subject: A Reliable Certification Program: Green-e Energy [print this page] Green energy solutions are easy to talk about, but not every company that appears to offer them is giving its customers everything it claims it is. Because many companies make false promises about energy efficiency and green technologies, to draw customers in without delivering on those promises, it's been necessary to develop organizations to assess environmental claims and grant certification to companies who deliver on them. One of these organizations is called Green-e Energy, and it works in cooperation with a whole network of other socially responsible accreditation groups.
Green-e Energy works in good company. For example, the organization is endorsed by a consultancy called MBDC, which grants "Cradle to Cradle" certification to specific products. What that label means is that these products are made of healthy, recyclable materials, are run with renewable power, and are created and used in a respectful, socially conscious way. An endorsement by MBDC, as well as groups like the International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labeling (ISEAL) Alliance shows that Green-e means serious business, and is very good at what it does.
So what, exactly, does this organization do? It both educates and certifies. For example, in the Green-e Climate program, companies must meet certain standards in the voluntary marketplace of carbon offsets and greenhouse gas emission reductions. In the Green-e Marketplace program, a business or organization must buy renewable energy from approved companies or generate it themselves on-site in certain approved ways.
And in the Green-e program itself, companies supplying such energy are required to meet certain requirements and standards before being given certification, and must be willing to submit to regular audit and verification programs, whose reports will be provided to the public.
Green-e Energy is also a liaison, of sorts, between certified companies and the public. For one thing, they provide education and green energy information, both to the companies as they learn what they need to do to be certified, and to consumers as they learn more about what makes a company green. By granting certifications and educating the general public, this organization helps to move along the switch to more environmentally responsible practices, both in the creation of products and in their use.
