TDÂ’s green machines will be truly green

TD Canada Trust began powering its network of 2,600 automatic banking machines across Canada with renewable energy.

Through partnerships with Toronto and Calgary-based Bullfrog Power and the Pembina Institute in Calgary, TD will purchase 6,432 megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity annually from Canadian wind farms, solar panels and low-impact hydro projects.

According to Marlo Raynolds, executive director of Pembina, the purchase is equivalent to the total energy used annually by close to 1,000 Canadian homes.

"It's not an amount of electricity that's going to add a bunch of wind turbines," he said. "But it sends a signal to the industry that companies are beginning to take these actions and, cumulatively, they're all going to add up."

Matthew Cram, a spokesperson for TD Financial Group, said the initiative is also a way to raise awareness about alternative energy.

"Think about how many TD customers use the bank machines," he said. "Every time they do that now they're going to get the message that it's powered by green power" through a notice that will appear on the screen.

TD Bank Financial Group serves 17 million customers worldwide and produced 138,548 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in 2006. The company has less than two years to meet its goal of making its Canadian operations carbon neutral by 2010.