EPA Recognizes Top 25 Green Power Purchasers
On July 30, EPA announced it has updated its Top Green Power Purchasers list highlighting organizations committed to purchasing green power. The National Top 25 list of Green Power Partners accounts for more than 6 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year of green power purchasing, more than 60 percent of the total kWh in the Green Power Partnership; reducing greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those of more than 700,000 vehicles.
"America is shifting to a 'green culture,' with more and more businesses understanding that environmental responsibility is everyone's responsibility," said Marcus Peacock, EPA's deputy administrator. "EPA commends the leading Green Power Partners for making a long-term commitment to protecting the environment."
EPA's National Top 25 list ranks two of Pepsi's three independent bottlers at fourth and 13th. Kohl's Department Stores increased its green power purchases to raise its ranking to eighth nationally, and Mohawk Fine Papers places on the list at 22nd.
The Pepsi bottler purchase demonstrates that a group of companies, tied together by a supply chain, can help protect the environment by buying green power. The total aggregate purchase of the three independent bottlers is nearly 629 million kWh per year. Two of the three bottlers rank on EPA?s National Top 25 list, and all three found placement on EPA?s 100 percent Green Power Purchaser list, while one bottler also ranks among the more than 45 Fortune 500 corporations participating in EPA?s Fortune 500 challenge.
EPA's Green Power Partnership, launched in 2001 and works with more than 750 partner organizations that voluntarily buy green power as a way to reduce the environmental impacts associated with conventional electricity use and to promote the development of new renewable generation resources nationwide. Overall, EPA Green Power Partners are buying more than 10 billion kWh of green power annually, an increase of nearly 163 percent since January 2006. Green power is generated from eligible renewable resources such as solar, wind, geothermal, biomass and biogas, as well as low-impact hydropower.
This article originally appeared in the 07/01/2007 issue of Environmental Protection.