Scaling Renewable Energy with Thermo Fisher Scientific

Designing a program built for supplier action

Supplier emissions sit at the center of Thermo Fisher Scientific’s decarbonization goals. The company has committed to reaching net-zero across Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions by 2050 and to having 90% of its suppliers, by spend, set science-based targets by 2027. Because suppliers account for the bulk of its Scope 3 footprint, neither goal is reachable without them; buying renewable electricity is one of the fastest, most effective ways for a supplier to reduce emissions.

Thermo Fisher also feels the same demand from the other direction: a significant portion of its revenue is tied to customer sustainability requirements. Living on both sides of these customer requests, Thermo Fisher understood why the program had to be accessible, action-focused, and low-friction - something that puts renewables within reach across the full supply chain, not only the largest players.

The Thermo Fisher team collaborated with Green Project to design The Thermo Fisher Supplier Renewable Electricity Program. Through Green Project’s Act platform, suppliers gain access to self-service renewables procurement, buying pre-vetted, regionally appropriate Energy Attribute Certificates (EACs) through a self-service process. Instead of only asking suppliers to measure and report emissions, the program gives them a practical way to reduce them, benefiting both their own organizations and Thermo Fisher's value chain, often in just a few minutes. The experience is intentionally streamlined, recognizing that many participating suppliers are small businesses without dedicated sustainability resources.

Scaling up, campaign by campaign

The first Renewable Electricity Program campaign launched in late 2025 with a cohort of 104 Thermo Fisher suppliers. An initial group of suppliers procured EACs through the act50 marketplace, and additional teams had the opportunity to explore the platform - an early indication of where the program could grow.

Quote from Thermo Fisher team.

“Many of our suppliers want to make progress on renewable electricity but don’t have the time, tools, or expertise to navigate procurement on their own. Making that pathway simpler for them is critical to reaching our Scope 3 goals.”

The second campaign launched in spring 2026, extending the Thermo Fisher–Green Project collaboration to the Fisher Scientific channel, which ran a concurrent campaign for its suppliers.

Together, these campaigns more than tripled the program’s reach to 346 suppliers.

Building the business case for suppliers

Even when a supplier is ready to act, sustainability is often one of many priorities competing for budget and attention. To help suppliers gain internal approval for renewable energy procurement, Thermo Fisher and Green Project co-developed leadership-ready business case templates framed around commercial competitiveness, not just sustainability. These enablement materials handed suppliers the argument that lands internally: customers increasingly weigh renewable electricity in supplier evaluations, and procuring EACs is a fast, credible, low-cost way to show measurable Scope 2 progress and strengthen a bid in RFPs.

The Fisher Scientific channel, part of Thermo Fisher Scientific, added another reason for its suppliers to act. Its Supplier Tiering Program factors sustainability progress into a supplier’s tier, and higher tiers carry real commercial benefits - from sales compensation to marketing support and premium placement. It’s a strong example of how the right incentive drives action: suppliers in Fisher Scientific’s program engaged especially actively, logging in about three times as often as the campaign as a whole and procuring EACs at a higher rate.

Supplier perspectives

Air Tite Products is a distributor of hypodermic medical supplies. As part of Thermo Fisher’s 2026 campaign, Air Tite made their first purchase of renewable energy, covering 100% of Scope 2 emissions, and now plans to continue to procure EACs annually.

“Thermo Fisher is leading the charge. We work with a number of big multinational distribution partners, but Thermo Fisher has been the one company that has made this an emphasis, and we appreciate that,” said William Foley, Air Tite’s Vice President of Strategic Initiatives. “Without this program, I don’t know if we would have bought EACs;” procuring through the act50 platform “is definitely something that is easy and worthwhile to do… all of the information was a click away, at our fingertips”.

Another first-time purchaser, E Com Seating, is a family-owned manufacturer of ergonomic chairs and stools for laboratories and controlled environments. Vice President of Operations, Amanda Johns, said “it was not nearly as expensive as we had anticipated” to procure 100% renewable energy. Taking part in TheThermo Fisher Supplier Renewable Electricity Program put E Com “ahead of the game” as sustainability becomes a larger factor in supplier selection and competitiveness.

Scaling reach and sustaining momentum

As the program grows, the focus is on two things: keeping current suppliers engaged as renewable energy procurement becomes part of how they operate, and bringing new suppliers into the fold as the program expands across the supply chian.

Quote from Sam Stark, CEO & Founder of Green Project.

“Suppliers don’t lack the will to act on emissions. What they lack is an easy way in. By pairing clear education with an easy procurement pathway, we're seeing hundreds of suppliers making meaningful progress and taking concrete steps towards renewable energy adoption to support their buyer’s goals.”