Sometime back, I decided to answer a question that had been dogging me. “If I did an Internet search, how many printers could I find who use 100% wind power?” I published the results here on The Inspired Economist. Since that time, I have asked the industry to provide feedback on printers I missed and I got lots of additions to my list.
There are two ways printers can use 100% wind power. They can purchase wind power from their utility companies directly. Or, if their utility company doesn’t directly purchase wind power, they can purchase Renewable Energy Credits from the company, which essentially has the same effect.
Here is the current list of printing companies I have collected that use one or the other to purchase 100% of their energy use from wind. As I noted last time, what’s interesting to me is that many of these companies’ commitments to wind power are not recent. Many of the announcements go back to 2006, and in the case of EcoPrint, it’s been using 100% wind since 2003.
- CPS Printing & Cordius Group—Carlsbad, CA
- Arizona Lithographers—Tuczon, AZ
- Curtis Packaging—Sandy Hook, CT
- EcoPrint—Silver Spring, MD
- EnvirofriendlyPrinting.com—Peetz, CO
- General Converting Inc.—Bollingbrook, IL
- Globe Lithographing—Ridgefield Park, NJ
- GreenerPrinter.com—Berkley, CA
- Herron Printing & Graphics—Gaithersburg, VA
- J. S. McCarthy Printers—Augusta, ME
- Johnson Printing & Packaging Corporation—Fridley, MN
- Merit Printing—Minneapolis, MN
- Monroe Litho—Rochester, NY
- MOSAIC Printing—Cheverly, MD
- PrintingForLess—Livingston, MT
- Quality Printing—Anderson, IN
- Recycled Paper Printing—Boston, MA
- Sandy Alexander—Clifton, NJ
Have one to add to my list? Send me an email at [email protected].
Like this post? See all of my “Greening Print Marketing” posts.
Photo: Courtesy of Curtis Packaging
We became a 100% wind-powered printer last fall when we purchased renewable energy credits. This has become a great feel-good idea for all of our employees, and has been a great marketing success as well.
Mike Stevenson, President
We became a 100% wind-powered printer last fall when we purchased renewable energy credits. This has become a great feel-good idea for all of our employees, and has been a great marketing success as well.
Mike Stevenson, President
Renewable Energy Credits, or “permission to pollute while paying a premium for electricity” is one step in the right direction, but is also one step backwards… which doesn’t really mean anything in the long run.
Phoenix Press of New Haven, CT owns a Northwind 100kw wind turbine (being built in Vermont now), and it will be installed on-site in Winter ’09-’10. Phoenix Press will be producing its own power, enough each year to offset $40,000 of electricity usage, or about 1/3 of its annual usage. Because Connecticut has the highest electrical rates of all 50 US states, this investment into an ON-SITE turbine is significant.
Phoenix Press is located at the mouth of the Quinnipiac and Mill Rivers, at New Haven Harbor, the 3rd busiest harbor in New England. The turbine will be seen by the 125,000 daily drivers on I-95 and will not contribute to the region’s most polluted air.
It’s one thing to say “we get 100% of our power from wind” yet quite another to say “we produce renewable energy WITH A TURBINE WE OWN AND OPERATE.” Phoenix Press will NOT sell its RECs, and has tentative plans to offer a recharging station for employee-owned electric cars at the base of the turbine.
100% wind power should not be the goal. It should, however be the goal to produce renewable energy AT THE POINT OF USE, to minimize transmission losses and claims of “I use renewable energy” from casual REC-purchasers. It’s like someone saying “I drink only water from aquifers.” But if that water is pumped out of the ground of an ISLAND, say, FIJI, then shipped by cargo ship to Mainland USA, then trucked across to NYC, how efficient is that process?
Renewable Energy Credits, or “permission to pollute while paying a premium for electricity” is one step in the right direction, but is also one step backwards… which doesn’t really mean anything in the long run.
Phoenix Press of New Haven, CT owns a Northwind 100kw wind turbine (being built in Vermont now), and it will be installed on-site in Winter ’09-’10. Phoenix Press will be producing its own power, enough each year to offset $40,000 of electricity usage, or about 1/3 of its annual usage. Because Connecticut has the highest electrical rates of all 50 US states, this investment into an ON-SITE turbine is significant.
Phoenix Press is located at the mouth of the Quinnipiac and Mill Rivers, at New Haven Harbor, the 3rd busiest harbor in New England. The turbine will be seen by the 125,000 daily drivers on I-95 and will not contribute to the region’s most polluted air.
It’s one thing to say “we get 100% of our power from wind” yet quite another to say “we produce renewable energy WITH A TURBINE WE OWN AND OPERATE.” Phoenix Press will NOT sell its RECs, and has tentative plans to offer a recharging station for employee-owned electric cars at the base of the turbine.
100% wind power should not be the goal. It should, however be the goal to produce renewable energy AT THE POINT OF USE, to minimize transmission losses and claims of “I use renewable energy” from casual REC-purchasers. It’s like someone saying “I drink only water from aquifers.” But if that water is pumped out of the ground of an ISLAND, say, FIJI, then shipped by cargo ship to Mainland USA, then trucked across to NYC, how efficient is that process?
Being in a home based business is great, thanks for your content, I’ll be back soon for more!
Being in a home based business is great, thanks for your content, I’ll be back soon for more!
We thought this was a great idea and recently starting purchasing wind credits since we don’t have anywhere to put a windmill in the middle of Pittsburgh. So far not too many have asked for the wind power logos, but we think it’s important for the environment.
Unless there is a wind turbine on their property or miraculously
connected to one, they are not running a business on wind power. They
may be purchasing credits to offset their power usage. But the semantics
seem intentionally misleading.