Whole Foods Market (WFMI) is probably the largest health foods supermarket in the US. They also own one of the UK's major health food chains, Fresh and Wild. In a widely reported move they recently purchased renewable energy credits to offset 100% of their use across all of their stores and administrative offices. They are the first Fortune 500 company to take such a step and they claim the move is the equivalent to taking 60,000 cars off the road in terms of Carbon Dioxide emission reductions.
The move has also generated a lot of positive press. My hope is that other companies will take similar steps in other industries. But I've been dismayed to read a few comments that seem to downplay the importance of the decision on the basis that Whole Foods is using Wind Energy Credits in place of building their own wind turbines. It may be indirect, but it's just as effective at reducing CO2 emissions and displacing non-renewable power generation.
I recently came across a very similar myopia among very intelligent people here in the UK. A few months ago the Ecologist magazine ran a cover article declaring that some renewable energy suppliers weren't as "green" as others because they were using a similar offset purchasing mechanism in place of building and running their own wind farms. Of course, I wrote a letter (read it here), though much to my dismay, it was never published.
Perhaps my modest mathematical and logical abilities make it all to obvious to me, but in the end the different contributions of those who build wind turbines, those who run then and those who promote the green energy is all more or less equivalent. Each of these roles is needed to create a greener future.
So I'm very pleased that Whole Foods has taken this high-profile decision and I believe it will do a great deal to stimulate interest in renewable energy in the US.
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