PORTLAND, Ore. – September 15, 2009 The Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF), an entrepreneurial supplier of green power solutions, announced today that it has won two Green Power Leadership Awards- an awards program jointly sponsored by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the United States Department of Energy (DOE) and the Center for Resource Solutions (CRS). BEF has been recognized as the Best Green Power Supplier of the Year and its Solar 4R Schools program won Best Green Power Education Outreach Program in the Market Development Category . Award winners were announced during the Renewable Energy Markets Conference being held in Atlanta, GA this week.

Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF) was founded in Portland, Oregon in 1998. BEF is a national, nonprofit organization and has played a major role in the development of the carbon offset market. In 2000, BEF helped to create the voluntary market for carbon offsets by closing the first retail REC trade deal with the Environmental Protection Agency. They also launched the first online carbon calculator in 2001. In 2008, BEF Carbon Offsets became Green-e® Climate certified.

The partnership between Greenshipping.com and BEF Carbon Offsets, empowers organizations and individuals to dedicate funds to the development of renewable energy sources like solar power and wind farms, while at the same time making their package shipments carbon neutral. We are glad to have BEF as our partner and know that with their help, Greenshipping.com and our customers will reduce climate change.

We’re pleased to formalize our relationship with the Bonneville Environmental Foundation.  The joint press release went over the wire yesterday.  

We initially selected BEF for two reasons.  First, they’re a non-profit and any proceeds from their carbon projects go to good causes like watershed restoration, renewable energy education for kids, and other great programs.  Second, their projects are focused primarily on North America.  While CO2 is a global problem without regional boundaries, pollution is a regional problem.  North American projects help increase our air quality and help to build our green economy by creating jobs and focusing development locally.  

As we have gotten to know BEF better, we have been increasingly impressed with how they run their business.  They are a leader in developing rigorous site selection criteria used to select the site of new wind projects.  These criteria consider the potential impacts to the ecosystems and surrounding the projects.