As part of Exelon’s commitment to keeping the public informed of its performance in the areas of economic, environmental and social sustainability, the company Tuesday announced it has released its 2013 corporate sustainability report.
“We’re proud of the progress we’ve made toward our sustainability goals and remain dedicated to creating value for customers, shareholders, communities and employees,” said Chris Crane, Exelon’s president and CEO. “In addition, we will continue to advocate for market rules and policies that will help shape a reliable, clean and sustainable energy future.”
The report presents a comprehensive record of Exelon’s sustainability performance in 2013. Among the highlights, Exelon:
— Produced record generation output from its nuclear fleet, which had a 94.1 percent capacity factor. Exelon-owned nuclear generation avoided an estimated 87 million metric tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – equivalent to the annual emissions of more than 18 million passenger vehicles. (Source: U.S. EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator)
— Achieved its best-ever operating year across its three utilities – BGE, ComEd and PECO – each of which improved over 2012 in all key metrics, including safety, reliability, customer service and customer satisfaction.
— Produced more than 5.8 million megawatt hours of electricity from renewable sources and added 153 megawatts of new solar capacity.
— Returned directly to the source more than 99 percent of the approximately 34.2 billion gallons of water per day utilized by Exelon-operated facilities.
— Delivered its best-ever OSHA recordable rate for employee safety.
— Provided more than $32.3 million in grants and more than 96,000 employee volunteer hours to non-profit organizations to improve the quality of life in the communities it serves.
— Sourced $906 million from diversity-certified suppliers, surpassing its 2013 goal.
— Returned an estimated 94 percent of its net revenue to the economy, through purchases of materials, goods and services; employee compensation and benefits and contracting expenses; and dividends, interest and taxes.
The report also presents Exelon’s achievement, seven years early, of its Exelon 2020 goal to eliminate 17.5 million metric tons of GHG emissions in a year by 2020. Through operational emissions reductions, customer energy efficiency programs and introducing more clean energy, Exelon surpassed its goal, reducing or avoiding more than 18 million metric tons of GHG emissions in 2013.
Exelon’s sustainability performance owes much to its industry-leading fleet of nuclear power plants, which play an important role in the company’s low emissions profile and support national GHG emission goals.
As detailed in the report, Exelon’s nuclear fleet is one of the most efficient in the world, and removing the reliable, clean energy it produces from the U.S. energy mix would jeopardize the nation’s ability to meet its goal of reducing GHG emissions by 17 percent by 2020.
In recognition of Exelon’s sustainability performance, the company has been named to the North America Dow Jones Sustainability Index for eight consecutive years. The company was also the only U.S. utility to be included in CDP’s 2013 Global 500 Climate Disclosure Leadership Index and Climate Performance Leadership Index.
In addition to the interactive report on Exelon’s website, a downloadable PDF of the report is available online.