Renewable Energy: Blowing in the Wind

Aspen Ski Company, which owns four ski mountains and two hotels in Colorado, just greenlighted a plan to convert entirely to green energy. Starting this June, 100 percent of Aspen’s operations

Aspen’s purchase illustrates a small, but growing, trend: voluntary corporate support of renewable energy. Other companies that purchase large blocks of renewable energy include Starbucks, FedEx, Kinko’s and Nike. This year, Whole Foods Market became the nation’s largest buyer of wind power when it purchased 458,000 megawatt hours of wind energy to power all 180 of the organic grocer’s stores. That’s the equivalent of taking 60,000 cars off the road or planting 90,000 acres of trees, experts say.

For many corporations, buying wind is a way to both differentiate the company from the competition and to live up to an ecofriendly mission statement. “It shows that we ‘walk our talk’,” says Whole Foods spokesman Michael Besancon.

Newsweek