Is your energy really green? Why it matters where it comes from

At its simplest, the system works like this: the more people who choose green energy, the greater the demand there is, the bigger the political will for change becomes, the easier it is to build new green energy and the quicker we end our dependence on climate-wrecking fossil fuels.

Even in today’s turbulent world, choosing green energy remains a powerful and effective way to drive change.

Just think, when Ecotricity was founded just over 30 years ago as the world’s first green energy company, the idea was derided by entrenched fossil fuel interests. But thanks to people all over Britain seeing past the lies, we were able to get on with building wind and solar parks all over the country.

Three decades later, renewables generated an incredible 52.5 per cent of the UK’s electricity in 2025. We’re getting there as a country – but we need to pick up the pace!

Most energy companies are run for the benefit of international shareholders. They take the profit generated from your monthly bills and pay it out as dividends, often sending British bill-payers' money overseas.

At Ecotricity, we do things differently.

We’re owned by our founder, Dale Vince, who pays taxes in the UK and is advocating for higher taxes for the super-rich. He’s also campaigning to lower household bills by “breaking the link” between the soaring cost of fossil gas and the price of the cheap, green electricity we generate right here in Britain.

We’re a not-for-dividend company - we take the money from our customers’ bills and reinvest it into building new sources of green energy. We call this Bills into Mills.

If a supplier also offers dirty electricity - made from fossil fuels - you’re effectively helping to keep that going even if you choose one of their ‘green’ tariffs. Many companies simply buy cheap paper certificates (called REGOs) to ‘match’ the fossil-fuel energy they buy from the grid. This does absolutely nothing to help green up Britain’s energy network.

At Ecotricity, we don't just buy green energy - we build and generate it, too. When you’re with us, you’re supporting actual wind and sun parks that we’re building right here in Britain.

This is a serious problem for the climate because agriculture and deforestation together account for a significant share of global greenhouse gas emissions – and animal farming is one of the biggest contributors within agriculture.

This means that suppliers who generate ‘green’ electricity like this are needlessly supporting climate-wrecking agricultural practices.

That’s why you should be certain your green energy is vegan.

Ecotricity is the only energy company in the world certified as vegan by both The Vegan Society and Viva!, the vegan charity.

To help you make an informed choice, there are several independent organisations who do serious research into what energy companies claim versus what they do in practice: