DaVita Inc. announced that the company is the first Fortune 500 health care services company to join the Environmental Protection Agency Green Power Partnership program.

Through the program, DaVita will offset 10,000,000 kilowatts of energy, enough to power DaVita’s six largest corporate business offices for an entire year, through the use of renewable wind energy.  The company said the offset is the equivalent of removing 1,315 passenger vehicles from the road, or reducing the strain placed on local power grids by the amount of power consumed by approximately 1,000 American homes.

The Green Power Partnership is a voluntary program that supports businesses in procuring renewable power by offering expert advice, technical support, tools and resources.
Misha Palecek, DaVita divisional vice president and Village Green director, told NN&I that the funds for the wind energy came from the company’s cell phone and toner recycling projects. Palecek explained that the company bought energy credits from a third party provider and that it was similar to investing in a charity.

The new EPA partnership is part of the “DaVita Village Green" program, created in 2007 to reduce DaVita's environmental impact. Starting with the fundamentals, DaVita Village Green published a facility handbook in the fall of 2007 and distributed it to the company's more than 650 centers and business offices around the world. The handbook focused on energy and resource conservation; recycling; and environmentally thoughtful purchasing.
“This is the way companies need to start thinking,” Palecek said. “Companies of our size are not yet required to do this, but the legislature will be there someday.”