Sometimes 13 can be a lucky number — but Sprint Nextel (News - Alert) facilitated its own “good Fortune®” this year.

The U.S. telecommunications company announced on February 3 that it had moved up to number 13 from last year’s number 19 spot on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Fortune® 500 Green Power Partner list and had staked out number 26 on the National Top 50 list highlighting the largest green power purchasers. Sprint is the only wireless carrier to appear on the National Top 50 list.

The EPA’s Green Power Partner list ranks companies on the Fortune 500 list that make the largest annual green power purchases during a given year. The 78 companies on the full Green Power Partner list buy a total of nearly 10.5 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power, the equivalent environmental impact of avoiding the annual carbon dioxide emissions from electricity use of more than 901,000 average American homes. Purchase amounts reflect U.S. operations only and are sourced from U.S.-based green power resources. Organizations can meet EPA purchase requirements using any combination of three different product options:

1.     Renewable Energy Certificates,

2.     On-site generation, and/or

3.     Utility green power products.

The Top 50 List is based on similar criteria, but places are awarded to a company in each industry or sector that buys the most green energy.

Sprint secured a total of 176 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of wind and solar energy during 2011—enough to meet five percent of the organization's electricity use. Sprint’s latest renewable energy initiative was the purchase of a strategic portfolio of renewable energy certificates (RECs) from renewable energy provider, San Francisco-based 3Degrees.

Last year, when Sprint was ranked number 19 on the list, it secured 87 million kWh of wind from Kansas City Power & Light.

The 12 companies that beat out Sprint Nextel for the top spots on the Fortune 500 Green Power Partner List included (in descending order):

1.     Intel (News - Alert) Corporation, an information technology company that purchased 2.5 billion kWh of solar and wind energy, equating to 88 percent of its total annual power usage;

2.     Kohl’s Department Stores, a clothing and home furnishings retailer that bought 1.5 billion kWh of solar and wind, to cover 100 percent of its energy usage;

3.     Wal-Mart Stores (California and Texas), America’s largest retailer, which acquired 873 million kWh of biogas, solar, and wind energy, to cover 28 percent of its usage;

4.     Whole Foods Market, which purchase 800 million kWh of solar and wind generation, equaling 106 percent of its energy needs;

5.     Johnson & Johnson, the healthcare conglomerate, which bought 554 million kWh of biomass, solar, and wind generation, to cover 52 percent of its electricity needs.

6.     Starbucks, the coffee and food vendor, which purchased 422 million kWh of wind to provide 52 percent of its energy;

7.     Staples (News - Alert), an office supply retailer, which attained 342 million kWh of biogas, solar, and wind generation, also to cover 52 percent of its energy needs.;

8.      Lockheed Martin (News - Alert), the government contractor, which purchased 275 million kWh of solar and wind energy , to cover 15 percent of its needs;

9.     Cisco (News - Alert) Systems, a network provider, which bought 269 million kWh of wind, to provide for 27 percent of its electricity;

10.   BNY Mellon, the banking and financial services company, which acquired 225 million kWH of wind, to cover 75 percent of on-site energy generation;

11.   BD, a healthcare company that invested in 199 million kWh of wind, to satisfy 38 percent of its energy requirements; and

12.   Kimberly-Clark, the consumer products company, which purchased 197 million kWh of biomass and wind, to provide 8 percent of its energy needs.

Renewable energy and energy efficiency are the two key components of Sprint’s plan to reduce its carbon footprint. Sprint's renewable energy efforts build upon its existing relationship with the EPA to protect the environment through its electronic waste efforts and device recycling programs.

 “We are proud to again be named on the EPA’s Green Power Partners list,” said Gene Agee, vice president –Procurement & Real Estate, Sprint. “Our recent efforts to expand our use of renewable energy products and significantly improve our energy efficiency, demonstrate our commitment to reducing our environmental impact and leading the industry toward cleaner energy solutions.”

The EPA considers “green power” as generated from renewable resources such as solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, biomass, and low-impact hydropower. According to the agency, purchases of green power help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful pollutants that threaten Americans’ health, and help accelerate the nation’s voluntary green power market. Purchases of green power help expand the development of new renewable energy capacity nationwide and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector.

“The EPA applauds Sprint for greatly increasing its green power purchase and for taking a leadership position on the environment,” said Blaine Collison, director of the Green Power Partnership. “Green power can be one of the easiest ways for an organization to address its carbon footprint and to reduce the environmental impacts associated with conventional electricity generation.”

Sprint leads the U.S. telecommunications industry in terms of kilowatt-hours of renewable energy products in its portfolio. According to the EPA, Sprint's green power is equivalent to avoiding the carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions of nearly 24,000 passenger vehicles per year, or the CO₂ emissions from the electricity use of more than 15,000 average American homes annually.

Sprint’s leadership in environmental sustainability has earned the company substantial recognition. For the third year in a row, Sprint ranked highest among all U.S. telecom companies on Newsweek’s 2011 Rankingsof America’s Greenest Companies— at number 3, up from number 6 in 2010. Sprint also was ranked highest among the wireless carrier industry on the Dow Jones Sustainability Leadership Index North America.

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