and reduce emissions to help achieve our sustainability goals. It also helps us in assisting our clients and supporting their carbon reduction commitments. To address the need for sustainable practices, we work closely with partners and customers to assist them to increase energy savings, digitize and automate operations, and establish collaborative work environments.

Sandeep Chandna, Chief Sustainability Officer, Tech Mahindra, said, "The urgency of climate crisis demands collective action from all stakeholders to protect and preserve our planet. The climate pledge is an important step in this direction. As a company with purpose, Tech Mahindra is committed towards delivering innovative solutions to effectively respond to climate change and drive towards a greener digital economy. Our focus on green ecosystem, clean energy and optimum use of resources helps us in accelerating our transition towards a low carbon economy. We believe this to be a huge opportunity for all of us to power the future of sustainable growth for all our stakeholders."
Maersk
A.P. Moller - Maersk (Maersk) is an integrated logistics company and the world's largest container shipping company. As a global provider of end-to-end logistics services across all transport modes, the company is committed to playing an integral role in enabling global decarbonization of long-distance transport. In addition to reducing all direct and indirect emissions across its entire business by 2040, Maersk is also committed to expanding its green customer offerings, including a commitment to achieve 25 per cent of ocean cargo transported with green fuels, 90 per cent green operations for contract logistics and cold chain, and at least 30% of air cargo transported with sustainable aviation fuel by 2030. To achieve these ambitious targets, Maersk is exploring, testing, and investing in sustainable innovations to enable transformation across the supply chain. Maersk is currently investing in innovative new fuels, vessels, electrical trucks, network planning software, information sharing technology, and many more areas. This includes the order of 12 vessels that will be capable of operating on green methanol--these vessels will be operational in 2024.
"Solving the climate emergency and decarbonizing our customers' supply chains is a strategic imperative for Maersk," said Soren Skou, AP Moller - Maersk CEO. "Hence, back in January 2021 we accelerated our decarbonization commitment to net-zero emissions by 2040--a decade ahead of our initial 2050 ambitions and the Paris Agreement. To drive the massive scale up of green fuels, we all must move now and take action. If we are meant to see changes this decade, we cannot afford to wait, and in that context, we look forward to joining The Climate Pledge, an opportunity to team up with some of our major customers, learn from them, and share best practices and solutions."
SAP
SAP is a world leader in enterprise application software and services. SAP has the vision to help companies of all sizes and industries become intelligent, sustainable enterprises by managing business data and processes to be more efficient, resilient, and competitive. SAP offers sustainability-specific solutions for corporate sustainability performance management and reporting, carbon accounting, waste management for circular economy processes, and responsible and inclusive value chain management. SAP recently accelerated its net-zero emissions commitment from 2050 to 2030. The company is setting science-based targets to achieve net-zero along its entire value chain in line with a 1.5-degree Celsius future. SAP is driving a long-term strategy of sustainable operations around the world including using 100 percent renewable energy for SAP's own data centers and buildings worldwide since 2014. SAP is also directly investing in renewable electricity as well as nature-based and technical-based funds to neutralize residual carbon emissions.
"Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time and the time to act is now," said Christian Klein, SAP CEO. "Technology provides us with an opportunity to create a lasting, positive impact for future generations and SAP is proud to join The Climate Pledge to help drive this change."
HARMAN
HARMAN designs and engineers connected products and solutions for automakers, consumers, and enterprises worldwide, including connected car systems, audio and visual products, enterprise automation solutions, and services supporting the Internet of Things. With leading brands including AKG, Harman Kardon, Infinity, JBL, Lexicon, Mark Levinson, and Revel, HARMAN is admired by audiophiles, musicians, and the entertainment venues where they perform around the world. More than 50 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and connected car systems. HARMAN's software services power billions of mobile devices and systems that are connected, integrated, and secure across all platforms, from work and home to car and mobile. In March 2017, HARMAN became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
"At HARMAN, we know that driving sustainability is an ongoing journey that benefits from constant collaboration," said Tom Mooney, HARMAN International senior director of Government Affairs and Sustainability. "Each of the other Climate Pledge signatories is as committed as we are to building a more sustainable future and understands the value of working together toward our common goal. We're excited to be joining forces with this community of innovators and thought leaders to create meaningful change."
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