Top 10 Green Energy Users — Ready for a Shock?

by Heidi Tolliver-Walker September 8, 2009, 4:53 PM 17 Comments

Have you ever been curious about the companies that use the most green power? Or that are 100% powered by wind? Such a list might change the way you think about making purchases, wouldn’t it?

Would it change the way you purchase soft drinks? Yogurt products? Financial services? If you knew that one company used 100% green power to manufacture, market, and sell its products, would it make you more inclined to purchase from it rather than another company? I don’t know about you, but it would me.

Such a list is compiled by the EPA’s Green Power Partnership.

But it’s not just wind power. The Green Power Partnership list compiles the list of top purchasers of green energy — period — which includes biomass, solar, and even geothermal, as well as wind.

Let’s take a look at the Top 10 green power users. But before I do, I want to warn you that there is a shocker in here. One of them is a paper company. Yes, the big, bad paper industry is represented among the top 10 users of green power in the country!

Here is a list of the top 10 green energy purchasers, the energy sources they use, and the percentage of their annual energy use that is purchased from green sources.

PepsiCo (various sources) — 100% power
Whole Foods (solar, wind) — 105% power
Dell (biogas, solar, wind) — 158% power
The Pepsi Bottling Group (various sources) — 100% power
U.S. EPA (biogas, biomass, geothermal, wind) — 100% power
Pepsi Americas (various) — 100% power
Vail Resorts (wind) — 100% power
The World Bank (wind) — 100% power
Mowhawk Fine Papers (wind) — 100% power
The Dannon Company (wind) — 100% power

For a complete listing, check out the Green Power Partners 100% Green Power Purchasers list.

Like this post? See all my “Greening Print Marketing” posts.

Image Source: Curtis Packaging

Written by Heidi Tolliver-Walker

Heidi Tolliver-Walker has been a commercial and digital printing industry analyst, feature writer, columnist, editor, and author for nearly 20 years. She is known for her meticulous research and no-nonsense perspective. In addition to having written thousands of industry articles for top industry publications, she and Richard Romano have been the face of the well-respected industry research firm The Industry Measure (TrendWatch Graphic Arts) for many years. In her more than 13-year tenure with the firm, she has written countless reports on digital printing, 1:1 (personalized) printing, Web-to-print, personalized URLs, and other hot industry applications. She is also a long-time contributing editor and columnist for Printing News, for which she writes two monthly columns, including "Personal Effects," which features monthly analysis of 1:1 (personalized) printing case studies. She is also the author of three titles for the National Association of Printing Leadership: Designer's Printing Companion, Ink & Color: A Printer's Guide, and Diversifying Via Value-Added Services. As a small, niche publisher (Strong Tower Publishing), she is active in utilizing these technologies in her own business, as well.