Why is Ecotricity Britain’s Overall Greenest Energy Company?
To be clear on our use of this phrase - we are not saying that we are the greenest purely in terms of energy supplied; we are saying that we are the greenest energy company overall. We go broader and deeper than any other energy company in Britain and we set out how we do that below.
There are at least 3 different bodies that have published green energy supplier rankings.
They take different approaches and none of them focus only on being green. For example, Ethical Consumer looks at suppliers’ tax behaviour, and Which looks at the actual energy supply in more detail. Matched Energy’s ranking is flawed as it lists non-green energy in suppliers’ fuel mix calculations.
Despite all of this, we come out top when you average out the leading suppliers’ rankings across these three different analyses and adjust the Matched ranking by removing the non-green energy fuel.
The table below shows that Ecotricity comes out on top when you average out the scores from leading suppliers across these three independent industry rankings.
Independent Energy Supplier Company Rankings
TABLE
The breadth and depth of our work on green issues is unmatched
Ecotricity operates on a not-for dividend business model, whereby profits are re-invested in the mission to bring about a greener Britain. Our competitors operate traditional shareholder dividend models.
Ecotricity is the only energy company in the UK to offer officially vegan-certified energy, a certification it holds from both The Vegan Society and the charity Viva! Those certifications confirm that we are the only energy company that ensures that no animal body parts enter the supply chain of our energy.
Ecotricity is driving decarbonisation in sectors such as live music, outdoor events, TV and film production as part of the UN Climate Change Accelerator City programme in Liverpool.
Ecotricity Limited has been ISO 14001-certified since 2020
All of Ecotricity Limited company vehicles are electric.
Ecotricity’s staff canteen in Stroud provides, 100% plant based meals to all staff.
The Green Britain Foundation, the charity linked to and supported by Ecotricity, runs a national educational programme across all schools in the UK, it supports rewilding and biodiversity in sites totalling nearly 700 acres across the UK & it patrols the seas around the UK to recover "ghost gear" (abandoned fishing nets) to remove marine debris
Forest Green Rovers Football Club, part of our group, is a founding signatory of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Sports for Climate Action programme – which represents our activities in the world of sport pushing global sustainability & our founder is a UN Climate Ambassador.
Each of our competitors engages in some similar activities, but our commitment and investment across the range of green and ethical issues puts us ahead as Britain’s overall greenest energy company.
Sources and references
Our vegan power certification - https://www.ecotricity.co.uk/our-green-energy/vegan-energy
Our environmental footprint & ISO 14001 - https://www.ecotricity.co.uk/our-story/our-environmental-footprint
Our 30 year mission to create a greener Britain - https://www.ecotricity.co.uk/our-story/our-history
Ministry of Eco Education’s National Education Programme - - https://www.ministryofeco.org/
The Green Britain Foundation - https://www.greenbritainfoundation.co.uk/
The UNFCCC Liverpool Accelerator City Programme - https://cultureliverpool.co.uk/accelerator-city/
The World’s Greenest Football Club and new Eco Park Stadium - https://www.fgr.co.uk/eco-park/
Independent Energy Supplier Rankings - Further Details
(1) Which? and Ethical Consumer rankings.
Which? and Ethical Consumer each consider a range of criteria in their rankings. Some of these criteria overlap but taken together they represent a broad assessment of issues which are likely to be of concern to “green” consumers.
We rank second (equal with Good Energy) with an 85% score on the latest Which? rankings, behind Octopus (90%) and with 100Green placed 4th (70%).
We rank second (72%) to 100Green (80%) on Ethical Consumer’s rankings, whereas Good Energy are ranked 8th (48%) and Octopus 9th (42%).
Being consistently highly placed in a diverse range of rankings supports our position that, across the range of issues which are important to green consumers, we come out ahead of those three competitors overall.
Matched Energy’s Matched Clean Power Index
On the “basic” Matched Energy Clean Power Index ranking for 2024-2025, Good Energy is rated first, with 88% clean power matching, while Ecotricity is ranked 7th and 100Green is ranked 5th.
Ecotricity does not regard nuclear energy as a green energy source. Using the Matched Energy website’s functionality to correct for nuclear energy in each supplier’s “matched” fuel mix, Ecotricity is ranked 4th (71%) behind Good Energy (88%), Bryt Energy (78%) and Drax Energy Solutions (77%).100Green is ranked 8th (55%).
Ecotricity does not regard biomass as a green or zero carbon fuel, (a position shared by the National Energy System Operator, NESO). A significant proportion of DES’s electricity is generated at Drax power station, which burns biomass “harvested” from ancient North American forests, and which can credibly be regarded as a green fuel.
Adjusting for the inclusion of nuclear and biomass in suppliers’ fuel mix, Ecotricity is ranked 2nd (71%), ahead of Octopus (68%) and Good Energy (63%).