We believe climate change is real.
These are the facts: our climate is changing, human activity is contributing, and we must reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Transitioning our nation to a clean energy future will require profound changes. And Exelon has embraced the challenge.
Exelon operates one of the nation’s cleanest power generation fleets and is a leader in renewable energy. We’re the nation’s 14th largest wind energy producer and a major developer of solar power. But there’s much more to the story.
Exelon set an ambitious carbon reduction goal and met it years ahead of schedule.
In 2014, Exelon reduced or avoided more than 18 million metric tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, achieving our 2020 goal years early. We took an enterprise-wide approach that included slashing emissions in our own operations, helping customers and communities reduce theirs, and putting more clean energy on the grid to displace energy from higher carbon sources.
Exelon has 16 LEED-certified buildings and, with upcoming renovations and upgrades, more on the way. (LEED is a set of rating systems for the design, construction, operation, and maintenance of green buildings.)
Nearly half of our vehicle fleet is alternative-fuel and hybrid vehicles.
Exelon is continually reducing waste, from identifying less hazardous or better-performing products to decreasing discarded paper in our offices. We have excellent recycling operations – our recycling rate was nearly 70 percent in 2014 – and look for ways to prevent waste before it is even created.
It’s also our business to preserve wildlife, habitats, and natural resources.
Maintaining biodiversity is part of any environmental mission – so we identify and protect rare, threatened and endangered species and sensitive habitats around our facilities.
Exelon has a long-standing partnership with the Wildlife Habitat Council to restore and enhance wildlife habitats at our facilities. Wherever our facilities may affect water systems or aquatic life, we’ve instituted measures that protect fish and their migration patterns. We fund sediment control projects, and protect and preserve wetlands. In 2014, more than 98 percent of the approximately 37.9 billion gallons of water used by Exelon-operated facilities per day was directly returned to the source.
Under our transmission lines, we support diverse, natural ecology on our properties, and mitigate adverse impacts our operations may cause. When a threatened species - such as Bald Eagles, Peregrine Falcons or the Hines Emerald dragonfly – make its home on our sites, we work with local endangered species officials and government agencies to protect them.
At times, environmental stewardship requires environmental leadership.
Exelon helps customers make smarter use of energy – and we have the same expectations of our suppliers. We’ve greened our supply chain, vetting vendors with rigorous environmental policy questionnaires. We’re working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to establish a Green Supplier Network. And we’re a founder of the Electric Utility Industry Sustainable Supply Chain Alliance, establishing the standards and metrics needed to measure success.
In 2014, for the ninth consecutive year, Exelon was included in the Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index. We were also named to CDP’s S&P 500 Climate Disclosure Leadership Index for the fifth year, recognized for our transparency and data quality in our disclosure of climate-related information. Exelon also ranked No. 61 among the 500 largest publicly traded companies in the U.S. in the 2015 Newsweek Green Rankings.
At Exelon, we believe a brighter, more sustainable future is on the way, and we are helping to get there.
