Houston leads charge in renewable energy certificates

Houston is emerging as a major market for RECs — renewable energy certificates.

Craig Marcum, managing partner of Edge Environmental LLC, has followed the city’s rise in the ranks of RECs.

“When I’m looking at all the cities in the U.S., I gotta think Houston is the most active,” says Marcum. “There’s been a lot of activity. There is a REC market in place, with companies here and developers of projects here. It’s an active hub, without a doubt.”

The legal arena is especially active with RECs. In Houston, the roster of 11 law firm offices participating in the American Bar Association’s climate challenge program includes such names as Bracewell & Giuliani LLP, Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP, Jackson Walker LLP, Mayer Brown LLP and Weil, Gotshal and Manges LLP.

Only Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP is participating in the green power component of the program.

ABA spokeswoman Lynne Van Buskirk notes Sutherland has agreed to purchase 7.2 million kilowatt hours per year of RECs.

The power purchased from Houston-based Elements Markets LLC represents 100 percent of Sutherland’s estimated energy usage for 2010 and 2011.

On June 1, Sutherland relocated the Atlanta firm’s local office to 41,000 square feet in Houston’s first LEED-certified building, the First City Tower on Fannin.

“I would say that we are among the leaders,” says Tom Warren, a Sutherland partner. “We’re not the first. More and more companies are doing this on a voluntary basis.”

Warren says the idea arose in 2008 when someone mentioned how many plastic water bottles were strewn around a conference table on an otherwise uneventful day. A year later, a firm-wide sustainability initiative kicked off and it’s been green pastures — environmental and financial — ever since.

Read the full story in the Houston Business Journal.