EPA Announces Top 25 Corporate Purchasers Of Green Power

Last week, the U.S. EPA announced its quarterly list of organizations that purchase electricity generated from clean, renewable resources such as solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, biomass, and low-impact hydro. EPA’s Green Power Partnership is comprised of an array of organizations that voluntarily purchase green power as a way to reduce the environmental impacts associated with conventional electricity use.

Current Green Power Partners are purchasing more than 7 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of renewable energy, an increase of nearly 240% since the end of 2004. This amount of kilowatt hours is equivalent to the energy needed to power more than 500,000 average American homes annually.

The EPA states that green power currently accounts for nearly 2% of America’s electricity supply and that voluntary purchases play an important role in accelerating the development of new renewable energy sources nationwide.

Once again, the U.S. Air Force leads the national green power top 25 list, purchasing more than 1 billion kWh annually for Air Force bases across the country. Whole Foods Market was ranked third behind newcomer Wells Fargo. The U.S. EPA was ranked fourth with Johnson & Johnson rounding out the top five.

New to the top 25 list was the number two purchaser, Wells Fargo & Company, making it the lagest U.S. corporate purchaser of green power. Over the next three years, Wells Fargo will purchase 550 million kWh of clean, renewable energy, an amount that totals nearly 40% of Wells Fargo’s electricity use. This purchase will prevent the emissions of more than 380,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year–the equivalent of carbon dioxide emissions from more than 75,000 cars.

The complete list of Top 25 EPA Green Power Partners is as follows, listed in order of purchase size:

1. U.S. Air Force
2. Wells Fargo & Company
3. Whole Foods Market
4. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
5. Johnson & Johnson
6. Starbucks
7. DuPont Company
8. U.S. Department of Energy
9. Vail Resorts, Inc.
10. HSBC North America
11. University of Pennsylvania
12. The World Bank Group
13. IBM Corporation
14. Sprint Nextel
15. Safeway Inc.
16. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
17. The Tower Companies
18. U.S. General Services Administration / Region 2
19. California State University System
20. Staples
21. City of Austin, Texas
22. City of San Diego, Calif.
23. Natureworks LLC
24. FedEx Kinko’s
25. Duke University

For more on the list and EPA’s Green Power Program, visit: www.epa.gov/greenpower/partners/top25.htm