Viridian Energy Holds Third Annual PowerUP! Convention

NORWALK, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Viridian Energy, a leading provider of affordable, green retail energy, today announced its third annual PowerUP! convention, held in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The three day event celebrated Viridian’s substantial growth over the past year, focusing on the positive environmental impact customers have enabled to date and outlined plans for driving further adoption of Viridian’s green energy offerings. The company, now in its fourth year, has already achieved a customer base of more than 200,000 and avoided more than 452 million pounds of carbon emissions.

“In order to maintain our growth rate and contribution to the health of the environment, it is increasingly important to invigorate our sales force and provide tools and resources to move forward as a company,” said Michael Fallquist, founder and CEO of Viridian Energy. “We put this event together with the intent of creating a transformative experience that will drive the business and provide more individuals an opportunity to live a greener lifestyle. We look forward to continuing to report positive impacts from these efforts.”

This year, Viridian set a new standard for the convention, purchasing carbon offsets for all attendees’ travel and RECs for the entire usage of Bally’s Hotel and Casino through the entirety of the event, thus making the venue itself completely carbon neutral during the convention.

Key announcements at this year’s convention included foundational growth plans for Viridian; product expansion, a new business management platform, and new training programs. The fall edition of the Green Energy Observer was also released. Other key announcements were the future launches into Delaware and Washington DC, the launch of natural gas, a 25 percent increase in customer base, and a 51 percent increase in corporate employee count.

Viridian also revealed Indonesia as the third location of its “7 Continents in 7 Years” global sustainability initiative. Since 2010 Viridian has completed a major project on a different continent each year including rainforest reforestation in Brazil and solar panel installation and lighting systems in schools and health posts in Ghana.

“The remarkable milestones Viridian has achieved would not be possible without our dedicated associates,” said Meredith Berkich, SVP of Viridian Network. “We want to provide every tool and resource our associates may require. Studies show a measurable gain in the success of associates that attend conventions and we’re pleased to support them as they grow their business.”

The convention featured speakers including John T. Fleming, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Direct Selling News, Suzanne Shelton, CEO of The Shelton Group, and Josh Dorfman, author of, “The Lazy Environmentalist,” on topics ranging from sustainability going mainstream and living greener to business strategies and personal success. Breakout sessions with company leadership provided in-depth training, marketing tips and tools, social media strategies, regulatory and compliance information.

Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year 2012 in the New York, Cleantech category, awarded to Michael Fallquist, and Viridian’s Direct Selling Association 2012 ETHOS Rising Star Award were also highlighted.

About Viridian Energy

Viridian Energy is a socially responsible retail energy supplier that provides greener electricity at an affordable price. The company services commercial and residential electricity and natural gas customers in Connecticut, Delaware (Fall 2012), Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C. (Fall 2012) with electricity derived from renewable sources. In all of its markets, Viridian offers consumers discounted electricity rates that comply with a higher renewable energy content standard. Located in Norwalk, Conn., Viridian was founded with the vision to empower its customers to make a significant collective impact through a relatively small individual choice simply by switching energy providers.

Viridian Energy Brings Light to African Villages Through Sustainable Energy Project

NORWALK, Conn.--(Solar Energy News)--According to the United Nations Group on Energy and Climate Change, 1.5 billion people worldwide have no access to electricity, and one billion more have access to only unreliable electricity. With these statistics in mind, Viridian Energy, a leading provider of affordable, green retail energy, traveled to Ghana to complete year two of their seven year initiative, ‘7 Continents in 7 Years’. For year two, completed February 28, 2012, Viridian Associates partnered with World Joy and Empower Playgrounds to provide sustainable energy to the Atiwa District, specifically in the villages of Asonafo, Abrenya and Wekpeti, in Ghana, West Africa.

Viridian sent 34 independent sales associates and corporate team members to install solar panels on schools, health posts and community libraries in the rural villages. In the villages of Abrenya and Wepeti, Viridian associates installed solar panels that enabled the schools to implement lantern checkout systems, giving students an opportunity to study by lamplight in the comfort of their own home. For most children the lanterns were the first lights the children had ever seen inside their home after the sun had gone down. Also in the villages of Abrenya and Wepeti, Viridian associates installed merry-go-rounds on the school playgrounds that generate electricity for the schools.

“What a remarkable and joyful thing it was, to witness light in a home after dark where none had existed before,” said Cami Boehme, Viridian VP of Marketing and Brand Communications. “I do not know what was brighter, the light in the eyes of the parents and children, or the light of the lanterns! Abrenya, until only two months ago, did not even have a road leading to it, one had to walk to it by foot, and the nearest road was an hour and a half away. Being a part of the Viridian team that brought lanterns for the students, installed merry-go-rounds on the schools’ playgrounds, and introduced sustainable energy to the villagers made me grateful to work for a company who is ready and willing to meet the energy needs of other countries.”

In Asonafo, Viridian Associates installed solar panels on the community library and the new health post. Before the installation of the panels the power for the building was supplied from an unreliable power grid that would work in sporadic frequencies. This meant that refrigeration was not available in this remote area, and therefore important pharmaceuticals could not be stored. The solar panels now allow the health post to have consistently running refrigerators to store life-saving pharmaceuticals which were previously only accessible in urban pharmacies long distances away.

“Year two of our ‘7 Continents in 7 Years’ initiative was eye-opening,” said Michael Fallquist, Founder and CEO of Viridian. “After installing the solar panels and speaking with the people in the villages in which we worked, we came to the that the panels not only provided sustainable energy to a remote community, but access to reliable, sustainable power transformed the residents’ lives and reshaped their futures. To be in such a position to help these communities renewed our dedication to our core mission: promoting and furthering global sustainability. We are excited to begin planning year three of our seven year initiative.”

To ensure that the project is sustainable, Viridian associates helped educate the residents on how to maintain the new equipment. In addition, World Joy will periodically visit the villages to help maintain the solar panels.

Viridian Energy’s ‘7 Continents in 7 years’ initiative is to undertake a major sustainability project on each of the seven continents over a period of seven years, and serves as the global component of the company’s sustainability initiative, ‘Local Change, Global Impact’. Year one, Viridian Associates traveled to Brazil to replant trees in deforested areas of the Amazon.

To learn more about Viridian Energy and its sustainability initiatives, including ‘7 Continents in 7 Years,’ please visit www.viridian.com.

About Viridian Energy

Viridian Energy is a socially-responsible retail energy supplier that provides natural gas and greener electricity at an affordable price. The company services commercial and residential electricity customers in Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania with energy derived from renewable sources. In all of its markets, Viridian offers consumers discounted electricity rates that comply with a higher renewable energy content standard. Located in Norwalk, Conn., Viridian was founded with the vision to empower its customers to make a significant collective impact through a relatively small individual choice simply by switching energy providers.