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Contacting EPA's Green
Power Partnership

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Green Power Planet #35
December 19, 2011

In this edition of the Green Power Planet:

EPA’s Green Power Partnership Recognizes 19 Partners for Their Green Power Use

On November 16, EPA recognized 19 Partners, including two Green Power Communities, with Green Power Leadership Awards for their leadership, commitment, and contribution to helping advance the nation’s voluntary green power market. The Green Power Partnership (GPP) presented the awards in conjunction with the Renewable Energy Markets Conference held November 15-18 in San Francisco.

photo: 2011 Green Power Leadership Award winners

2011 Green Power Leadership Award winners.
Photo courtesy of Trish Tunney.

Partner of the Year recognizes Partners that distinguish themselves through their purchase, leadership, overall strategy, and impact on the green power market.

On-site Generation recognizes Partners that stand out by using on-site renewable energy applications.

Green Power Purchasing recognizes Partners that distinguish themselves through purchases of green power from a utility green-pricing program, a competitive green marketer, or a renewable energy certificate (REC) supplier.

Green Power Community of the Year recognizes GPCs that distinguish themselves through their green power usage, leadership, citizen engagement, renewable energy strategy, and impact on the green power market.

Congratulations to all our Green Power Leadership Award Winners! To learn more about this year’s winners, visit the 2011 Award Winners Web page.

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Welcome New Partners!

Welcome to the 45 organizations that have recently joined GPP (as of December 1, 2011):

Architecture Services: SWT Design (Mo.)

Banking & Fin. Services: NYSE Euronext (N.Y.)

Consulting Services: AECOM / San Francisco Office (Calif.)

Consumer Products: Dow Corning Corporation / Midland, MI Corporate Center (Mich.)

Education (Higher): George Mason University (Va.), Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (Penn.), University of Oklahoma (Okla.)

Education (K-12): The Brearley School (N.Y.)

Educational (Other): Eliot School of Fine and Applied Arts (Mass.)

Food & Beverage: 4C Foods Corp. (N.Y.), Michele's Granola (Md.), Price Chopper Supermarkets (N.Y.)

Govt. (Local, Municipal): City of Edmond (Okla.)

Health Care: William F. Ryan Community Health Center (N.Y.)

Industrial Goods & Services: Goodrich Corporation / Landing Gear Division, Tullahoma, TN (Tenn.)

Information Technology: CUB Enterprises (Fla.), Ingram Micro, Inc. / Headquarters, Santa Ana, CA (Calif.), Island Joe Group (Md.), SoftLayer Technologies, Inc. (Texas), Studio eBusiness (Texas), Supplylogix Inc. (Texas)

Insurance: Hartford Fire Insurance Company (Conn.)

Legal Services: Chapman and Cutler LLP (Ill.)

Printing: Broudy Printing Inc. (Pa.), Doyle Printing (Md.), Prime Time Thermographics (Ariz.), Summit Press, Inc. (Mass.)

Real Estate: 1225 North Loop Investments, Inc. (Texas), Mississippi Avenue Lofts (Ore.)

Restaurants & Food Services: Artichoke Café (N.Y.), B Side Bar (N.Y.), Bare Burger / 4 Stores (N.Y.), Belga Café (D.C.), Panera Bread / Maryland Locations (Md.), Shake Shack (N.Y.), Stonehome Wine Bar (N.Y.), Wacky Wok NYC (N.Y.)

Retail: Big City Records (N.Y.), Custom Value Kitchens (N.Y.), Downtown Yarns (N.Y.), Nunu Chocolates (N.Y.), Pink Olive Inc. (N.Y.), Seward Park Liquors (N.Y.), Sustainable NYC (N.Y.), Triple JD Discount Pet Food + Supply Inc. (N.Y.)

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October Top Partner List Updates

On October 24, GPP updated its Top Partner Lists. The National Top 50 list reflects large increases in purchases by the City of Austin, TX (No. 7), Hilton Worldwide (No. 9), City of Philadelphia, PA (No. 35), and Carnegie Mellon University (No. 36). Newcomers to the National Top 50 included Boeing / South Carolina (No. 33), NYSE Euronext (No. 34), and Google Inc. (No. 47).

The University of Oklahoma (No. 9) appeared on the Top 20 College & University list for the first time, and Pratt (No. 12) climbed onto the Top 20 Printers list. Notable additions to the Top 20 Retail list included Price Chopper Supermarkets (No. 18) and Panera Bread / Maryland Locations (No. 19). Additions to the F500® Partners list included facility-level Partners from The Dow Chemical Company (No. 44), Amerigroup Corporation (No. 46), AT&T Services, Inc. (No. 52), and Ingram Micro, Inc. (No. 61).

