Whole Foods completes major energy credit purchase

Austin, Texas Whole Foods Market has completed the purchase of 776 million-kilowatt-hours of renewable energy credits from wind farms, according to a report by the Austin Business Journal.

The purchase will offset all of the company's electricity use in its North American locations.

Nearly 90% of Whole Foods' 2009 REC purchase is helping to fund E.ON Climate & Renewables' recently-completed Texas-based Panther Creek wind farm in Big Spring near Midland.

The 2009 Whole Foods Market wind power purchase will help avoid up to 868 million lbs. of carbon dioxide pollution, according to the report. That has an environmental impact of taking more than 72,000 cars off of the roads for a year, or planting nearly 3.6 million mature trees.

Whole Foods has supported renewable energy development since 2006, when it became the first Fortune 500 company to offset 100% of its electricity use with RECs from wind farms provided by Renewable Choice Energy.