November 6, 2017

TOTO announced that its Morrow Manufacturing Plant has been awarded a 2017 Green Power Leadership Award from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA presented Bill Strang, president of operations and ecommerce for TOTO USA, with its Excellence in Green Power Use Award at the 2017 Renewable Energy Markets Conference in New York City on October 23.

The EPA’s annual awards recognize the leading sustainable power users in the United States for their commitment and contribution to helping advance the development of the nation’s voluntary green power market. The program recognizes EPA Green Power Partners who distinguish themselves by demonstrating leadership in procuring green power from a utility green power product, a power purchase agreement, or a renewable energy certificate (REC) product.

TOTO’s Morrow plant is one of only eight organizations nationwide to receive an Excellence in Green Power Use Award. TOTO USA currently purchases nearly 12 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power annually for use at its Morrow plant, which is enough green power to meet 100 percent of the facility’s electricity use. According to the EPA, TOTO’s Morrow plant’s current green power use of nearly 12 million kWh is equivalent to the electricity use of more than 1,000 average American homes annually.

“We are honored to receive this prestigious leadership recognition from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,” said Strang. “Purchasing green power helps our organization become more sustainable, while also sending a message to others across the United States that supporting green power is a sound business decision that can help reduce air pollution and other emissions.”

The seven additional recipients of this year’s EPA Excellence in Green Power Use Award include Capital One, Clif Bar & Company, Equinox Inc., Google, Microsoft, the University of California, and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Green power is electricity that is generated from environmentally preferable renewable resources, such as wind, solar, geothermal, biogas, eligible biomass and low-impact hydro. Using green power helps accelerate the development of these sources in the United States and advance the American green power market.

 TOTO USA purchases its green power from Georgia Power. Its new Simple Solar program enables customers to support and foster the growth of solar energy by enabling Georgia Power to purchase Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) generated from solar energy resources and retire them on the customer’s behalf.

“Georgia Power is proud to offer innovative energy solutions for customers of all sizes and across many industries,” said Wilson Mallard, director of renewable development for Georgia Power. “We commend TOTO USA for their longstanding involvement in our renewable energy programs and for illustrating how renewable energy can help companies meet sustainability and overall business goals.”

Photo: Carolyn Snyder, director of the U.S. EPA’s Climate Protection Partnerships Division, presents Bill Strang, TOTO USA’s president of operations and ecommerce, with its 2017 Green Power Leadership Award.