Leading Global Brands Sign Up for New WindMade Label

Announcing their commitment at a New York City event to become certified under the new WindMade™ consumer label, several major companies—including some of the world's most familiar commercial names—have procured or pledged to procure at least 25 percent of their electricity consumption from wind energy.

The companies, which include Motorola Mobility, Deutsche Bank, and Bloomberg, are pioneering the use of the world’s first wind power consumer label. The New York City event was hosted by WindMade and the UN Global Compact.

“These companies are at the forefront of the global sustainability movement,” said Henrik Kuffner, WindMade’s CEO. “We are delighted to have them on board the unique WindMade initiative, and are confident that many others will follow suit in the coming weeks and months.”

The objective behind WindMade™ is to drive demand in wind power, thereby boosting investment and growing the renewable energy market.

“Consumers are ready to act,” said Morten Albæk, senior vice president of global marketing and customer insight at Vestas Wind Systems, the company spearheading the WindMade initiative. “Sixty-seven percent of 31,000 consumers globally have told us they would favor WindMade products, even at a premium. WindMade empowers people to choose brands that choose wind.”

According to the WindMade requirements, companies using the label must source a minimum of 25 percent of the electricity consumed from wind power. The wind energy share can be procured through a company-owned wind power generation facility, a long-term power purchase agreement for wind power, or the purchase of high-quality renewable energy certificates approved by WindMade. The exact percentage of the wind energy share will be stated on the label. Companies can choose to certify global, regional or facility level operations, a distinction that will be clearly communicated on the label itself.

“We believe clean growth is good economics,” said Sabine Miltner, Group Sustainability Officer for Deutsche Bank. “We are committed to leveraging our core business expertise towards a cleaner and more energy efficient global economy. We believe in leading by example and have increased our use of clean electricity from 7 percent to 65 percent over the last four years. WindMade is an important step toward more market transparency and we are pleased to join this new partnership.”

“It is Motorola Mobility’s intent through our participation in the WindMade initiative to encourage greater use of renewable energy sources like wind and solar around the globe,” said Bill Olson, director office of sustainability and stewardship at Motorola Mobility.

WindMade is the world’s first global consumer label for companies and products using wind power. The label is managed by the WindMade non-profit organization, dedicated to accelerating the adoption of renewable energy by improving companies’ ability to communicate their wind energy investments to their stakeholders. WindMade is backed by the UN Global Compact, Vestas Wind Systems, WWF, Global Wind Energy Council, Bloomberg (as the official data provider), and the LEGO Group.

“The supply side of the clean energy sector can clearly deliver, but now it is time to galvanize demand,” said Curtis Ravenel, head of sustainability at Bloomberg. “Government has done their part, and it is now up to the corporate community to demonstrate leadership by committing to clean energy development. WindMade provides us with a roadmap for achieving this.”

“Corporations investing in wind energy technology need a global set of standards if they are to provide the transparency that’s critical to their stakeholders as well as gain the competitive advantage that such investments can mean for their businesses,” said Kathy Nieland, U.S. sustainable business solutions leader, PwC.

“Using wind power helps BD become a more sustainable organization, and the WindMade label sends a message to our customers and the industry that supporting clean sources of electricity is a sound business decision and an important choice in reducing a corporation’s environmental footprint,” said Glenn Barbi, vice president, Global Sustainability, BD.

The WindMade corporate pioneers and founders are:

A separate label for products is in development and will be released next year. For more information on the founders and pioneers, go to www.windmade.org.

Carl Levesque is the communications editor at AWEA. This article first appeared in the AWEA Windletter and was reprinted with permission from the American Wind Energy Association.