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Boulder CO’s White Wave has gone with the wind-first large company in the nation to replace all of the electricity used in its manufacturing operations with wind power.

Soy-food maker first large firm to blow off coal, gas power

White Wave is once again trying to turn the tide.

By Heather Draper, Rocky Mountain News

The Boulder-based maker of soy- food products will become the first large company in the nation to replace all of the electricity used in its manufacturing operations with wind power.

"We’re very proud to be a pioneer in this," said Steve Demos, White Wave founder and president. "We’d like every business to take a look at this, but we’re demonstrating our commitment regardless of whether anyone else does it."

White Wave initiated its wind energy support program last month by purchasing 20 million kilowatt- hours of green tags, the industry term for wind power credits.

The purchase means the energy White Wave draws from the nation’s power grid will be replaced by wind energy, Demos said.

Demanding that its power be produced from renewable sources will cost White Wave about $300,000 more a year than energy from traditional sources. Those costs won’t be passed on to consumers, Demos said.

White Wave has committed to that amount for three years, but Demos hopes to "continually increase the amount we spend proportionate to the energy we use."

The nation’s power grid is fueled mainly by coal and natural gas. Less than 2 percent of electricity is generated from renewable sources such as wind or solar power, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

"Conventional electricity generation is the nation’s single-largest industrial source of air pollution," said Kurt Johnson, director of the EPA’s Green Power Partnership. "White Wave is the largest U.S. company to purchase 100-percent-new wind power for all of its operations, providing an outstanding example of environmental leadership."

According to the EPA, White Wave’s purchase of wind power will save approximately 32 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions each year – equivalent to taking 3,200 cars off the road.

This isn’t the first time White Wave has committed to a socially responsible cause. The company’s very founding in 1977 was socially responsible in that Demos committed to use only organic, nongenetically modified soybeans in his products.

[email protected] or (303) 892-5456

http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/business/article/0,1299,DRMN_4_1774260,00.html

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