EPA Recognizes NatureWorks LLC as one of the Nation's Top Green Power Purchasers

NatureWorks LLC is also recognized as Green Power Leadership Club Member

MINNETONKA , Minn., October 3, 2006  --  NatureWorks LLC announced today that it has been named to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) national Top 25 list of the largest green power purchasers in the Green Power Partnership. NatureWorks is being recognized for its voluntary purchase of 59 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power. The company is purchasing green power in the form of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) from Sterling Planet.

This week, the U.S. EPA released its updated national Top 25 list highlighting the largest purchasers in the Green Power Partnership. NatureWorks is ranked No. 23 on the Top 25 list. The list is updated quarterly and highlights EPA Green Power Partners that have completed the largest annual voluntary purchases through September 22, 2006 . The Top Partner list is available at http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/partners/top25.htm.

“We are proud to be on the EPA’s Top 25 list; this is a significant honor,” said Dennis McGrew, CEO of NatureWorks.   “Using green power is consistent with our company’s overall vision and value proposition. As the world’s first commercial scale biopolymer NatureWorks is a responsible partner with many of our customers in actively working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Purchasing green power contributes to the demand for renewable solutions, and may encourage other corporations that using cleaner sources of electricity is a sound business decision and an important choice.”

“Green power” is defined as electricity that is partially or entirely generated from environmentally preferable resources, such as solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, biomass and low-impact hydro resources. These renewable energy sources are cleaner than traditional sources of electricity that produce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, a greenhouse gas linked to global climate change. Green power purchases help support and accelerate the development of new renewable energy capacity.

NatureWorks is purchasing renewable energy certificates for wind-based electricity from a variety of U.S. Midwest projects. The company purchased enough certificates to cover projected 2006 production at its manufacturing plant and the world’s largest lactic acid plant in Blair, NE.  

In addition to being recognized as one of EPA’s Top 25 Green Power Partners, NatureWorks is also being recognized as an EPA Green Power Leadership Club Member. The Leadership Club honors Green Power Partners that have made an exemplary green power purchase that significantly exceeds the minimum Green Power Partnership purchase requirements.

”NatureWorks is providing an excellent example for its customers, employees, vendors and the community by purchasing green power" said Kathleen Hogan, Director of the Climate Protection Partnership Division for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “EPA hopes other companies follow suit in purchasing green power in order to reduce the environmental impacts associated with conventional electricity use.”

The U.S. EPA, using national average utility emissions rates, estimates that NatureWorks LLC’s purchase is equivalent to avoiding nearly 82 million pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2).  Additionally, buying 59 million kWh of green power is equivalent to preventing the CO2 emissions associated with more than 4.2 million gallons of gasoline each year.

About NatureWorks LLC
NatureWorks LLC is a stand-alone company wholly owned by Cargill. Dedicated to meeting the world's needs today without compromising the earth's ability to meet the needs of tomorrow, NatureWorks LLC is the first company to offer a family of commercially available greenhouse-gas-neutral polymers derived from 100 percent annually renewable resources with cost and performance that compete with petroleum-based packaging materials and fibers. The company applies its unique technology to the processing of natural plant sugars to create a proprietary polylactide polymer, which is marketed under the NatureWorks® PLA and Ingeo® fibers brand names. For more information about NatureWorks and its brands, please visit www.natureworksllc.com.

About the U.S. EPA’s Green Power Partnership
EPA’s Green Power Partnership is a voluntary program helping to increase the use of green power among leading U.S. organizations.  The program encourages organizations to purchase green power as a way to reduce the risk of climate change and the environmental impacts associated with conventional electricity use.  Currently, the Green Power Partnership has over 600 Partners voluntarily purchasing more than 6.8 billion kWh of green power.  Partners include a wide variety of leading organizations such as Fortune 500 companies, local, state, and federal governments, trade associations, as well as colleges and universities.

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For more information on EPA’s Top 25 list, visit http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/partners/top25.htm.

For a full listing of the more than 600 EPA Green Power Partners and information about buying green power, see the Partnership’s website at http://www.epa.gov/greenpower/.

NatureWorks, Ingeo and the EcoPLA logo are trademarks or registered trademarks in the USA and other countries.