Zumbiel Packaging Chooses Renewable Energy

CINCINNATI—Zumbiel Packaging has purchased renewable energy to offset a significant portion of its energy use. Its purchase reportedly distinguishes Zumbiel as the largest user of renewable energy in the U.S. paperboard beverage packaging market and qualifies Zumbiel as an E.P.A. Green Power Partner.

Zumbiel’s purchase of renewable energy credits from renewable energy facilities including wind farms and biomass converters will cut back more than 700 tons of carbon dioxide pollution during the balance of 2007. To have the same impact, more than 150 cars would have to be taken off the road, or more than 230 acres of trees would have to be planted, according to statistics from the Environmental Protection Agency.

This purchase of renewable power is made possible by renewable energy credits (RECs). Because it is physically impossible to deliver electricity directly from a renewable energy facility to Zumbiel’s operations, renewable energy credits make purchasing renewable power possible. RECs ensure that the amount of electricity the company uses is replaced on the power grid with clean, renewable energy. Renewable energy producers sell RECs to better compete with fossil fuels, allowing consumers to choose clean, renewable energy.

Renewable power is the latest example of Zumbiel’s commitment and leadership in the areas of environmental stewardship and sustainable packaging. The company was already the only paperboard packaging producer serving the U.S. beverage industry to achieve Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification. FSC certification ensures Zumbiel’s customers that packaging from Zumbiel is made from trees which have been harvested in accordance with the strictest international criteria pertaining to environmentally and socially responsible forest management.

Ed Zumbiel, president of Zumbiel’s beverage packaging division, said that “seeding the grid with renewable energy is more expensive than juicing-up with electricity from a coal-fired plant, but environmental stewardship is important to Zumbiel, is important to Zumbiel’s customers (who tend to be Fortune 100 companies), and is important to beverage consumers.” On the issue of sustainability, he further added, “Zumbiel, as a fourth-generation family-owned and operated company, has always demonstrated a profound respect for the environment, even before it was fashionable to do so; and, supporting the use of renewable energy is just another way that Zumbiel can contribute to the preservation of the environment for future generations.”