Last week, Melanie sent me a link to Santee Cooper Green, the state-owned energy company’s environmental portal. They generate and provide electricity to Berkeley, Georgetown, and Horry county residents, as well as 20 electric co-ops around the state. In fact, they provide the juice to 41% of South Carolina - a statistic that makes anything green they do significant.

A portion of the site details Santee Cooper’s corporate efforts to become a more environmentally-focused company. Here you will find info on their ambitious (but vague) plans for using renewable energy sources, environmental education programs, energy recycling, and internal corporate efforts to become more green.

More useful is the Go Green with Santee Cooper section. There you get access to free energy audits, basic green building info, and a smart energy planning guide. The energy planning guide does a good job of explaining why costs and environmental impact go up when we use power at peak times. Here you’ll also read a brief statement on green energy buy-backs. This is important because Santee Cooper is beginning to experiment with net metering, which helps increase residential and commercial solar panel adoption rates. Hello - SCE&G - where are you???

In the end the site is well aimed, but does feel a little too warm and fuzzy (you know, in a Public Relations kind of way). But this is still a great step for Santee Cooper to have taken - one that every energy company should do. Keeping the lights on, while keeping this planet healthy, is becoming more and more challenging each year. If corporations continue to spearhead efforts like this, and consumers continue to purchase with a green mind, then together we can keep moving in the right direction.