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April 1, 2008 - Supply, demand and renewable energy

Ft. Collins, Colo. – Given that your average business does not have solar panels on its roof or a wind turbine farm on its property, how can businesses be part of the environmental solution instead of the problem in the energy market? How can a business ensure that it is truly carbon neutral? Try an emissions inventory, followed by certified green power RECs and verified emission offsets. It’s not as complicated as it sounds.

• An emissions inventory is just that, a check list of all your points of energy consumption.
• Certified green power RECs (Renewable Energy Credits): For each kilowatt-hour of electricity you use from your local electricity provider, you purchase a REC which is one kilowatt-hour of electricity created using renewable energy. This drives up the demand for renewable energy even if your local electricity provider does not offer it.
• Verified emission offsets are essentially RECs for energy consumption other than electricity. For example, you can purchase verified emission offsets for miles driven in company cars. Verified emission offsets cover the cost for funding carbon sinks offsetting the carbon you emit. Payment to a farmer who is leaving his land fallow or the cost of planting trees could be verified emission offsets.

Clean Air Lawn Care has partnered with Juice Energy to become carbon neutral. Clean Air Lawn Care is a lawn maintenance company that uses clean electric equipment including mowers, edgers and blowers. The vehicles that haul the electric equipment have mounted solar panels which are used to charge the equipment during the workday and the mowers are plugged in overnight. While Clean Air Lawn Care is much cleaner than your average lawn maintenance service, the business wanted to go the extra mile to offset all emissions that might be contributing to global warming.

Juice Energy is a retail electricity company, helping businesses and institutions lower their electricity costs and manage their greenhouse gas emissions. The company is supplying Clean Air Lawn Care with the renewable energy credits and vehicle offsets necessary to ensure that the green lawn care company is not contributing to climate change. In addition, Juice is expanding its greenhouse gas services to residential customers offering them green power and emission offsets, called Positive Juice.

Coal generates 54% of our electricity, and is the single biggest air polluter in the U.S. Renewable energy credits will drive demand for renewable energy, primarily wind power. Greater demand will lead to increased availability of renewable energy and decreased dependence on coal generated electricity.

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