SHAH ALAM: Top Glove Corp Bhd, the world’s largest manufacturer of gloves, last Friday entered into a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Shizen Malaysia Sdn Bhd, the group company of Japan-based, Shizen Energy Inc, for the healthcare manufacturer’s solar power system.
It is especially meaningful that the signing ceremony marking the partnership took place April 22, Earth Day, when the world comes together to act boldly, innovate broadly and implement equitably to effect positive change for the planet.
Through this partnership, Shizen Malaysia will install, own, and operate a 10 megawatt (MW) peaking grid, and Top Glove will purchase the electricity generated by Shizen Malaysia for 20 years.
This newly inked partnership builds on previous collaborations between Top Glove and the renewable energy developer that started in November last year. The initial collaboration on the rooftop solar power plant enabled Top Glove to generate clean and cost-competitive renewable energy to its factories, reducing the company’s average electricity cost while lowering its carbon footprint.
“Climate change is a global phenomenon that affects our lives. Malaysia has set a goal towards becoming a carbon neutral nation by year 2050; contributing its part to the global agenda to combat climate change,“ said Top Glove executive director Lim Cheong Guan.
“As a homegrown Malaysian company with a global reach, Top Glove has a responsibility in
supporting this national agenda of minimising the impact that our operations have on the
environment. Towards this, the company has implemented a comprehensive environmental
management system, and in part, we are working closely with Shizen Malaysia on a solar energy component to achieve our goal of reducing the company’s carbon emissions intensity by 25% by FY2025 as Top Glove aims towards becoming carbon-free in the future.”
“We are delighted to expand on a long term partnership with Top Glove, a company that shares our vision of a greener world for all.
“Given the growing awareness on the benefits of renewable energy (“ a nd its importance in lessening global warming we are confident that more industry players will turn to RE as part of their environmentalist agenda,” said Shizen Malaysia CEO Alvin Koh.
To date, eight of Top Glove’s factories in Malaysia have been equipped with solar energy systems while plans are underway for sixteen more factories by 2023. With this PPA, Top Glove’s total solar capacity will increase from 5.34MWp to 15.47 MWp, saving about 13,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions annually. This is the equivalent of planting around 400,000 trees in order to absorb this amount of CO2.