EPA Recognizes Pepsi's Three Anchor Bottlers Among Nation's Top Purchasers of Renewable Energy Certificates

31/07/07 In an effort to extend PepsiCo's sustainability efforts to the supply chain, the three largest Pepsi-Cola bottlers in North America announced today that they are each purchasing renewable energy certificates (RECs) to match 100% of the electricity used by their U.S. operations. Combined, The Pepsi Bottling Group, Inc., PepsiAmericas, Inc. and Pepsi Bottling Ventures, LLC are purchasing nearly 629 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of green power annually through RECs. Together the purchases of these three companies would rank second among the largest purchases within the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Green Power Partnership, behind top-ranked PepsiCo.

Green power is produced from renewable resources such as solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, biomass and low-impact hydro. These energy sources are considered cleaner and have a superior environmental profile than conventional sources of electricity. Purchasing RECs helps drive the development of additional green power capacity nationwide.

Today, the U.S. EPA updated each of its top partner lists, highlighting the largest purchasers in the Green Power Partnership. The list highlights EPA Green Power Partners that have completed the largest annual purchases of green power through July 9, 2007. EPA updates its Top Partner lists quarterly, which are available at http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/partners/top25.htm.

Here are specifics about each of the bottlers' purchases:

-- The Pepsi Bottling Group, Inc. is purchasing RECs to match nearly 458 million kWh of power. This individual purchase ranks them No. 4 on EPA's Top 25 list. They are also participating in EPA's Fortune 500 Green Power Challenge and currently rank No. 4 among participating Fortune 500 partners. The goal of this campaign is roughly to double the existing REC purchases among Fortune 500 Green Power Partners in order to exceed 5 billion kWh of collective purchasing annually. Currently, there are nearly 50 Fortune 500 companies in EPA's Green Power Partnership. The Challenge concludes at the end of 2007.

-- PepsiAmericas, Inc. is purchasing RECs to match more than 157 million kWh of power. This individual purchase ranks No. 13 on EPA's Top 25 list.

-- Pepsi Bottling Ventures, LLC is purchasing RECs to match nearly 15 million kWh of power.

In April, PepsiCo announced it was purchasing RECs to match more than 1.1 billion kWh of power, becoming the largest purchaser to date under EPA's Green Power Partner program. PepsiCo has maintained that leadership position and remains the No. 1 purchaser on EPA's Top 25 list. Following its own purchase, PepsiCo reached out to the three largest Pepsi-Cola bottlers and encouraged them to purchase green power certificates.

"The purchases made by these three bottlers represent a broader effort by our entire system to work together and continue what PepsiCo started in April with its record purchase," said Dawn Hudson, president and CEO of Pepsi-Cola North America. "This represents a collective approach to protecting the environment and becoming more sustainable in the long-term -- something our consumers, customers, employees and investors can feel good about. It's all part of PepsiCo's commitment to Performance with Purpose -- to do better by doing better."

"America is shifting to a 'green culture,' with more and more businesses understanding that environmental responsibility is everyone's responsibility," said Marcus Peacock, EPA's Deputy Administrator. "EPA commends the Pepsi bottlers for making a long-term commitment to protecting the environment."

All three Pepsi bottlers are purchasing RECs from Sterling Planet, a leading green power marketer. The bottlers' purchase of certificates will support the development of a combination of wind, small scale hydro electric, biomass, landfill gas, biogas and geothermal resources. Sterling Planet, a leading green power marketer and supplier of RECs, was also the supplier of RECs for PepsiCo's own green power purchase of more than 1.1 billion kilowatt-hours earlier this year.

Based on national average emissions rates, the U.S. EPA estimates that the three bottlers' aggregate purchase of more than 629 million kWh is the equivalent amount of electricity needed to power nearly 39,000 average American households annually. Additionally, the combined green power purchase of these three individual companies is equivalent to avoiding the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of nearly 71,000 passenger cars each year.

Additionally, with these purchases, all three bottlers appear on EPA's 100 Percent Green Power Purchasers list and also qualify as members of EPA's Green Power Leadership Club. The "100 Percent Green Power Purchasers" list features organizations that are buying enough green power to meet 100 percent of their U.S. organization-wide purchased electricity use. This list includes more than 330 partner organizations demonstrating environmental leadership -- from the largest corporations and government entities, down to some of the smallest organizations and businesses in the United States. The Leadership Club honors Green Power Partners that have made exemplary green power certificate purchases that significantly exceed the minimum Green Power Partnership purchase requirements. EPA's Leadership Club purchase requirements are 10 times the minimum requirements to become a Partner.