The US Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Partnership and the Sustainable Green Printing Partnership recently hosted a webinar addressing the role of renewable energy in reducing the carbon footprint of printing facilities and on using green power as part of a printer’s marketing message. From this writer’s point of view, the entire green power discussion is one that is worth hearing. If you missed it, you can hear it, read the transcript, and download the presentations via this link. Getting connected with green power (electricity generated by one or more types of renewable resources – wind, solar, biofuel, and low-impact hydro, to name a few) is surprisingly easy. During the webinar, Allison Dennis, Communications Manager for the EPA’s Green Power Partnership, explained that nearly every business in the country has ready access to renewable energy from one of three sources: on-site generation; buying green power from a local electric utility; or purchasing something called Renewable Energy Certificates or “RECs.” But just what is a REC? Simply put, each REC is the verification that one megawatt of renewable energy has been generated and supplied to the national electric grid. RECs are tradable commodities, which makes them attractive to businesses - including printers - that just aren't interested in erecting their own wind- or solar-power generation facilities. RECs are tied to the generation of electric current and are not tied to the physical delivery of specific electrons to a printing facility. When a printer says that it runs on “100% wind power,” it is really taking credit for the source of the flow of the electricity. It’s also important to note that RECs differ from carbon offsets in that they represent an amount of clean energy that is physically generated rather than a volume of carbon that is not being generated. (The generation of green power has carbon-offset benefits, too, but that is not the stuff on which RECs are measured and sold.) The purchase of a REC says, in essence, “I am responsible for one megawatt of electricity to be generated by clean, renewable resources rather than by carbon-laden fossil fuels.” And, since RECs are verified commodities that can only be held by one owner, a printer’s REC-based marketing claims are generally well-founded. Sure, RECs cost something in addition to the cost of electricity delivered by the local utility. But printers such as Monroe Litho, EarthColor and others have more than recouped the slight premium with increases in business and strengthening of their brands. And, when one also considers the benefits delivered to the environment, human health, and to a sustainable economy from reduced reliance on fossil fuels, RECs become even more attractive for the printer that is on the path toward greater sustainability.