Green Power Partnership Program Updates Issue 21
Issue 21, June 17, 2014
- Partner Spotlight: Powdr
- GPP Launches Green Power Use Map
- Check Out the New #EPAGreenPower Twitter Widget!
- Welcome New Green Power Partners!
- Revision to Green Power Partnership Reporting
- Reminder: Top Partner Rankings Data Deadline July 1
- Green Power Community Challenge Rankings Update June 30
- Did You Know?
- Renewable Energy Markets Conference Call for Abstracts Open
- Climate Leadership Awards Application Period Opens June 24
- Past Issues
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Partner Spotlight: Powdr
Headquartered in Park City, Utah, Powdr is a leading mountain resort and actions sports camp owner-operator, as well as an active lifestyle company. Powdr joined the Green Power Partnership in April 2008 and received EPA Green Power Leadership Awards in 2008 and 2013.
Q. Why did Powdr decide to use green power? What do you see as the benefits of using green power and what role does it play in Powdr's broader business and environmental strategy?
A. Powdr Resorts are environmental and winter recreation stewards. As this is one of our core values, we seek opportunities to minimize our environmental impact and spread the word about company-wide sustainability programs and initiatives. Our use of green power plays an important role in reducing our carbon footprint. Our support of the green energy industry helps it continue to grow which allows for less dependence on energy production that is more harmful to our environment.
Q. Is Powdr currently striving to achieve a green power goal? What steps are being taken to reach it?
A. Our goal was to have 100 percent of our power use provided by green power. We achieved that goal several years ago by purchasing 80,000 megawatt-hours of green power annually.
Q. Describe any innovative green power strategies Powdr has implemented or is planning. Do you have any upcoming projects or strategies that relate to Powdr's green power usage?
A. Ski resorts use a lot of power and we realize that installing green power projects that are big enough to supply all of our power needs at our individual resorts isn't realistic. This has led us to purchase renewable energy certificates as our leading green power tool. However, we have installed several small solar thermal, solar PV and small wind turbines on our resorts. We have also completed four individual feasibility studies on micro hydropower generation, biomass, large solar installation, and power generation from waste heat.
Q. What are two or three lessons you've learned in making the switch to green power or in increasing your green power use?
A. Our focus on carbon footprint reduction requires a comprehensive program, which includes recycling/waste management, fuel use reduction and alternatives, HVAC, and consideration of our natural environment. We work hard to reduce every aspect of energy use with best practices, i.e., measure, monitor and manage.
Purchasing green power and installing small generating projects are great ways to reduce our carbon footprint and great ways to educate our guests on these technologies. And guests learn that reducing their energy use and generating green power will save them money. On-site projects give our guests the opportunity to see what the projects look like and how they work. Our hope with the small on-site projects is to give others the incentive to do the same at their home or business.
Q. What advice would you give to other organizations interested in using green power, and is there anything you would do differently?
A. There will be successes and there will be things that aren't really failures but certainly are not as successful. What you do doesn't have to be huge but you should do something. Every little bit helps and every small step makes the next step easier. The excitement comes when you actually see the real return on your investment financially, socially and environmentally.
Read more about Powdr's green power and sustainability efforts here.
GPP Launches Green Power Use Map
GPP has developed the Green Power Use Map as a visual representation of the Green Power Partnership's more than 1,300 Partners and their respective green power use. The map's color intensity increases proportional to the geographic density of Partners and the volume of a Partner's green power use. Check out the map to see the green power activity near you.
Check Out the New #EPAGreenPower Twitter Widget!
Wondering what people are saying about EPA's Green Power Partnership? The GPP homepage now hosts a Twitter widget showing tweets that feature the #EPAGreenPower hashtag. Follow the conversation, and join in with your own #EPAGreenPower tweets!
Welcome New Green Power Partners!
Nearly 60 organizations have joined the Green Power Partnership since March 4, 2014 (as of June 6, 2014). The GPP welcomes the organizations below.
- Automotive: Bedford Motorsports Properties (N.H.), Bond Auto Parts (Vt.)
- Chemical: Boston Analytical (N.H.)
- Construction & Engineering Services: Fibernext LLC (N.H.), Kluber Lubrication North America, LP (N.H.)
- Consumer Products: Colgate-Palmolive Company (N.Y.), Labcon North America (Calif.)
- Education (Higher): Assumption College (Mass.), Lebanon Valley College (Pa.), Lewis and Clark Community College (Ill.)
- Education (K-12): Friends Academy (N.Y.), Horace Mann School / John Dorr Nature Laboratory (Conn.), Marin Country Day School (Calif.), Phillips Academy / Eaton Cottage Dormitory (Mass.), Spectrum Charter School, Inc. (Pa.), St. Thomas Aquinas School (N.H.), Waldorf School of Baltimore (Md.)
- Food & Beverage: Organic Valley / CROPP Cooperative (Wisc.), PepsiCo / Tolleson Gatorade Facility (Ariz.)
- Government (Local, Municipal): City of Evanston (Ill.), City of Las Vegas (Nev.), City of Oak Ridge (Tenn.), Town of Hanover (N.H.), Town of Raymond (N.H.)
- Health Care: Daniel Webster Animal Hospital (N.H.)
- Hotels & Lodging: The Port Inn (N.H.)
