{"id":94817,"date":"2021-07-20T06:57:24","date_gmt":"2021-07-20T10:57:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarpowerworldonline.com\/?p=94817"},"modified":"2021-07-20T07:07:07","modified_gmt":"2021-07-20T11:07:07","slug":"2021-greenest-melink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarpowerworldonline.com\/2021\/07\/2021-greenest-melink\/","title":{"rendered":"Solar Power World\u2019s 2021 Greenest Contractor invests in greening employee lifestyles"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Greenest Contractor award celebrates the greenest contractors making their companies and communities as environmentally friendly as possible.<\/em><\/p>\n

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The efforts of an individual are valuable, but this year\u2019s Greenest Contractors understands the threat of climate change needs to be addressed at an institutional level. Cincinnati, Ohio-based solar EPC Melink Solar <\/a>has taken its position in the renewables market seriously, enacting company-wide policies for facilities and employees to be as green as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are honored and proud to be recognized as one of the Greenest Solar Contractors in the world. And we intend to continue to help lead our industry and community toward a cleaner energy future by our example.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

-Steve Melink, founder and CEO, Melink Solar<\/div><\/em><\/p>\n

At a personnel level, the company created a pledge to have every Melink employee select the clean power option from their utility and drive an electric vehicle powered by clean energy by 2025. As of 2019, 57% of Melink employees drove electric vehicles and many of them also serve on boards or are members of local organizations promoting renewable energy, green living and general wellness, including the Greater Cincinnati Green Building Council, Green Energy Ohio, Sonlight Power and EV Cincy. The rest of the company has four more years to meet the Melink 2025 Pledge, and Melink will support employees in this process if they encounter financial barriers by offering benefit incentives, leasing programs and lower market prices for EVs.<\/p>\n

Melink is also ensuring its facilities produce little to no carbon. Both of the company\u2019s headquarters are classified as zero-energy buildings. The first was retrofitted with geothermal heating, LED lighting and other clean technologies to reach that status, and the second was built with zero-energy consumption in mind. The second HQ uses a patent-pending \u201cSuper Hybrid Geothermal\u201d HVAC system and 85 kW of large-scale solar carports with bifacial modules. The carports power the entire building and 39 additional EV charging stations. Additionally, Melink has wind turbines on site. From 2018 to 2019, onsite renewables produced 94,236 kWh of solar energy and 1,379 kWh of wind energy.<\/p>\n

Despite being in a state with regions dedicated to fossil fuel extraction and policies unfriendly toward renewables, Melink is making southern Ohio and the entire country greener.<\/p>\n