Sterling Planet Gives 100%
The US Environmental Protection Agency is fulfilling its commitment to 100% renewable energy with help from Green-e certified renewable energy certificate dealer Sterling Planet.
The agreement between the EPA and the REC (renewable energy certificate) dealer to supply renewable energy kilowatt hours will meet 100 percent of the government agency’s annual electricity needs at more than 190 EPA facilities across the nation.
The move to renewable energy keeps the EPA as an active partner in the agency’s own Green Power Partnership, a voluntary program that promotes renewable energy. It also places the EPA among the top ten largest U.S. renewable energy purchasers alongside the US Air Force.
“At EPA, we don’t just talk the talk, we walk the walk,” said EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson when the agency announced its 100% greenup. The RECs purchase is meant to reduce emissions associated with non-renewable, dirtier electricity sources like coal. The EPA’s commitment will offset about 460 million pounds of carbon dioxide annually or the equivalent of emissions from 41,000 cars.
More than a feel-good offset, the EPA purchase is a significant investment in renewable energy. REC purchases help renewable energy companies invest in infrastructure, new projects and market energy at more competitive prices that are on par with the prices of subsidized energy industries.
Sterling Planet earned the contract by being a sustainability pioneer, having introduced the first nationwide retail renewable energy certificate choice in 2001 and White Tags™ energy efficiency certificates in 2006. Sales to date have averted more than 20 billion pounds of carbon emissions; in effect, neutralizing the carbon emissions of 1.9 million passenger cars for a year.
