SWITCHING TO GREEN

This guide by the World Resources Institute provides office- and retail-based companies with a framework for procuring renewable energy. It details the business case for switching to green power, explains three primary delivery options—retail programs, Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs), and on-site generation—and offers strategies to minimize costs and account for greenhouse gas emissions.

• The U.S. electricity sector is heavily dependent on fossil fuels, with more than 70 percent of electricity generated from coal, oil, and natural gas. While renewable energy generation grew significantly—wind power increased by 595 percent between 1989 and 2005—renewable energy accounted for only 1.5 percent of total U.S. electricity generation in 2005.
• Companies can procure green power through three main delivery methods: retail green power programs (paying a premium to utilities), Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs), and on-site generation. RECs allow for greater flexibility by separating the environmental attributes of renewable energy from the electricity itself, enabling companies to support specific resources regardless of their location.
• The 'solar services' model is an innovative financing approach for on-site solar photovoltaic (PV) generation that removes up-front capital costs for the host company. In this model, a third-party developer finances, installs, and operates the system, while the company signs a fixed-price power purchase agreement (PPA) to buy the electricity generated.
• To reduce the premium cost of green power, companies can employ several procurement strategies: implementing energy efficiency upgrades to fund purchases, switching to less expensive energy suppliers in deregulated markets, aggregating demand across multiple facilities, or sourcing RECs from the least expensive geographic locations or technologies.
• Greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting for renewable energy involves multiplying the quantity of green power or RECs purchased by the emission factor of the specific power pool subregion where the energy was generated. This result is reported as a negative line item in the company's GHG inventory to determine net emissions.
• The Green-e certification program, administered by the Center for Resource Solutions, helps companies ensure environmental integrity by certifying only 'new' renewables from facilities put online since 1997 and excluding renewables mandated by government.

APA

DEL PINO, S. P. (2006). SWITCHING TO GREEN. World Resources Institute. https://pdf.wri.org/switching_to_green.pdf

Chicago

DEL PINO, SAMANTHA PUTT. SWITCHING TO GREEN. World Resources Institute, 2006. https://pdf.wri.org/switching_to_green.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=DEL PINO |first1=SAMANTHA PUTT |title=SWITCHING TO GREEN |publisher=World Resources Institute |date=October 2006 |url=https://pdf.wri.org/switching_to_green.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{delpino2006switching, author = {DEL PINO, SAMANTHA PUTT}, title = {{SWITCHING TO GREEN}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2006}, month = oct, url = {https://pdf.wri.org/switching_to_green.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }