Four major companies commit to renewable energy

The four companies, General Motors, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, and Kinko, are part of the Green Power Market Development Group, a commercial and industrial partnership that aims to build corporate markets for green power. The Group is convened by the World Resources Institute (WRI), with other members including DuPont, Alcoa and Cargill Dow.

Current green projects funded by the Group encompass 50 different corporate facilities generating a total of 15 megawatts of green power – enough energy to power over 11,000 homes. These include the four latest initiatives announced by the Group: General Motors’ utilisation of gas from a landfill; IBM’s Minnesota and Texas facilities’ purchase of over 5.4 million kWh of green electricity per year; Johnson & Johnson’s solar photovoltaic systems on the rooftops of three buildings; and renewable power purchases at 42 branches of printing company, Kinko’s Inc.

“The projects announced today are the result of a tremendous effort over the past two years to build the business case and create cost-competitive green power,” said WRI President Jonathan Lash. “I congratulate the Group for its leadership on climate change and on advancing a clean energy future.”

“Procuring green power is an excellent way to extend and complement our ongoing energy efficiency initiatives which already have cut our CO2 emissions by 28% since 1990,” said IBM’s Vice President of Corporate Environmental Affairs and Product Safety, Wayne Balta.

“We are actively looking for additional green power sourcing opportunities,” said Randy Overbey, President of Alcoa’s Energy Division. “We hope to expand our use of green power by finding a workable mix of green power sources, market conditions, and policies which will make further use economically viable.”

The Group aims to create 1,000 megawatts of new green power for corporate markets by 2010.