A couple of IT companies made a strong showing on the EPA’s National Top 50 list of renewable energy buyers. According to the EPA, companies qualify for inclusion by meeting the following conditions:

Organizations can meet EPA Partnership requirements using any combination of three different product options: (1) Renewable Energy Certificates, (2) On-site generation, and (3) Utility green power products.

Microsoft’s chief environmental strategist, Robert Bernard, wrote a Software Enabled Earth blog post about how Microsoft scored third place.

According to the EPA’s Green Power Partnership program, Microsoft earned this recognition by purchasing more than 1.1 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power annually, which is enough green power to meet 46 percent of our electricity use, and is the annual equivalent to taking more than 150,000 passenger vehicles off the road. Our choice to purchase high-quality renewable energy certificates (RECs) from Sterling Planet also helped us earn this distinction.

And expect more news about new green initiatives from Microsoft in the coming weeks, he writes. Kudos!

If you’re wondering who’s occupying the top spot — and somehow missed the title of this post — it was Intel. The chipmaker bought over 2.5 billion kWh of green energy, enough to cover 88 percent of its power consumption. Kohls, a chain of retail stores, is nestled between the two in second place.

Intel and Microsoft weren’t the only technology companies to rank on the EPA’s Top 50 list. Here’s a (short) list of some others:

Company – Ranking

Cisco – 17
Sprint – 26
Dell – 41
Google – 48

Image credit: Harlequin_colors – Flickr – CC