by Brianna Crandall — April 28, 2014—The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Green Power Partnership (GPP) released an updated list on April 23 of the National Top 100 organizations that are choosing to use electricity from clean, renewable sources like wind and solar power, as well as top green power partner lists for various sectors and the winners of the College and University Green Power Challenge.
Placing No. 1 in the Top 100, Intel Corporation continues its seven-year run as the nation’s largest voluntary user of green power, meeting 100 percent of its electricity load with renewable resources. Other technology companies in the top 10 in the nation include Microsoft Corporation, Google Inc., and Apple Inc. Apple increased its annual green power use by nearly 100 million kilowatt-hours (kWh), moving from No. 11 to No. 8 on the list.
In total, the combined green power usage of these Top 100 Partners amounts to nearly 24 billion kWh annually, which represents close to 83 percent of the green power commitments made by all EPA Green Power Partners. The list is calculated based on annual green power usage (in kilowatt-hours) by Green Power Partners.
The top 10 partners appearing on the National Top 100 list are:
- Intel Corporation (Santa Clara, CA)
- Kohl’s Department Stores (Menomonee Falls, WI)
- Microsoft Corporation (Redmond, WA)
- Whole Foods Market (Austin, TX)
- Google Inc. (Mountain View, CA)
- Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (Bentonville, AR)
- Staples (Framingham, MA)
- Apple Inc. (Cupertino, CA)
- City of Houston, Texas
- U.S. Department of Energy (Washington, DC)
In addition, for the eighth year in a row, EPA is encouraging increased green power use among higher education institutions through the College and University Green Power Challenge. Out of the 33 competing conferences, the Big 10 is this year’s conference champion, collectively using more than 309 million kWh of green power annually and avoiding carbon pollution equal to that produced by the electricity use of more than 30,000 American homes. The University of Pennsylvania continues to be the top individual school in the challenge for the seventh year in a row, purchasing more than 200 million kWh of wind power annually—more green power than any of the 78 other competing schools.
EPA also recently announced that in support of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan, the Green Power Partnership is launching the On-site Renewables Challenge, with a goal to double the use of on-site green power by partners by the end of the decade. As part of the Challenge, EPA invites partners to increase the amount of energy they produce and use from on-site renewables by the end of the decade.
Green power is a subset of renewable energy and represents the renewable energy resources and technologies that provide the highest environmental benefit. EPA defines green power as electricity produced from solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, eligible biomass, and low-impact small hydroelectric sources.
As part of EPA’s Green Power Partnership, more than 1,200 organizations are purchasing more than 28 billion kilowatt-hours of green power annually, avoiding carbon pollution equal to that created by the electricity use of more than 2.4 million American homes. The partnership provides quarterly updated Top Partner Rankings of companies and organizations using green power in the following categories: Fortune 500, Retail, Technology and Telecommunications, Local Government, College and University, and K-12 Schools, among others.
