Whole Foods Market, a leading natural and organic supermarket, has taken its commitment to green issues one step further by purchasing renewable energy credits from wind farms to off-set 100% of the electricity used in its stores, facilities, bakeries, distribution centres and regional offices and national headquarters.
The company say that this will have the same environmental impact as removing 60,000 cars from the road or planting 90,000 acres of trees.
“Whole Foods Market is a leader in the natural and organic foods movement, and that involves caring about our communities and respecting our environment. This purchase of wind energy credits is a natural extension of that leadership and is integral to our core values,” said Michael Besancon, Whole Foods Market Southern Pacific regional president and Green Mission task force leader.
Boulder, Colorado-based Renewable Choice Energy will exclusively supply 458,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) of renewable energy credits to Whole Foods. When Whole Foods buy energy credits, Renewable Choice provide the national grid with the amount of energy that is used, since it would be physically impossible to deliver electrons from a wind farm directly to all of Whole Foods Market’s facilities.
“Whole Foods Market has made the largest ever corporate purchase of renewable energy credits in the nation,” said Kurt Johnson, US Environmental Protection Agency Green Power Partnership director. “Conventional electricity generation is the largest industrial source of air pollution in the United States, and wind power is a clean and renewable alternative. Whole Foods Market’s commitment to wind power is providing an outstanding example of environmental leadership.”
