Sonterra Apartment Homes is making a difference to "Keep Austin Beautiful!" The 572 unit apartment community announces its purchase of 1,306,000 kilowatt hours of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs).

Located at 8801 Ranch Road 620 N, Sonterra Apartment Homes is the largest apartment community in Austin to purchase 100% renewable energy. Sonterra has now joined the ranks of companies such as Nike and DuPont as EPA Green Power Partners to help build a market for renewable electricity, in an effort to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign energy sources. Sonterra continues to sponsor monthly environmental events such as Trail Maintenance at the Wild Basin Preserve.

 What is renewable energy?

Renewable energy generally refers to energy derived from renewable energy sources, such as such as solar, wind, geothermal, low-impact hydro facilities, and biomass (e.g., fuel from sources such as trees, wood and agricultural wastes, fuel crops, sewage sludge, and manure). These energy sources are considered renewable because they are continuously replenished.

What Is Green Power?

The term "green power" is used to describe electricity generated from renewable energy sources with low environmental impacts. EPA's Green Power Partnership uses green power definitions developed by the Green-e renewable energy certification program. Administered by the non-profit Center for Resource Solutions, Green-e is the most widely accepted green power standard in the marketplace.

In general, Green-e eligible resources include:

• Wind energy
• Solar electric
• Geothermal (from heat in the Earth)
• Biomass (i.e., organic material, including wood and wood waste, agricultural residues [plant and animal waste], methane from landfills and digester gas [but excluding the burning of municipal solid waste])
• Eligible hydro-electric power (i.e., 30 MW or less, or hydro-electric power that is certified by the Low-Impact Hydro Institute

For more information, contact our office at 512.249.9422 or sonterraaustin@greystar.com.