Several companies announced today that the have joined The Climate Pledge, including Best Buy, McKinstry, Schneider Electric, and Siemens, as well as football club Real Betis. By signing onto the pledge, the organizations are committing to reach net zero carbon by 2040. The new companies join other recent high profile signatories, including Verizon, Infosys and Mercedes-Benz.

The Climate Pledge was co-founded by Amazon and climate change-focused organization Global Optimism, calling on signatories to achieve net zero carbon across their businesses 10 years ahead of the Paris Accord’s 2050 target. Companies that sign onto the Climate Pledge agree to numerous steps, including:

• Measuring and reporting GHG emissions on a regular basis
• Implementing decarbonization strategies in line with the Paris Agreement through real business changes and innovations. These include efficiency improvements, renewable energy, materials reductions, and other carbon emission elimination strategies
• Neutralizing any remaining emissions with additional, quantifiable, real, permanent, and socially beneficial offsets to achieve net zero annual carbon emissions by 2040

Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO, said:

“From hurricanes to forest fires, climate change is leading to very real, negative impacts to our daily lives even sooner than scientists expected. Every company has a role to play in fighting climate change, and we welcome these new Climate Pledge signatories who are stepping up and committing to reach net-zero carbon by 2040. They are showing important leadership in accelerating the transition to a low carbon economy to protect the planet for future generations.”

Each of the new signatories has already made significant commitments and progress towards emissions reductions. Best Buy stated has reduced its carbon emissions by 56% since 2009, through initiatives including investments in LED lighting, controls systems and hybrid vehicles, as well as investments in utility-scale solar generation. U.S. engineering, construction and energy services firm McKinstry has already pledged to cut emissions in half by 2025, and reach carbon neutral by 2030. Schneider Electric is accelerating its own carbon neutrality commitments and reaffirming that it will be carbon neutral in its operations by 2025 and have net-zero (no offset) emissions by 2030. Siemens has pledged that all production facilities and buildings worldwide are to achieve a net-zero carbon footprint by 2030. Real Betis is already implementing plans to reduce its emissions while at the same time purchasing carbon offsets from certified climate protection projects.

Corie Barry, Best Buy CEO, said:

“We are a purposeful, values-driven company, with a long history of environmental work that includes meaningfully reducing our carbon footprint and helping our customers do the same. We are proud to take the next step by committing to The Climate Pledge. Simply put, our customers and employees expect this degree of commitment from us and the planet demands it.”

Dean Allen, McKinstry CEO, said:

“Buildings account for 40% of energy use in the United States and 36% globally. Emerging, complex building technologies are unlocking the potential to radically reduce carbon emissions and operate buildings with startling efficiency. It will take working together across industries to deploy these technologies and decarbonize the global building stock and dramatically improve energy efficiency. Working with other Climate Pledge companies, I believe we can meet this goal and drive real, lasting change.”

Spanish professional football club Real Betis’ general business director Ramón Alarcón said:

“At Real Betis, we are committed to tackling climate change. We are also helping to raise awareness to address the climate crisis, by engaging with our players and fans. We understand that climate change is a threat to the livelihoods and the wellbeing of everyone on the planet, and we are committed to doing our part. We are very excited to be the first football club in the world to join this program, and we can’t wait to work with Climate Pledge companies to ramp up our efforts.”

Jean-Pascal Tricoire, Schneider Electric Chairman and CEO, said:

“Sustainability is at the core of everything we do at Schneider, and digital innovation is critical to address the challenge of climate change. We will progress faster towards a sustainable and inclusive world if we progress together. This is why we joined The Climate Pledge – to deliver carbon neutrality.”

Joe Kaeser, Siemens AG President and CEO, said:

“Climate change is one of humanity’s greatest challenges of our time. Businesses need to lead the way towards accelerated decarbonization. In September 2015, Siemens became the first global industrial company to commit to achieving carbon neutrality for our global operations by 2030. Today, we reemphasize our commitment to this goal and are looking forward to joining forces with other Climate Pledge companies to help ramp up global efforts.”

Christiana Figueres, the UN’s former climate change chief and Global Optimism founding partner, said:

“The Paris Agreement set out a unifying roadmap for all countries and all people to address the climate crisis by taking action. The IPCC has informed us that we cannot warm the planet beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius and that the faster we achieve net-zero emissions, the better. By joining The Climate Pledge, signatories are not just making a statement of commitment to the future, they are setting a pathway to significant actions and investments that will create jobs, spur innovation, regenerate the natural environment and help consumers to buy better starting now. This is what leadership looks like in resetting the global economy.”