We’re building a clean energy future for our customers, communities and our own families here at Eversource. It’s why we’ve made one of the most ambitious goals of its kind – to have our operations be carbon neutral by 2030.

Reaching our carbon neutral goal will require significant work ahead as we evaluate all opportunities for emissions reduction. We're focused on working collaboratively and fostering innovation to enhance efficiencies, introduce new technologies, and drive our emissions as close to zero as possible. 

Since our baseline year of 2018, we've seen a 25% reduction in GHG emissions, proving that our efforts are helping us move in the right direction.

Our Path to Carbon Neutrality: 

We plan to achieve our goal of carbon neutrality by eliminating or reducing our emissions in five key areas.

Line loss refers to the loss of electricity as it travels across the grid, and is one of the electric industry's biggest sources of indirect emissions. We're improving the efficiency of our grid to reduce the amount of electricity lost, and partnering with states to incorporate more sources of clean energy, which will minimize emissions from line loss.

We expect emissions from line loss to be our greatest challenge in achieving our carbon neutral target. However, as our region integrates more carbon free energy sources, the carbon intensity of the energy in our grid will decrease, thereby reducing the impact of line loss on our GHG footprint.

Methane emissions can leak out of aging natural gas pipes and release into the atmosphere. Since 2018, we have replaced more than 610 miles of this old pipe. We plan to replace 143 more miles in 2023, and we've increased our pledge to the EPA to now target a 6% replacement rate.

Plus, we're focused on long-term solutions to decarbonize our natural gas customers that include exploring clean technology alternatives like networked geothermal, clean hydrogen and renewable natural gas.

Our facilities are constantly undergoing upgrades to reduce electricity and fuel use. We're upgrading heating and cooling systems, installing LED lights, and implementing strategic changes to improve building envelopes, and integrating renewable energy when possible. We've also purchased over 61,600 MWh of renewable energy for our facilities, and Aquarion's rooftop solar project now produces 246 MW that's used on site. 

Our fleet is a key tool in keeping your power and gas running safely and reliably, and we're focused on reducing it's fuel consumption. In 2022, we continued to adopt hybrid vehicles, and replaced more than 37% of our fleet diesel with a biofuel blend. We have also partnered with experts who specialize in emissions reduction, and are exploring emerging fuel sources like renewable diesel and hydrogen. Over 22% of our bucket trucks utilized hybrid technology by the end of 2022, and we aim to have a 100% hybrid fleet by 2030. 

Sulfur-hexafluoride (SF₆) is a chemical we rely on to insulate high voltage switches in our transmission system, but it can leak into the atmosphere. We're making great progress reducing this greenhouse gas through strong maintenance and improved internal tracking, which has supported a 17% reduction of SF₆ emissions from 2021 to 2022. We're also working with partners to research and test solutions that could replace SF₆ in our system, and we have designed key equipment - such as a substation in Cambridge, Mass - to be ready to accommodate these non-SF₆ gasses

Science-Based Target Commitment

Our carbon neutral goal is one of the most aggressive in the country, however the most current science suggests the challenges of climate change call for even more aggressive carbon reduction action. In November 2022, we committed to taking those steps by setting a science-based target. This target will be grounded in the most current climate science and recommendations for limiting global warming in collaboration with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), a partnership of prominent environmental nongovernmental organizations. 

We are working to develop specific, measurable, near-term greenhouse gas reduction targets in order to seek approval from the SBTi within 24 months of our commitment.