Novartis announces US renewables agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

EAST HANOVER, N.J., Aug. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Novartis announced today a Virtual Power Purchase Agreement (VPPA) in collaboration with Invenergy, North America's largest privately held renewable energy company. As part of the Novartis environmental strategy, the initiative aims to add 100 megawatts (MW) of wind power to the electrical grid.

Under the agreement, the electricity will be generated from Invenergy's Santa Rita East wind farm, located 70 miles west of San Angelo, Texas and is expected to be online in 2019. During the construction phase, the wind farm could create up to 300 jobs and 12-15 permanent jobs once operational.

"At Novartis, we take our responsibility toward environmental sustainability seriously and it is important for our organization to meet our sustainability goals," said Karen Coyne, Global Head of Environment at Novartis. "This agreement is in line with our sustainability strategy and is expected to help us reduce our carbon footprint, constrain costs and increase adoption of renewable energy."

In line with its ongoing global sustainability strategy, Novartis collaborates to create virtual power purchase agreements, power purchase agreements and procurement options for green power solutions. Energy efficiency is the cornerstone of reducing the company's carbon footprint while also pursuing renewables initiatives in multiple markets.

The VPPA is expected to deliver 100 MW of new wind power capacity to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) that operates the electric grid and manages the deregulated market for 75% of the state.

The 12-year agreement is expected to reduce Novartis greenhouse gas emissions by more than 220,000 metric tons per year through the issuance of renewable energy attributes that Novartis will use to account and report on its greenhouse gas Scope 2 emissions. This equates to removing more than 48,000 passenger vehicles from the road on an annual basis¹ and represents over 70% of the Novartis carbon footprint from purchased electricity in the US market.

"We're excited to collaborate with Novartis and applaud their commitment to environmentally and economically responsible operations," said Jim Shield, Executive Vice President & Chief Commercial Officer at Invenergy.

Jay Zoellner, CEO of Edison Energy, commented that "we're proud to have collaborated with Novartis to find a project that supported their vision of improving their bottom line while supporting their sustainability goals." Edison Energy conducted a competitive project solicitation as the buyer's agent for Novartis and supported the financial analysis to support the project's long-term success.

Disclaimer
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can generally be identified by words such as "to reduce," "expected," "goals," "strategy," "aims," "vision," "excited," "commitment," "potential," "will," or similar terms, or by express or implied discussions regarding potential renewable energy production and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from the Virtual Power Purchase Agreement, power purchase agreements and other initiatives for green power procurement described in this press release, or regarding potential future cost containment from such agreements and initiatives. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on our current beliefs and expectations regarding future events, and are subject to significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. There can be no guarantee that the Virtual Power Purchase Agreement, power purchase agreements and other initiatives for green power procurement described in this press release will in fact increase the use of renewable energy by Novartis or reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of Novartis, or in any particular time frame. Nor can there be any guarantee that such agreements and initiatives will be commercially successful or contain costs in the future. In particular, our expectations regarding such agreements and initiatives could be affected by, among other things, the uncertainties inherent in relevant energy markets, including the price and availability of renewable energy; the ability of Invenergy to complete its Santa Rita East wind farm on time, or at all; regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally; general political and economic conditions; potential or actual data security and data privacy breaches, or disruptions of our information technology systems, and other risks and factors referred to in Novartis AG's current Form 20-F on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Novartis is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

About Novartis 
Located in East Hanover, NJ Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation is an affiliate of Novartis which provides innovative healthcare solutions that address the evolving needs of patients and societies. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Novartis offers a diversified portfolio to best meet these needs: innovative medicines, cost-saving generic and biosimilar pharmaceuticals and eye care. Novartis has leading positions globally in each of these areas. In 2017, the Group achieved net sales of USD 49.1 billion, while R&D throughout the Group amounted to approximately USD 9.0 billion. Novartis Group companies employ approximately 125,000 full-time-equivalent associates. Novartis products are sold in approximately 155 countries around the world. For more information, please visit http://www.novartis.com.

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References

1.     https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/greenhouse-gas-emissions-typical-passenger-vehicle 

SOURCE Novartis

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