The Clayton, Mo., City Hall and other Clayton municipal buildings will come alive with colorful pinwheels on Monday, July 7 and Tuesday, July 8, to celebrate Clayton’s agreement to become the first city in St. Louis County to support the development of clean, local renewable energy through AmerenUE’s Pure Power program.
Municipal areas—including Shaw Park—will be “pinwheeled” from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday, July 7. City Hall will be pinwheeled from 6:30 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. Tuesday, July 8.
The pinwheels are the symbol of Pure Power’s P.U.R.E. Genius (People Using Renewable Energy) campaign. Clayton’s commitment to Pure Power, UE’s voluntary renewable energy program, will help prevent approximately 331 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), a leading greenhouse gas, from entering the atmosphere each year. This is equal to the CO2 reduction provided by more than 75 acres of forest storing carbon for one year or taking almost 72 cars off the road for a year.
Pure Power gives commercial and industrial customers, like the City of Clayton, the opportunity to participate by buying “blocks” of Pure Power, paying $15 a month for each 1,000 kilowatthours used. Pure Power funds are then used to purchase renewable energy certificates (RECs) from qualified local wind farms.
Clayton’s purchase of 33 blocks of Pure Power per month makes the city a Pure Power LEADER—a designation reserved for companies, governments or other large users of electricity that agree to offset at least 12 percent of their energy usage through Pure Power purchases. Clayton’s purchase places the city among an elite group of other “Genius” businesses that have enrolled in the program, including the City Museum, the River City Rascals, Sachs Properties and Schlafly Beer.
"Since signing the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement in 2006, we've been focused on reducing Clayton's environmental footprint,” said Clayton Mayor Linda Goldstein. “We're proud to be a municipal leader in supporting AmerenUE's Pure Power program.”
After implementing nine of the Kyoto Protocol targets, the city considered implementing additional targets for reducing global warming. The city’s Ecology & Environmental Awareness Committee (EEAC) is responsible for making recommendations on environmental and ecological issues. The group reviewed the Kyoto Protocol targets and recommended that the city implement the target that promotes the development of renewable energy resources. With its annual budget allocation to spearhead activities that move the committee’s missions forward, the EEAC voted unanimously to invest its $2,000 allocation to purchase renewable energy credits (REC).
For more information about the Pure Power program, go to www.ameren.com/purepower. AmerenUE’s Pure Power program is Green-e Certified by the not-for-profit Center for Resource Solution. Green-e is the leading renewable energy certification and verification program in the U.S.
AmerenUE is a subsidiary of St. Louis-based Ameren Corporation. The Ameren companies serve 2.4 million electric customers and nearly one million natural gas customers in a 64,000-square-mile area of Missouri and Illinois.
# # #
CONTACT: Tim Fox, 314.554.3120, of AmerenUE