Top 50 Green Power Partners

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recently released their latest list of top green partners in their Green Power Partnership program. In case you haven’t heard of this program, it’s a voluntary program that allows companies to buy green power which can help reduce the environmental impacts of electricity use. Also this program’s funds go to support the development of new renewable generation capacity nationwide.

Topping out the list this time around is Intel Corporation, followed closely by PepsiCo, Kohl’s Department Stores, Dell Inc., and Whole Foods Market. The EPA notes about the list, that currently, “Combined, these top 50 largest purchases amount to nearly 11.8 billion kilowatt-hours annually, which represents more than 70 percent of the green power commitments made by all EPA Green Power Partners.”

Does it matter to consumers:

Sort of. On on hand it’s smart to support companies who buy into green power because it’s a mark of a company actually doing something that’s not only green-minded, but easy to track (i.e. something consumers can see) and useful for the environment. On the other hand, you have to personally decide if this green step taken by a company makes them green enough for you, or if this step is simply something to make up for other green sins, i.e. producing potentially harmful toxins like bleach laden products.

As one example, Kimberly-Clark Corporation made the top 50 list, and that’s cool. Their annual green power (Biomass) usage (kWh) is 223,000,000. Obviously that’s a good deal. However, they also cut down countless trees each year to produce their products. So are they green? Not so much in my opinion. Does it help that they buy into green energy? Sure some, but so do other companies who also have other eco-standards in place.

These sorts of lists can help you make decisions about which companies to support, but keep in mind that being a good green consumer is much more in-depth than simply checking out one list.

See the entire top 50 list.