SUSTAINABILITY NOTEBOOK: Make Your Electric Company Buy More Green Power

by Stephen Kiesling

Here’s how it works: If your state is one where electric utilities are required to produce a certain percentage of their power from renewable sources, you can up that percentage. All you do is pay about $5.00 per person living in your household to a company called Village Green Energy. Normally, your electric company would receive certificates to prove that they’ve purchased renewable energy that they then route to you. However, when you pay Village Green, they contract with the green power sources to produce energy in your name, and you then receive the certificates instead of your electric company. It’s a bit of a bookkeeping trick and complicated to understand, but the result is that your electric company is forced to buy more renewable power to receive its required certificates. For more information, go to www.villagegreenenergy.com