The Denver Post quoted AEE's Director Caitlin Marquis in this piece about Fortune 500 companies in Colorado (Ball Corp., Vail Resorts, and DaVita Kidney Care) adopting 100% renewable energy programs. Read excerpts below and the entire Denver Post story here.

When you’re a Ball Corp., Vail Resorts or DaVita Kidney Care, your carbon footprint can be massive. On the flip side, that footprint, which spreads across multiple locations in this and other countries, can be transformative if your goal is to go 100% renewable energy.

That’s exactly what the Colorado-based Fortune 500 companies are aiming to do. All three have set targets for phasing out the use of fossil fuels and reducing their greenhouse-gas emissions.

They’re among a growing number of large, multinational corporations that are taking steps to use more clean energy and shrink their carbon footprints. The reasons vary: economics; pressure from employees and investors; demands from customers; looking for a competitive edge; internal beliefs. Or all of the above.

“I definitely think there’s a trend where this started 10 years ago or so with the first companies signing power-purchase agreements,” said Caitlin Marquis, a policy director with Advanced Energy Economy, a national organization of businesses adopting clean energy and new technologies.

A power-purchase agreement is a long-term contract with a renewable energy developer. A majority of the Fortune 100 companies have set some kind of renewable energy and sustainability goals, Marquis said.

“You can look at price trends for renewables as one factor, but also there’s just a lot more experience in this space from a few trailblazing companies,” Marquis said. “I think companies are driven either by customers, by their employees, peers, investors, by their boards and in many cases by their leadership...”

Read the entire Denver Post story here.