Renewable Energy for a Healthier Environment

The electricity used in homes and offices is having a large impact on our environment. Every year the US alone burns over 150 million tons of coal, natural gas, and oil to produce virtually all of its electricity. The burning of fossil fuels to produce electricity is the leading cause of air pollution and greenhouse gases, leading to global climate change.

Altova has taken important steps to help lessen the effects that greenhouse gasses and air pollution are having on the quality of our environment.

"From day-to-day business operations to travel and special events, the energy being used by companies is having a lasting effect on the environment," said Alexander Falk, President and CEO of Altova. "By purchasing clean renewable energy, Altova is helping to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, fight the global climate change, and through carbon neutrality reduce our environmental footprint, to provide a healthier environment for our families, friends, employees, and customers."

By purchasing renewable energy credits from Renewable Choice Energy, Altova is offsetting all the carbon emissions produced in powering its US headquarters – Altova, Inc. Every time a renewable energy producer adds electricity to the national electric grid, it earns renewable energy credits (RECs). A REC represents the additional cost and value of a specific amount of renewable energy that is generated. These credits are also the industry standard method of accounting for renewable energy production, and they are audited and guaranteed by an independent third-party Green-e program run by the Center for Resource Solutions in San Francisco. By purchasing RECs to offset the entire electricity consumption of our US headquarters we ensure that the specific amount of electricity that we consume is replaced on the national grid with clean, carbon-free electricity.

Our purchase of 144,000 kWh prevents over 200,000 pounds of CO2 pollution!

This has the same environmental impact as:

Not burning 107,653 pounds of coal
Planting 2,646 fully-mature trees
Not driving a typical car 218,830 miles

Learn more about Renewable Choice Energy: http://www.renewablechoice.com/

At the same time, Altova has switched its European headquarters – Altova GmbH – over to using only renewable energy from wind, solar, and hydro power produced by Wienstrom through their Naturstrom product. This is a special tariff model provided by Wienstrom, the main energy supplier of the city of Vienna, Austria, and it ensures that all energy consumed is directly fed into the grid from renewable energy sources on a real-time basis.

Europe is ahead of the US in terms of production of electricity from renewable energy sources. Instead of having to purchase RECs, we can actually supply our European headquarters with clean, carbon-neutral energy that is locally generated in the vicinity of Vienna: 70% of the energy is generated from environmentally friendly hydro power generators along small streams and rivers, and 30% is generated from solar and wind energy.

Learn more about the new wind energy park built by Wienstrom: http://www.steinriegel.at/