Green Mountain Energy Sun Club® donates solar-powered golf carts to reduce zoo's carbon footprint
Philadelphia, PA– Employees at the Philadelphia Zoo can now better serve the thousands of guests who visit each week with the help of 10 new solar-powered golf carts, donated by the Green Mountain Energy Sun Club®. The trams, funded by a $100,000 grant from the Sun Club, enhance the zoo's existing sustainability initiatives while enabling zoo employees to get around the 42-acre park more quickly and efficiently.
Each solar-powered golf cart can generate enough clean energy to drive more than 1,600 miles annually, which is about the same as driving from the zoo to the Statue of Liberty 16 times! The amount of carbon dioxide emissions avoided by using renewable energy to power the vehicles is like planting 200 trees every year the golf carts are in operation. The use of solar power to charge the golf carts reduces the amount of traditional electricity needed to recharge the vehicles by 50 percent.
"Every non-profit the Sun Club works with is unique, and every sustainability project is different," said Tony Napolillo, executive director of the Sun Club. "Philadelphia Zoo was chosen to receive this solar donation because of its positive influence in the Philadelphia community and its integrated conservation strategy that includes educational programming, wildlife conservation campaigns and onsite operational sustainability."
The Sun Club began in 2002 as a program of Green Mountain Energy, the nation's longest serving renewable energy retailer. Since then, the Sun Club has donated more than $3.8 million to sustainable programs in New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Texas. Contributions to the Sun Club come from Green Mountain, as well as the company's residential customers, employees and supporters who believe in the program's mission to support local non-profit organizations through solar and sustainability projects. In addition to this donation to the zoo, the Sun Club has dedicated solar projects to other ...
