Exelon’s early commitment to responsive, low-carbon energy investment has enabled us to create advantages for our stakeholders while reducing our impacts on the environment. In 2003, we committed to a voluntary emissions reduction goal under the EPA Climate Leaders program. When we debuted Exelon 2020 in 2008, the Exelon family of companies charted a course to a low-carbon future with our industry-leading plan to abate our carbon footprint by more than 15 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year by 2020.
Now, as we are projecting to hit 75% of our goal at the close of 2011, we continue to focus on being a leading provider of reliable, low-emission energy in the communities we serve and strive to balance the environmental, social and economic aspects of electricity generation and energy distribution.
Goals
Our vision includes the following environment goals.
“Addressing climate change and embracing corporate sustainability are not only socially and environmentally beneficial, they are business imperatives.”
Our focus on Climate Change:
- Why Us? Why Now?
- While society continues to debate climate change, our conviction remains clear - climate change is real and our industrial world is a significant contributing factor. Exelon focuses on the reduction of carbon emissions because we hold an influential role as an electricity generator and distributor in seeing this industry through to a sustainable future.
1. Capitalize on environmental leadership
Exelon has a broad range of environmental initiatives, and providing clean low-carbon electricity is a cornerstone of our business strategy because of its materiality to the energy industry and its significance to the overall global community. Our voluntary action to reduce our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions has built credibility with regulators and other stakeholders, providing us an opportunity to influence the emerging public policy that drives the future of electricity generation.
- Chairman and CEO John Rowe who first testified to Congress on climate change in 1992, co-chairs the National Commission on Energy Policy (NCEP), a commission to develop bipartisan recommendations on climate change.
- As an early participant in the U.S. EPA’s Climate Leaders Program (and one of only eight electric utilities to join the program), Exelon has surpassed our commitment to reducing GHG emissions 8% below 2001 levels by achieving a 38% reduction by 2008. And through our Exelon 2020 program, we aren't stopping there.
- By participating in public listening sessions, stakeholder discussions, written comments, and delivered testimony, Exelon hopes to play a constructive role in the finalization of the GHG New Source Performance Standards (NSPS), as well as other U.S. EPA rulemakings focused on improved air quality and water resource management.
“Society may prolong the debate on the science of climate change or question the exact cost of air pollution, but we cannot debate the substantial effects on human health that sulfur dioxide, particulates, and other air toxics bring about.”
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Exelon 2020: 2011 Update
- Exelon 2020 serves as the business strategy that cements Exelon's value as the premier low-carbon company in the U.S. utility industry. Three years in, we are 56 percent towards our goal of abating 15.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per year. This is the equivalent to replacing 40 million 100 watt incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents.
Exelon 2020: 2011 Update [PDF | 8MB]
2. Adapt and advance Exelon 2020
Click image to enlarge chart
The principles of the Exelon 2020 plan include providing more low-emission electricity, helping our customers reduce their GHG emissions and reducing the overall GHG emissions in the markets in which we operate. We are making tangible progress in meeting our Exelon 2020 goals, and are expanding our focus to seek not just low-carbon electricity, but electricity generation which is clean, safe, reliable and affordable. We have been making substantial investments in cost-effective, clean energy projects and we plan to further expand these intitiatives through 2015. Each of the Exelon companies is wholly committed to the roadmap.
Of course, Exelon 2020 is not just a roadmap for reducing our carbon footprint; it is also a tool that we use to engage and educate stakeholders on the best way to respond to their evolving priorities. We have expanded this year's analysis to reflect options for reducing not only carbon, but also other pollutants. We have challenged ourselves and the industry to answer the critical question: if our nation needs clean, reliable and affordable energy supply options that can accommodate changing economics, what is the best set of generation supply options?
This new analysis reinforces the messages that have been stressed throughout the Exelon 2020 program: focus on the most cost-effective solutions to clean the nation's generation, and when possible, provide clear price signals to ensure the market meets society's desire for clean but affordable and reliable power. By modeling competing visions of cleaning the supply stack, we have shown that such an approach wins out in the areas that matter most to society.
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- Continuous Improvement
- Exelon is transitioning to The Climate Registry reporting protocols in 2011 to maintain continued transparency in it's GHG accounting following the EPA's phase-out of the Climate Leaders program.
3. Drive the organization to the next level of performance
We further generate sustainable value for our stakeholders through the Exelon environmental policy and a culture rooted in integrity, accountability and a drive for continuous improvement. We diligently manage our potential impacts to the air, land and water we use, while respecting the bio-diverse habitats in which we operate. We also strive to better understand how our interaction with the environment is integral to business success. Sound governance plays an integral role in our ability to achieve results, and provides direction for improving the company's environmental performance, as well as sets the expectations for those who work with us.
- Since 2009, Exelon has engaged with Ceres to convene an independent stakeholder team comprising individuals from a range of constituencies that have expertise in environmental, social and governance issues. The team has provided extensive feedback on the adequacy of our sustainability reporting—including performance, goals, targets, systems, impacts, data and initiatives.
- For the fifth consecutive year, Exelon has been included in the Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index (DJSI). The DJSI North America index recognizes the sustainability efforts of companies that are in the leading 20% of their sector among the 600 largest North American companies.
- In February 2011, Exelon Corporation was named to the “Bronze Class” level in SAM’s “The Sustainability Yearbook 2011” and was one of only five U.S.-based electric utilities to make the Sustainability Leaders 2010/2011 listings. SAM is an investment group focused exclusively on Sustainability Investing. Only the top-scoring 15% of 2,500 companies in each of the 58 sectors assessed are eligible for inclusion in SAM’s "Sustainability Yearbook".
- Exelon ranked No. 4 among utilities and No. 320 overall in the Newsweek magazine “2011 Green Rankings". The annual listing ranks the nation’s 500 largest publicly traded U.S. companies in terms of environmental impact, management and disclosure.
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Leadership Commitment
- In 2009, the Corporate Governance Committee of the Board of Directors revised its charter to include responsibility for overseeing Exelon’s policies and practices to protect and improve the quality of the environment, including climate change and sustainability policies and programs and the Exelon 2020 strategy.
