Greenpeace Energy

In 1998, Greenpeace started a renewable energy initiative called "power shift". There, consumers could choose to switch to a green electricity provider. As more and more consumers agreed to switch to an environmentally friendly provider, Greenpeace found no electricity provider that met all the criteria for environmental sustainability, and supply the increasing demand for sustainable energy. As a solution, Greenpeace Energy was founded in 1999, as an electricity provider that produces a large part of its electricity from renewable sources. The areas of network management and energy billing are not adopted by Greenpeace Energy itself but by its affiliate company, Stadtwerke Schwäbisch Hall, as a service provider.

Greenpeace Energy chose to establish itself in the legal form of a registered cooperative (eG). The motivation for this decision was that it allows Greenpeace Energy to be independent of banks and major shareholders and build equity on a wide base of shareholders to offer as well as favorable current. Therefore, at present no returns will be distributed to the shareholders (as of 2011).

Membership in the cooperative is formally dependent on the current reference - according to the statute, can be excluded a cooperative member who "does not cover its demand for electrical energy supplies through the Cooperative". This right part of the cooperative is expressly not perceived, what results are based on the fact that some members of the cooperative power of Greenpeace Energy can not relate. A cooperative member has at least one, and can hold a maximum of one hundred shares of €55. As usual with cooperatives, each member has regardless of the number of shares only one vote at the General Meeting. In this way, a takeover, or any interference is excluded by large investors. By his own admission, the cooperative explicitly does not pursue the goal of maximizing profits.

From the border of 1,500 members occurs a representative assembly in place of the General Assembly. Fifty elected representatives of the members then represent the rights of the members. Since Greenpeace Energy has significantly more members every four years, representatives are elected (the last election was 2009). The selection of representatives is made by a selection committee. The tasks of Representatives correspond according to cooperative law duties of the General Assembly: members can vote on motions, select the Supervisory Board and the Management Board or released and vote on their workload, and decide on the distribution of any surplus.

Greenpeace Energy works on the basis of the "Greenpeace criteria for clean energy." The determination of these criteria was carried out by the Greenpeace e. V., an adaptation to the market conditions was last held in January 2008.