NYSE Euronext (NYX) announced today that it has received a 2012 Green Power Leadership Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). NYSE Euronext is the only global exchange operator and one of only 12 organizations nationwide to earn the award for purchasing power generated by environmentally preferable, renewable resources.
“Purchasing green power helps our organization become more sustainable, while also sending a message from our leadership position among global financial markets that supporting clean sources of electricity is a sound business decision,” said Jeffrey Pellet, Senior Vice President of Global Real Estate and Facilities at NYSE Euronext. “We are proud to be recognized by the EPA for our continuing commitment to green energy.”
The award recognizes the top EPA Green Power Partners – companies that voluntarily distinguish themselves through purchases of green power. NYSE Euronext is currently purchasing more than 127 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power annually – enough power to meet 100 percent of the company’s U.S. electricity use and the equivalent to avoiding the carbon-dioxide emissions of more than 17,000 passenger vehicles per year, or the equivalent amount of electricity needed to power nearly 11,000 average American homes annually.
NYSE Euronext is buying renewable energy certificates (RECs) from Green Mountain Energy Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of NRG Energy (NYSE: NRG). NYSE Euronext currently ranks ninth on the EPA’s list of 100% Green Power Users, and 35th on EPA’s National Top 50 list. Each list highlights EPA Green Power Partners that have completed the largest annual voluntary purchases through July 5, 2012. EPA updates its Top Partner Lists quarterly athttp://www.epa.gov/greenpower/toplists/.
EPA presented NYSE Euronext with the award at an event held today in conjunction with the 2012 Renewable Energy Markets Conference in Washington, D.C.
Green power is electricity generated from environmentally preferable renewable resources, such as wind, solar, geothermal, biogas, biomass and low-impact hydro. These resources generate electricity with a net-zero increase in carbon-dioxide emissions, while offering a superior environmental profile compared to traditional power-generation sources. Green-power purchases also support the development of new, renewable energy-generation sources.
“EPA is pleased to recognize NYSE Euronext with a Green Power Purchasing Award for its distinguished commitment to buying green power and for taking a significant step to reduce the environmental impacts associated with its electricity use,” said Gina McCarthy, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation. "NYSE Euronext is helping to grow our nation’s renewable-energy market and is a model for other organizations to follow."
The EPA award is the latest in a series of environmental and sustainability honors that NYSE Euronext has received in recent weeks. Last week, the company was named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for the third consecutive year; earlier it was named again to the Carbon Disclosure Project’s S&P 500 Leadership Indexes for carbon disclosure and performance; and recently marked its second year as the only carbon-neutral global exchange operator. For more information about NYSE Euronext’s various environmental-sustainability programs, please see this video.
