Product Integrity


At Green Mountain Energy, we understand that renewable energy and carbon offsets can be difficult concepts to grasp. Since they aren't tangible products, we have to ensure that our customers realize they are really getting the high-quality renewable energy and offsets we’ve promised them.

To provide this assurance, an independent auditor examines our work each year to show our customers what they’re getting. As a peer-reviewed certified public accountant, the auditor:

  • Tracks all of our REC purchases through the chain of ownership back to the renewable energy project owner, ensuring that no double counting of the RECs has occurred. We thoroughly vet all of the renewable energy projects we buy from ahead of time. 

  • Confirms that the appropriate number and type of RECs are purchased and retired on behalf of our customers so they cannot be reused and to prevent someone else by claiming the environmental benefits (e.g., emissions avoided).

  • Ensures that all applicable1 RECs align with Green-e requirements as outlined in the Green-e Energy National Standard.

Our annual audit is no small feat. We put in hundreds of hours to responsibly track and manage our REC supply to ensure it is appropriately allocated to our customers and to provide all the necessary documentation to our auditor. And that doesn’t even include the countless hours our auditor puts in!

As a carbon-neutral provider, we believe it’s worth showing our customers the great emissions-free benefits they are getting. The most recent Green-e Certification can be found here. The letter shows that our 2020 REC retirements met or exceeded our obligations for the year.

Third-Party Certifications

Green-e Certified Renewable Energy Products

Our commercial customers have the option to choose Green-e Energy certified renewable energy products. Green-e Energy is the nation’s leading voluntary certification program for renewable energy.

While not all of our cleaner electricity products are certified, all of our products are audited by a third party each year, making our products 100% third party verified. Please visit the Green-e site to see the full REC disclosure.

Green Mountain Energy RECs meet the environmental and consumer-protection standards set forth by the nonprofit Center for Resource Solutions. Learn more at www.green-e.org.

Curious what it means to be Green-e certified? Find out.

For our carbon offset products, Green Mountain Energy exclusively offers carbon offsets that are certified to one of the leading carbon offset standards, including the Climate Action Reserve and others.

These standards provide assurance that our offsets meet high quality standards, including:

  • Real: Emissions reductions have actually occurred.
  • Permanent: Emissions reductions won’t be reversed in the future.
  • Verifiable: Emissions reductions can be verified by an independent third party.
  • Enforceable: Ownership can be clearly defined and enforced.
  • Additional: Emissions reductions go beyond a “business as usual” scenario and what’s required by law.

Numerous electronic registries exist to support the standards listed above, and Green Mountain Energy holds accounts on several to transact in the most transparent and verifiable way possible.

1 RECs from hydropower facilities from which we purchase do not qualify for Green-e due to their older age. To be Green-e Energy certified, RECs must come from qualifying renewable energy facilities that came online within the past 15 years. Most U.S. hydro projects were completed decades ago.

Our customers have avoided

 

pounds of CO2

That’s like planting

 

new trees.

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