Environmental Leader

No company has been able to dethrone Intel, PepsiCo. or Kohl’s as the top three (in descending order) users of renewable energy, as listed on the most recent EPA Green Power Partnership Top 50 list.

At 1.301 billion kilowatt hours, Intel gets 48 percent of its energy needs from renewable energy.

PepsiCo is not far behind, at 1.26 billion kWh, accounting for 100 percent of its energy needs.

Kohl’s, No. 3 overall, is the top retailer on the list, at 851 million kWh, accounting for 71 percent of its energy needs. Not far behind is retailer Whole Foods Market, which gets more than 790 million kWh from renewable energy. Because it generates renewable electricity as well as purchasing it, Whole Foods actually has a renewable energy portfolio equal to 105 percent of its energy use.

Coming in at No. 5, Dell uses renewable energy for almost 554 million kWh, or 158 percent of its needs.

Showing the static nature of the list, the same companies occupied the top-five in April.

Here is the top 20 retail list.

Here is the Fortune 500 Challenge list.

Many of the above companies purchase their electricity from utilities that sell electricity from renewable sources, and many purchase renewable energy credits.

Leading the pack as far as companies using on-site renewable energy is Kimberly-Clark, which generates 192 million kWh, or about 7 percent of its energy needs, from on-site renewables. Here is a list of 20 top on-site generators.