FAQs about subscribing to naturemade-certified energy

Many energy suppliers now offer environmentally friendly products – check with your supplier whether they do. Keep an eye out for the naturemade basic or naturemade star quality label when comparing your supplier’s product range. If your energy supplier does not offer any certified products, you can also improve the quality of the energy you consume by purchasing a certificate from another supplier (added environmental value). Visit www.naturemade.ch for more information about suppliers of such certificates.

Physically, electricity is the same, whether it was generated in a nuclear power plant, a solar or hydroelectric power plant, and you will not have a separate power line installed that connects your home directly to the chosen power plant. However, certification and annual reviews ensure that the exact quantity and quality of electricity you have subscribed to is fed into the power grid and supplied only once – to you.

For electricity that’s no problem, as each apartment has its own power meter, and so you can determine how you wish to cover your electricity needs – by using green or conventional power. If your supplier does not offer a suitable product, you can also buy the added environmental value from another supplier.

If the building you live in is heated with natural gas, you can additionally purchase biogas certificates directly from your local gas supplier or another supplier.

The more customers subscribe to eco-power, the more environmentally friendly power needs to be generated, resulting in more green plants needing to be built and other, undesirable plants being shut down in the medium to long term. Consumers’ active choices therefore impact on the power mix.

Every subscription to eco-power or power from renewable energies contributes to a greening of the overall electricity supply available in the Swiss power grid. The more environmentally friendly power people buy, the more new plants such as solar, biomass and wind power plants need to be built, or hydroelectric power plants be greened. Every purchase of naturemade-certified electricity contributes to the funding model (construction of new plants) and ensures that additional funds are paid into the mandatory environmental improvement funds managed by hydroelectric power plants.