Kohl’s Honored By EPA

Kohl’s Department Stores was named a Green Power Partner of the Year in conjunction with the Environmental Protection Agency Green Power Leadership Awards. The retailer was honored for its ongoing solar program and green power purchases.

This is the third consecutive year Kohl’s received a Green Power Leadership Award. It was honored for green power purchases in 2007, and for on-site generation in 2008, but this is the first time the retailer has received the Partner of the Year Award. The annual award recognizes four EPA Green Power Partners that distinguish themselves through their green power purchases, leadership, overall strategy and impact on the green power market. (Intel, Deutsche Bank and Mohawk Fine Papers were the other three companies named as Partners of the Year.)

“To receive the Green Power Partner of the Year Award is a tremendous honor,” said Ken Bonning, executive VP store planning and logistics, Kohl’s, Menomonee Falls, Wis. “Since joining the Green Power Partnership in 2006, Kohl’s has continually demonstrated our support of green power through increasing our purchase of renewable energy credits, expanding our solar initiative and implementing strategies to manage our energy usage in an environmentally responsible way.”

Kohl’s ranks ninth on EPA’s list of Green Power Partners that generate and consume the most green power on-site, with 19,126,000 kWh of on-site green power usage from solar, accounting for 2% of its total electricity use. According to the EPA, Kohl’s is the world’s largest retail host of solar power. It currently has 79 solar locations in six states: California, Wisconsin, Oregon, Maryland, Connecticut and New Jersey. Depending on the location, solar panels generate 20% to 50% of the store’s electricity.

Kohl’s has 46 LEED-certified locations nationwide. At these stores, 35% of power is generated by landfill gas, a renewable energy source, with the balance of renewable energy credits (RECs) applied across the country for Kohl’s power use as a whole.

EPA’s Green Power Partnership works with more than 1,100 partner organizations to voluntarily purchase green power to reduce the environmental impacts of conventional electricity use.