EPA Awards PepsiCo For Leading Purchase Of Green Power

EPA Recognizes PepsiCo’s Leadership among Nation’s Largest Purchasers of Green Power

PepsiCo has received a 2007 Green Power Leadership award from the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which recognizes leading national green power purchasers for their commitment and contribution to helping advance the development of the nation’s green power market. PepsiCo purchased more than 1 billion kilowatt-hours of green power annually, which currently places the company as the largest purchaser of green power in the nation among EPA Green Power Partners. The Green Power Partner of the Year Award was presented at an awards event on Monday evening, in conjunction with the Twelfth National Renewable Marketing Conference taking place in Philadelphia, PA.

“We are deeply honored to receive this prestigious EPA award for our green power purchases,” said John Compton, chief executive officer, PepsiCo North America. “The purchase of renewable energy certificates is one of the important environmental steps we have taken as part of PepsiCo’s ”Performance with Purpose“ sustainability vision, which is our commitment to making a positive contribution to the communities we serve across the country and around the world.”

EPA presented awards for green power purchasing to 17 organizations that are EPA Green Power Partners that have demonstrated leadership by voluntarily purchasing green power. EPA is recognizing green power Purchasers in three categories: Green Power Partner of the Year, On-site Generation and Green Power Purchasing. EPA’s Green Power Partnership is a voluntary program that encourages organizations to purchase green power as a way to reduce the environmental impacts associated with electricity use.

“America is shifting to a ’green culture’, with more and more businesses understanding that environmental responsibility is everyone’s responsibility,” said Marcus Peacock, EPA’s Deputy Administrator. ”EPA commends the Green Power Leadership Award winners for making a long-term commitment to protecting the environment by purchasing green power"

Additionally, PepsiCo is ranked No.1 on EPA’s Fortune 500 List of green power purchasers. The goal of EPA’s Fortune 500 Challenge is to exceed 5 billion kilowatt-hours of collective annual green power purchasing among the America’s largest companies. Currently, there are nearly 50 Fortune 500 companies in EPA’s Green Power Partnership.

Based on national average emissions rates, the U.S. EPA estimates PepsiCo’s purchase is the same amount of electricity needed to power nearly 90,000 average American homes annually.

“Green power” is defined as electricity that is generated from environmentally preferable renewable resources, such as solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, biomass, and low-impact hydro. These resources generate electricity with zero anthropogenic (caused by humans) carbon dioxide emissions and offer a superior environmental profile to conventional power generation. In addition, buying green power helps support the development of new renewable energy capacity nationwide.

PepsiCo, which formed its Environmental Task Force in 2001, and its divisions are actively involved in a variety of environmental initiatives and have been recognized for their efforts. For example, Frito-Lay and Gatorade operate two LEED GOLD certified facilities. The US Green Buildings Council LEED Rating System is the nationally accepted benchmark for evaluating sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere efficiency, material and resource selection and indoor environmental quality. Tropicana’s Ft. Pierce facility has partnered with St. Lucie County to burn landfill gas, a renewable energy source that displaces the use of natural gas, in its boiler.

In an effort to extend PepsiCo’s sustainability efforts to the supply chain, the three largest Pepsi-Cola bottlers in North America also purchased renewable energy certificates (REC) to match 100% of the electricity used by their U.S. operations. Combined, The Pepsi Bottling Group, Inc., PepsiAmericas, Inc. and Pepsi Bottling Ventures, LLC purchased nearly 629 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of green power annually through RECs. The three bottlers were also recognized by the EPA with Green Power Leadership awards for their efforts around green power.