How Canva helps its printing companions purchase solar energy

Graphics software program firm Canva has signed a singular photo voltaic vitality procurement contract with sustainability companies agency Watershed that can assist its largest printing suppliers scale back their emissions.

The digital energy buy settlement, cofunded by Canva and its printers, will help the development of latest neighborhood photo voltaic tasks in Illinois, a fast-growing state for renewable vitality growth.

The deal will assist Canva lower Scope 3 emissions from its provide chain. On the identical time, the businesses behind Canva Print — which lets customers produce books and posters from their Canva designs — can declare cuts to their Scope 2 emissions, which embrace these generated by their electrical energy utilization.

The businesses received’t truly use the facility in their very own operations, nonetheless. “What they’re doing is matching the electrical energy emissions that they produce due to Canva,” stated Matt Konieczny, head of fresh energy at Watershed. The collective quantity the businesses will declare initially is 40,000 megawatt-hours yearly, he stated. Extra electrical energy from the tasks can be bought to native utilities to allow them to fund solar energy for renters and low-income households that don’t historically have entry to renewable vitality.

What makes the Canva-Watershed contract distinctive

Canva was the primary Australian firm to be part of The Local weather Pledge, which commits the corporate to succeed in net-zero by 2040. The corporate claimed carbon neutrality in 2020, made potential by way of waste discount and purchases of carbon and renewable vitality credit. In January 2023, it signed as much as Frontier, a gaggle of corporations together with JPMorgan, Meta and Stripe making advance purchases of early-stage carbon elimination applied sciences.

However Canva’s quick progress makes lowering its Scope 3 emissions difficult. The corporate has about 185 million month-to-month customers and $2 billion in revenues. That motivated discussions a few yr in the past, stated Mike Williams, world head of sustainability at Canva. “Print is an space that can proceed to develop, which implies our footprint will, as nicely,” Williams stated.

The deal, introduced in late Could, is novel for 4 causes:

• It’s comparatively modest. Canva and its suppliers have to cowl a a lot smaller load than is often lined by digital energy buy agreements. Sometimes, corporations utilizing lower than 50,000 megawatt-hours yearly have discovered it tough to barter offers.  
• It has a set value. Watershed will assume the chance for price fluctuations as the worth of energy modifications with demand. “We made certain the worth level was palatable for his or her suppliers,” stated Konieczny.
• The phrases are comparatively brief. Canva and its suppliers are on the hook for 5 to seven years, slightly than the 12 to twenty years usually related to bigger tasks.
• The tasks can have a demonstrable affect. Solar energy accounts for simply 4.2 p.c of energy on the Midcontinent Impartial System Operator grid. That was an enormous issue within the location alternative, based on Watershed and Canva. “We wouldn’t have had a possibility in one other state of affairs to be a part of bringing clear vitality into the world,” stated Suzy Cummins, regional common supervisor for RPI Print, which is a part of the contract.

‘We don’t have many different methods to offset that don’t really feel like greenwashing’

Canva’s largest print suppliers — RPI Print, Taylor, Blooming Shade, Brook & Whittle, and Digital on Demand — are all collaborating within the settlement. “The nice actuality is that every one these companions share the curiosity and motivations,” Williams stated. “They only wanted to understand how.”

“We don’t have many different methods to offset that don’t really feel like greenwashing,” RPI’s Cummins stated. “Now we have a number of prospects the place sustainability is a part of their mission.”

The contract provided a decrease hurdle to purchasing into clear vitality, stated Rick Hanaway, senior vice chairman of gross sales and advertising for RPI Print. “We didn’t have to begin from scratch,” he stated.