February 3, 2012

EPA ranks City of Austin 2nd in U.S. for green power use by local government, 8th overall by all purchasers nationally including top Fortune 500 companies

The City of Austin municipal government is ranked 2nd in the country for the largest purchases of renewable energy by a local government for their electricity use and 8th overall nationally by any organization or business including some of the nation’s top Fortune 500 companies, according to rankings just released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Partnership. The City of Austin government also ranks third overall for the largest purchases of renewable energy to power 100% of all of its electricity use.

All of the City of Austin’s operations switched to 100% renewable energy on Oct. 1, 2011 to start the municipal government’s new fiscal year. The 12,000-employee organization is subscribing to Austin Energy’s GreenChoice® renewable energy program for 100% of its 406 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of annual electricity use for city-owned buildings and facilities. Only the City of Houston subscribes to more renewable energy by a local government at 438 million kWh, but that accounts for just 35% of its overall electricity use.

The City of Austin also ranks 8th in the nation’s top 50 purchasers nationwide behind such well-known companies as Intel Corp., Kohl’s, Wal-Mart, Whole Foods, Johnson & Johnson, the City of Houston, and Starbucks.

By switching to 100% renewable energy, the City of Austin fulfilled one of the major goals of the Austin Climate Protection Plan passed in 2007 that called for all of the City’s municipal facilities to be powered by 100% green power by 2012. The Austin Climate Protection Plan is Austin’s local effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Visit http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/toplists/top50.htm for a full list of rankings.