Barclays has signed a deal which will see it buying half of its electricity for its UK operations from renewable sources, compared with just 3% at the moment.

The agreement will see the bank purchasing 300GWh of renewable energy from EDF every year for the next three years.

According to Barclays, this will reduce its carbon footprint by some 125,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, equivalent to the emissions of 19,000 homes.

“This is an important milestone which will help us to significantly reduce our carbon footprint,” said Andrew Flett, head of environmental management at the bank.

“However, the greenest form of energy is the energy you don’t use and working to reduce our overall energy consumption remains our priority.”

Barclays has already committed to making its UK operations carbon neutral, and offsets the emissions from the non-renewable energy it buys.

Sam Bond

Action inspires action. Stay ahead of the curve with sustainability and energy newsletters from edie

Subscribe