The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) and Solar Stewardship Initiative (SSI) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to drive sustainability, transparency, and resilience across supply chains serving the solar and wind energy industries.
SSI and GWEC have signed an MoU seeking to strengthen sustainability and transparency in renewables supply chains. © 2025 Global Wind Energy Council
As the world scales up the deployment of renewables to drive the energy transition and meet global climate goals, ensuring responsible sourcing and production of solar and wind components is critical. GWEC is actively working to establish a dedicated multistakeholder initiative for the wind sector – the Wind Sustainability Initiative (WSI) – inspired by the SSI model, which will drive industry-wide ESG and traceability standards.
Both sectors are growing rapidly to meet global demand, and the MoU aims to ensure that this growth does not compromise the ethical and environmental standards that the industry bodies stand for. Their partnership will help align best practices, enable knowledge exchange, and drive coordinated action to uphold these standards, demonstrating their collective commitment to responsible growth. This in turn will support project financing and allow developers and utilities to expand confidently, without concerns about possible future compliance or sanction risks.
Under the terms of the agreement, the SSI and GWEC will work together to:
- Support GWEC in the development of Sustainability Standards for the wind sector, within the WSI framework
- Promote harmonised standards for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices and traceability across the solar and wind industries, while recognising sector-specific needs
- Facilitate knowledge exchange by leveraging the SSI’s established ESG and Traceability Standards to support the wind sector in the development of its own sustainability assurance framework
- Strengthen multi-stakeholder governance by engaging key industry representatives, civil society organisations, and financial institutions
- Accelerate the adoption of responsible sourcing practices across global renewable energy supply chains.
The Solar Stewardship Initiative (SSI) is a leading multi-stakeholder initiative dedicated to fostering responsible production, sourcing, and stewardship in the solar value chain. It unites industry leaders, civil society, international finance and independent experts to set new benchmarks for sustainability and accountability in the solar sector.
For more information visit www.solarstewardshipinitiative.org
Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) is a member-based organisation that represents the whole wind energy sector. The members of GWEC represent over 1 500 companies, organisations and institutions in more than 80 countries, including manufacturers, developers, component suppliers, research institutes, national wind and renewables associations, electricity providers, finance and insurance companies.
For more information visit gwec.net