- Industrial Goods & Services: Bacon Felt (N.H.), Cooper Products (N.H.), Peterboro Tool (N.H.), Rapid Finishing (N.H.), Rol-Vac (Conn.), Stone Machine Co. Inc. (N.H.)
- Non-Profit (NGO): June Key Delta Community Center (Ore.)
- Other: Granite State Analytical (N.H.)
- Printing & Packaging: Alpha Graphics (N.H.), Dartmouth Printing Company (N.H.)
- Real Estate: 121 Associates Limited Partnership (Md.), Congressional Associates Limited Partnership (Md.), Congressional Village Associates, LLC (Md.), Freehold Management, Inc. (Tex.), Irvine Company Office Properties (Calif.), Kendal at Hanover (N.H.), Stock Realty Trust LLC (N.H.)
- Religious: First Jefferson Unitarian Universalist Church (Tex.)
- Restaurants & Cafes: Ben's Chili Bowl (D.C.), Ben's Next Door (D.C.), Ever Better Eating, Inc. (N.H.), Open City (D.C.), sweetgreen / Washington, DC and College Park, MD Locations (D.C.), The Diner (D.C.), Tryst (D.C.), Tuesday Night Supper Club dba Salt Hill Pub (N.H.)
- Retail: Premium-USA & Xianke.us (Wash.), The Co-op Food Stores / Hanover (N.H.), The Herbal Path (N.H.)
- Shipping: Apex Express (Texas), DHL (Fla.)
- Transportation: Willsboro Bay Marina, Inc. (N.Y.)
Revision to Green Power Partnership Reporting
In an effort to increase program transparency, beginning June 30, 2014, organizations joining the EPA's Green Power Partnership will be required to provide the reporting period of their green power use. Previously, providing this information was optional. Current partners that have not shared their reporting periods will be asked to do so on their next annual report. As an example, a Partner who reported their green power use for calendar year 2013 would have a Reporting Period Start Date of 01/01/2013 and a Reporting Period End Date of 12/31/2013. In addition, partner reporting periods and dates of receipt of annual reports to the GPP will be displayed on partner profile pages on the GPP website.
Reminder: Top Partner Rankings Data Deadline July 1
The Green Power Partnership will release updated Top Partner Rankings July 28, which will be the third update of 2014. If your organization's green power use has recently changed, please submit any updates to your account manager no later than COB Tuesday, July 1 in order for the updated data to be reflected in the Top Partner Rankings update. If your organization's green power use has not changed, there is no need to submit an update.
To review the most current rankings, visit the top partner rankings.
Green Power Community Challenge Rankings Update June 30
On Monday, June 30, EPA's Green Power Partnership will update its 2013-2014 Green Power Community (GPC) Challenge Rankings. As of the last rankings update on April 21, Washington, DC uses the most green power of any GPC, with an annual green power usage of 1,098,344,083 kilowatt-hours (kWh). Oak Park, Illinois retains its top spot for highest green power percentage of total electricity use, at 91.9 percent. New to the Partnership and rankings will be the communities of Alton, IL and the County of Marin, CA- welcome!
GPCs are towns, villages, cities, counties, or tribal governments in which the local government, businesses, and residents collectively use green power in amounts that meet or exceed EPA's Green Power Community purchase requirements.
EPA will make the final update to the 2013-2014 Challenge rankings in late September, concluding this year's Challenge and recognizing two winning Green Power Communities — the one with the most green power use, and the one with the highest green power percentage of total electricity use.
Did You Know?
EPA's newly proposed Clean Power Plan will help cut carbon pollution from the power sector by approximately 30 percent from 2005 levels nationwide, which will lead to climate and health benefits worth an estimated $55 billion to $93 billion per year in 2030. This includes avoiding 2,700 to 6,600 premature deaths and 140,000 to 150,000 asthma attacks in children.
The proposed rule, information about how to comment and supporting technical information are available online.
On Twitter? Post this fact: .@EPA's #CleanPowerPlan will cut carbon pollution by approx 30 percent from 2005 levels—learn more @ epa.gov/cleanpowerplan
Renewable Energy Markets Conference Call for Abstracts Open
The deadline for the 2014 Renewable Energy Markets (REM) Conference Call for Abstracts is June 30, 2014 at 5 pm PT. Conference organizers are accepting proposals on the following topics: Organizations Using Renewable Energy, Project Development, Marketing Renewable Energy, Policy and Legal Issues, Markets and Trading, and Bundled Electricity Products. To submit a proposal or learn more, visit: http://www.renewableenergymarkets.com/call-for-abstracts.
REM is co-sponsored by the EPA and is focused on the states, businesses, organizations, and households that choose clean, renewable electricity every day. This year, REM will be held December 2 - 4, 2014 in Sacramento, CA. Registration for the conference opens later this summer.
Climate Leadership Awards Application Period Opens June 24
The application period for the 2015 Climate Leadership Awards will open on June 24, 2014. EPA's Center for Corporate Climate Leadership will host a webinar on the 24th to open the application period and provide information related to eligibility, evaluation criteria, and application content for each of the award categories, as well answer questions.
For more information about and to register for the webinar, entitled "Climate Leadership Awards: A Review of 2015 Categories, Eligibility, Criteria, and the Application Process," visit EPA Center for Corporate Climate Leadership page.