For a complete list of all Top Partner Rankings, visit www.epa.gov/greenpower/toplists/index.htm.

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Reminder: Deadline for January Top Partner Lists Update

GPP will next update the Top Partner Lists on January 31, 2012. In order to be included, green power usage updates must be submitted no later than January 5, 2012. Please contact your account manager if you would like to submit an update.

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Green Power Community Challenge Rankings: March 2012 Update Deadline

On December 8, GPP updated its 2011-2012 Green Power Community (GPC) Challenge rankings. Washington, D.C. and Brookeville, Md. held onto the top spots for largest green power purchase and highest green power percentage, respectively. The GPC Challenge rankings will next be updated in March 2012. If your community is competing for a top spot, please be sure to provide your account manager with information about your community’s current green power activities. In September 2012, EPA will announce the communities with the highest total green power usage and highest percentage of green power use.

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Special Advertising Opportunity: Businessweek Magazine (Deadline: March 13)

Thumbnail of the article in April 25, 2011 Bloomberg Businessweek.The Green Power Partnership is pleased to once again offer Partners an opportunity to participate in an EPA-branded paid advertising supplement in Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine. EPA will be sponsoring a supplement in the magazine's April 23, 2012 issue to coincide with Earth Day. The deadline to submit materials to the magazine is March 13. If you would like more information about this opportunity, including pricing, please contact Jordan Hyman (jhyman10@bloomberg.com) at 212-617-3709.


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Partner Spotlight: Green House Data

photo: Green House Data server bank

Green House Data's Wyoming data center uses a hot aisle/cold aisle containment system that improves energy efficiency by preventing hot air exhausted by the servers from mixing with the cold air needed to cool them.

Green House Data logoGreen House Data is a data center committed to purchasing 100 percent renewable energy to power its cloud hosting, co-location and managed hosting facility. When Green House Data joined GPP in August 2007, the company had not yet made a green power purchase. In 2008, it made its first purchase of 120,000 kWh of wind power, equivalent to its annual electricity consumption at that time. Since this initial commitment, Green House Data’s green power purchase has grown in step with the company’s operations to nearly 2 million kWh, or 100 percent of its current power usage. In 2011, Green House Data was inducted into the Green Power Leadership Club in recognition of its exemplary green power purchasing.

Green House Data is setting an example for the data center industry in its use of efficient renewable energy. The company’s actions are particularly relevant now, as global data center capacity is rapidly expanding, and greenhouse gas emissions from data centers are expected to quadruple by 2020.* To learn more about Green House Data’s green power leadership and watch a video about its environmental initiatives, please visit their website. Exit EPA Disclaimer For more information about data center efficiency and best practices, visit the Department of Energy’s Resources on Data Center Energy Efficiency Exit EPA Disclaimer Web page.

* Reference: Kaplan, J., W. Forrest and N. Kindler. Revolutionizing Data Center Energy Efficiency. McKinsey & Company (PDF). Exit EPA Disclaimer (15p., 451K, About PDF) 2008.

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REMA Launches 5 Year Renewable Energy Pledge

5 Year Renewable Energy Pledge logo The Renewable Energy Markets Association (REMA) launched the 5 Year Renewable Energy Pledge in November to reward companies that make long-term green power purchases. Partners that pledge to make voluntary green power purchases for five consecutive years at GPP’s Green Power Leadership Club level can earn a host of benefits, including special marketing opportunities from REMA, exclusive updates on legislative activities related to green power, and discounts on multi-year Green-e marketplace certification fees. For more information, please visit the 5 Year Pledge website at www.renewablemarketers.org/thepledge/takethepledge.asp.Exit EPA Disclaimer



Billion Dollar Green Challenge Launched

On October 11, the Billion Dollar Green Challenge Exit EPA Disclaimer was launched at the AASHE 2011 conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which GPP attended. The goal of the Challenge is to encourage colleges and universities to invest a total of $1 billion in self-managed green revolving funds to finance energy efficiency retrofits on their campuses. GPP is providing funding for the project, which evolved from a report called Greening the Bottom Line, Exit EPA Disclaimer published by the Sustainable Endowments Institute (SEI) in February 2011. In April, GPP hosted a webinar on the topic highlighting the strong return on investment from energy efficiency improvements and exploring the experience of one Green Power Partner in particular. A survey conducted by SEI found a median annual return on investment of 32 percent from existing green revolving funds.

