Chicago Park District Ranked on EPA's National Top 100 List of Green Power Users
The Chicago Park District announced today that it has been ranked as one of the top 100 largest green power users by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
“By using green energy, the Chicago Park District helps to promote energy efficiency, improve air quality, conserve resources and save money,” said Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. “The City of Chicago is committed to integrating sustainability in the places residents work, live, learn and play; I applaud the Park District for their commitment to renewable energy.”
“The Chicago Park District is pleased to be recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,” said Chicago Park District Superintendent and CEO Michael P. Kelly. “Using green power helps our organization become more sustainable, while also sending a message to others across the U.S. that supporting clean sources of electricity is a sound business decision and an important choice in reducing climate risk.”
The Park District uses more than 54 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power annually, which is enough green power to meet 50 percent of the organization's electricity use. Chicago Park District is buying renewable energy certificates (RECs) from Integrys Energy. This demonstrates a proactive choice to switch away from traditional sources of electricity generation and support cleaner renewable energy alternatives.
In addition to becoming better environmental stewards, going green has allowed the Park District to save money. By becoming more energy efficient through lighting retrofits, heating systems upgrades, or building insulation, the Park District has reduced its energy usage and subsequent utility costs by a total of 16 percent or $2.5 million last year, compared to 2010.
The Park District was ranked number 93 on the National Top 100 list, and was also ranked number 11 on the Top 30 Local Government list.
According to the U.S. EPA, the Park District's green power use of more than 54 million kWh is the equivalent to avoiding the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of more than 8,000 passenger vehicles per year, or the CO2 emissions from the electricity use of nearly 6,000 average American homes annually.
Green power is electricity that is generated from environmentally preferable renewable resources, such as wind, solar, geothermal, biogas, eligible biomass, and low-impact hydro. Using green power helps accelerate the development of new renewable energy capacity nationwide and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector.
About Chicago Park District
The Chicago Park District is the nation’s largest and most diverse parks and recreation organization with more than 8,100 acres of parkland, 580 parks, 26 miles of lakefront, 10 museums, two world-class conservatories, 16 historic lagoons, 10 bird and wildlife gardens, thousands of special events, sports and entertaining programs. For more information, please visit www.chicagoparkdistrict.com.
About EPA’s Green Power Partnership
The Green Power Partnership is a voluntary program that encourages organizations to use green power as a way to reduce the environmental impacts associated with electricity use. The Partnership currently has more than 1,500 Partner organizations voluntarily using billions of kilowatt-hours of green power annually. Partners include a wide variety of leading organizations such as Fortune 500® companies; small and medium sized businesses; local, state, and federal governments; and colleges and universities. For additional information, please visit http://www.epa.gov/greenpower.
About Integrys Energy Services, Inc.
Established in 1994, Integrys Energy Services, Inc., a subsidiary of Integrys Energy Group (NYSE: TEG) provides competitive energy supply solutions, structured products, and strategies that allow retail residential, commercial, and industrial customers to manage their energy needs. Its principal energy marketing operations are in the northeastern quadrant of the United States. Through its subsidiary, Integrys Energy Services – Natural Gas LLC, Integrys offers natural gas products to a full range of end-users throughout the Midwest and MidAtlantic. Areas of generation expertise include cogeneration, distributed generation, renewables such as solar and landfill gas, as well as clean fuel generation, with facilities in selected markets throughout the United States. More information about Integrys Energy Services is available at www.integrysenergy.com.