Sterling Planet Serves Top 3 Leaders in EPA Green Power Partnership

(3BL Media) Atlanta, GA - April 25, 2012 – As Earth Month celebrations continue, Sterling Planet salutes all who have purchased renewable energy from the company over the past 12 years, including members of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Partnership. Thanks to Partnership members, who voluntarily use renewable energy, Sterling Planet has contracted to provide clean energy in a quantity sufficient to avoid 67 billion pounds of carbon dioxide emissions from conventionally produced electricity, helped develop new renewable energy capacity, and earned EPA’s #1 ranking in terms of kilowatt-hours (kWh) sold to Partnership members.

This week, the EPA publicized its list of the leading green power providers serving the Partnership and updated its Top 50 ranking of Partnership members. These reports place Sterling Planet as the leader in overall sales volume and as provider to all three of the top purchasers – Intel, Kohl’s and Microsoft, in that order – who each use more than 1 billion renewable energy kilowatt-hours annually. This threshold compares to the yearly electricity use of more than 70,000 average U.S. homes.

In addition, Sterling Planet is honored to serve these other Top 50 pacesetters – Staples, McDonald’s, USA LLC; Lockheed Martin Corporation; Cisco Systems, Inc.; the U.S. Air Force; Deutsche Bank; and Mohawk Fine Papers.

Microsoft and McDonald’s, holding the #11 slot, are new to the leader list. Over the past five years, Sterling Planet has also been privileged to be the provider of choice for Intel, ranked first on the list since 2008.

“Microsoft and McDonald’s are truly household names, and their entrance into the Partnership signifies just how mainstream the purchase of renewable energy has become,” said Mel Jones, Sterling Planet president. “We’re proud to make a difference with our new and long-standing customers, and we applaud the diverse organizations – representing information technology, retailing, food and beverage, banking, government agencies, paper manufacturing and other industries – that are among the 1,300 now enrolled in the Partnership.”

Smaller businesses and residential customers continue to play an important role in this ongoing migration to renewable energy sources, added Jones. Sterling Planet caters to all these customers through direct sales and indirectly through green pricing programs with utilities nationwide.

Through clients large and small, in both voluntary and mandated markets, Sterling Planet is supplying enough renewable energy to avoid carbon emissions from the electricity use of 3.8 million U.S. homes. The company’s supply is a renewable energy certificate (REC) product that represents the environmental benefits of generating electricity from wind, solar and other renewable energy sources, rather than from conventional power technologies. RECs also support domestic energy production, create local jobs, and increase energy security and diversity.

Sterling Planet has been a national leader in innovative clean energy solutions since 2000. The first company with a nationwide retail offer of wind, solar, biomass and other forms of renewable energy, Sterling Planet has delivered billions of kilowatt-hours in the form of renewable energy certificates in both voluntary and mandated markets. The client base includes 160 electric and gas utilities, 2,471 corporations, 369 government agencies and 77 colleges and other educational institutions. Sterling Planet also offers carbon offsets to offset greenhouse gas emissions, White Tags^® to promote and reward energy efficiency, and opportunities to invest in development of new renewable energy projects. A sister company, Sterling Energy Assets, is developing more than 100 megawatts of new renewable energy generating capacity nationwide.  www.sterlingplanet.com