White Wave has become the largest company in the United States to replace all the electricity it uses in its manufacturing and operations with wind power, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Boulder, Colo., maker of Silk purchased 20 million kilowatt hours of wind power from Renewable Choice Energy in Longmont, Colo., and Bonneville Environmental Foundation in Portland, Ore.

Switching from electricity to wind power will increase White Wave's utility bill by about $300,000 a year, but the company won't raise the prices of its soy products, President Steve Demos said.

"This is just a continuation of our commitment to return a portion of our profits to meaningful and environmentally sustainable business practices," he said.

More than 98 percent of the energy that fuels the nation's power grid comes from coal, gas and nuclear energy, according to the EPA. White Wave's purchase will save about 32 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions each year, equivalent to taking 3,200 cars off the road. "Conventional electricity generation is the nation's single largest industrial source of air pollution," said Kurt Johnson, director of the EPA's Green Power Partnership.