U.S. Solar Jobs Soar in 2011

A report by the Solar Foundation entitled National Solar Jobs Census 2011: A Review of the U.S. Solar Workforce Exit EPA Disclaimer found that jobs in the U.S. solar industry increased by 6.8 percent in the year to August 2011, nearly 10 times faster than the economy as a whole. Solar projects now employ more than 100,000 people across more than 17,000 sites in all 50 states. The National Solar Jobs Census 2011 also found that solar employers expect to increase the number of solar workers by 24 percent, representing nearly 24,000 net new jobs by August 2012. The survey was conducted by The Solar Foundation and BW Research Partnership's Green LMI Consulting division with technical assistance from Cornell University.

Source: The Solar Foundation. "U.S. Solar Jobs Census Finds Solar Employment Soars as Economy Lags (PDF)." (2pp., 104K) Exit EPA Disclaimer 10/17/2011.

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Upcoming Events

This conference is targeted at facility and sustainability professionals at hospitals, universities, municipalities, industrials, and commercial real-estate owners who seek to develop or invest in distributed and renewable energy on-site. The Green Power Partnership will be presenting at the conference. To arrange to meet with a GPP representative at this conference, please contact Blaine Collison (collison.blaine@epa.gov) or 202-343-9139.

The Green Power Partnership will be presenting at the conference. To arrange to meet with a GPP representative at this conference, please contact Blaine Collison (collison.blaine@epa.gov) or 202-343-9139.

This event is designed to bring together researchers, entrepreneurs, investors, corporate executives, and government officials to share ideas for developing and deploying the next generation of clean energy technologies.

GPP Webinars

Upcoming

"Making an Impact on Energy Use in Your Community: EPA's Green Power Communities and Local Climate and Energy Program" Webinar – January 18, 2012, 1:00 – 2:15 EST
GPP will co-host a webinar with EPA’s State and Local Climate and Energy Program to highlight how municipalities from around the country are leveraging EPA programs to reduce the impacts of their communities’ energy use. EPA program managers will discuss the Green Power Community and Climate Showcase Communities programs as well as the tools and resources these programs offer participating communities. Representatives from two EPA Green Power Communities – Washington, DC and Corvallis, Oregon – will present information on their Green Power Community experience; Corvallis will also discuss its Climate Showcase activities. Registration is available on GPP’s Events & Webinars Web page.

Green Health Care Webinar – To be scheduled
GPP will host a webinar that explores the use of green power within the health care sector. The webinar will include case studies from Green Power Partners in health care industry. Please check back soon for registration details.

Project Alignment Webinar (Round 2) – To be scheduled
GPP will host the second in a series of webinars designed to connect Green Power Partners to unique renewable energy projects. The first of these webinars was held on November 10th (see below for more information). Please check back soon for registration details.

Past

Long-Term Green Power Contracts Webinar
On October 26, GPP hosted a webinar on long-term green power contracts. This webinar covered information on long-term green power contracts for commercial and institutional purchasers by providing two case studies. Mary Ellen Mika, Supply Chain Manager with Steelcase, and Robert Taylor, Energy Manager with the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, both spoke about their facilities’ long-term green power contracts. Presentations from this webinar can be accessed on GPP’s website.

Partner-Project Matching Pilot Webinar
On November 10, GPP hosted a webinar on "Aligning Green Power Partners with New Renewable Energy Projects." The webinar provided a forum for attendees to learn about new, not-yet-built renewable energy projects that may align with their energy, environmental, and financial objectives. The webinar featured nine short project presentations from renewable energy developers as well as a question and answer session. Information on the nine projects presented during this webinar can be accessed on GPP’s website.

For this webinar, GPP received a total of 27 individual proposals submitted on behalf of 22 different project developers in response to its call for projects. Details on all 27 submissions are available on GPP’s Aligning Green Power Partners with New Renewable Energy Projects Pilot Web page.

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Welcome New GPP Communications Director

Mollie Lemon recently joined GPP as the new Communications Director. Mollie comes to GPP after working with EPA’s Stratospheric Protection Division for the last several years. Mollie will oversee communications for the Partnership, as well as the program website, partnership recognition opportunities, and other program issues.

Please feel free to contact Mollie (lemon.mollie@epa.gov, 202-343-9859) with questions.

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Contacting EPA’s Green Power Partnership

Please feel free to contact the Green Power Partnership:

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
The Green Power Partnership
Fax: 202-343-2208
Web site: www.epa.gov/greenpower

Program Director - Blaine Collison (collison.blaine@epa.gov or 202-343-9139)
Communications - Mollie Lemon (lemon.mollie@epa.gov or 202-343-9859)

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