Vermont Electrical Utility Company Sets Strong Example in National Trend to Become Greener and Provide Environmental Sustainability

Released on: December 12, 2007, 3:23 pm

Press Release Author: Green Mountan Power

Industry: Energy

Press Release Summary: Green Mountain Power Highlights Environmentally Sustainable
Initiatives Over the Past Year and Beyond

Press Release Body: Colchester, VT - Green Mountain Power, an electrical utility
located in Colchester, Vermont, is rapidly becoming a leader in the Green Mountain
State and beyond by positioning and encouraging environmental sustainability and
renewable energy use and practices to its customers, community, and employees.

"Environmental responsibility is one of our core values at Green Mountain Power,"
said Mary Powell, Green Mountain Power's senior vice president and chief operating
officer. "We're very proud of what we've been able to accomplish over the past few
years, but interestingly, the more we improve our footprint, the more we see that
can be done. We look at this work as just the beginning of what we can do."

Green Mountain Power green highlights over the past year and beyond include:

Encouraging employees to reduce their own carbon footprint by purchasing fuel
efficient vehicles. Eligible Green Mountain Power employees receive cash incentives
for purchasing vehicles that have the best fuel economy on the market.

Green Mountain Power is carbon neutral in office and facility operations as well as
in trucking and business travel - using bio-diesel fuel in trucking and hybrid
vehicles in business travel.

The company publishes an annual sustainability report using the Global Reporting
Initiative guidelines, available at www.greenmountainpower.com/about/commitment.html

In 2001, the company started renovations to improve energy efficiency and
conservation in its offices and currently is working towards a LEEDS certification
for a newly renovated Southern Vermont service center.

In 2002, Green Mountain Power became the first utility in the country to offer
customers the option to offset their total home carbon emissions through the
CoolHome program.

In the spring of 2007, Green Mountain Power launched the Choose2BGreen program that
provides customers with a way to neutralize their carbon footprint through renewable
power and home heating and driving offsets, a substantial enhancement of the
CoolHome program.

The company recently launched a website for the program, www.choose2bgreen.com,
which details the three programs - GreenerGMP, CoolHome, and CoolDriver:
- GreenerGMP allows customers to purchase energy from certified renewable resources
equal to some or all of their monthly use.
- CoolHome and CoolDriver provide customers with an option to offset their
individual carbon footprint associated with heating their homes and driving their
cars, respectively and are offered in partnership with NativeEnergy
(www.nativeenergy.com) headquartered in Charlotte, Vermont. The offsets are
purchased by NativeEnergy and are used to help finance the construction of renewable
energy projects, including Vermont and Northeast-based methane and biomass projects.


Green Mountain Power's Choose2BGreen website (www.choose2bgreen.com) also provides a
blog discussion forum with Green Mountain Power employees and generates both local
and global environmental resources to readers.

Green Mountain Power's six-megawatt wind power plant located in Searsburg, Vermont
provides emission-free, renewable energy to over 1,500 Vermont households and serves
as a premier education resource for wind generation in cold climates and
environmentally sensitive regions.

Green Mountain Power is the 2006 recipient of the Large Company of the Year Award by
the Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility for its sustained commitment to
socially responsible business practices. The Vermont Department of Environmental
Conservation and the Vermont Small Business Development Center also recognized Green
Mountain Power as an Environmental Partner in the Vermont Business Environmental
Partnership for its excellent environmental management practices, "green"
purchasing, and forward thinking environmental policies.

Green Mountain Power (www.greenmountainpower.biz) is an electric utility owned by
Northern New England Energy Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Gaz Métro, a
leading Québec energy company with a long history of investment in Vermont. Green
Mountain Power transmits, distributes and sells electricity and utility construction
services in the State of Vermont in a service territory with approximately one
quarter of Vermont's population. It serves approximately 92,000 customers.

###



Web Site: http://www.choose2bgreen.com

Contact Details: Dorothy Schnure, Green Mountain Power
163 Acorn Lane, Colchester, VT 05439
802-655-8418, schnure@greenmountainpower.biz

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