Our 2022 Sustainability Report
See highlights from other sustainability areas or download the full PDF report for detailed data, graphs and more.
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Environmental Stewardship
Committed to protecting the land, wildlife and habitat that may interact with our operations throughout New England.
Explore Stewardship
What is Environmental Stewardship?
We manage land throughout our service territory, much of which is located within large transmission line rights-of-way. That land is a unique habitat for a variety of diverse wildlife, insects, plants and other natural resources that we strive to protect.
We also care for land that the public and property owners can enjoy, taking great care to foster biodiversity, promote conservation, protect wildlife and cultural resources.
Wildlife And Habitat Protection
The land in our right of ways (ROWs) often contains features that make it a unique habitat for plants and animals. Our environmental specialists work to help us maintain this land in a way that minimizes impacts of our operation, and preserves the biodiversity of the region.
This strategy of management can promote niche habitats that are essential to the conservation of many protected species of plants, birds, amphibians and reptiles. These areas are also essential in facilitating animal movement, as they act as patches of wilderness in more densely populated New England areas, or as travel corridors for migrating birds.
We often work in partnership with government agencies and wildlife biologists to help avoid impacting plants and animals and support a sustainable environment around our operations and infrastructure.
Invasive vegetation management
We're partnering with the University of New Hampshire to explore controlling the invasive purple loosestrife plant using targeted deployments of the Galerucella beetle in our ROWs. The Galerucella beetle was first introduced in the 1990s, and today there are only small populations left in New Hampshire.
By rearing the beetles in a controlled environment, we can deploy them in large numbers in targeted areas to manage the purple loosestrife and allow for a resurgence of native vegetation.
We've also provided funding for a natural resources inventory for the town of Whitefield Conservation Commission to help map biodiversity and find opportunities for natural restoration projects, and we've competed plant surveys and invasive species assessments throughout western Massachusetts.
Minimizing the impacts of offshore wind
In our efforts to develop offshore wind, we've partnered with Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut to study the best ways to minimize the impacts of these windfarms on marine mammals.
We've also collaborated with partners to further protect the North Atlantic right whale during the construction and operation of the South Fork Wind project.
Protecting animals that live on our land
The land we maintain and operate on is often home to a variety of larger animals. We work with partners across our states to understand which animals use this land, and how we can best work to protect them.
We partner with wildlife researchers to study black bears and bobcats living on forested habitat throughout the state of Connecticut. We've also developed a detailed turtle protection plan, which involves active-season turtle monitoring and turtle-tracking telemetry, and developed a Skiff Mountain Wildlife Management Guide in partnership with Audubon Connecticut to better project bird habitat.
Land Management and Preservation
We own and maintain approximately 40,000 acres of land throughout our service territory, along with 22,000 acres of protected watershed land, 15,000 of which is managed by a partnership with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, The Nature Conservancy and Aquarion Water Company.
Our Eversource Land Trust consists of nearly 1,000 acres of permanently protected open space, which is open to the public for recreational use.
This land has a wide variety of ecosystems, uses and conservation needs, and we work hard with our partners to promote diverse, native habitats and protect the many functions and resources.
- We take steps to prevent erosion, control invasive species and promote native environments.
- We work with our partners, regulators and nonprofit organizations to create and maintain recreation trails for passive recreation uses, for research purposes and public enjoyment.
- We take pride in being good neighbors to adjacent landowners.
Partnership with Bridgewater Land Trust
We recently entered into a license agreement with the Bridgewater Land Trust in Bridgewater, Connecticut, to open up an 80-acre space for outdoor use and education.
The property will be connected by trail to the town's abutting property, creating one interconnected open space. This land will be monitored for environmental impact, and used to promote public recreation and provide educational opportunities.
Additional plans to connect a third parcel of land, owned by the nature conservancy, are also underway.
Water management and quality
Most of our water use is from withdrawals made by our water utility, Aquarion. We strive to be responsible stewards of water resources throughout our operations.
Waste Management
Reduction, recycling, reuse and recovery are key pillars to limit the amount of waste we generate. in 2022, our programs prevented nearly 25,000 metric tons of material from going to landfills. Over the past years, we've conducted a formal assessment of all waste streams and identified opportunities to reduce the amount of waste we generate, and better track all data around our waste generation.
Our robust investment recovery program is focused on repurposing things like scrap metal, batteries, computers, vehicles and more through sale, auction and donation that would otherwise have gone to landfills. We've also started a program to refurbish old electrical transformers to "like new" condition for reuse, and partner with a vendor to recycle transformer oil.
Beneficial reuse of porcelain insulators
Our insulator recycling program was developed in partnership with our metal recycling vendor to reduce waste from out-of-service insulators that typically end up in the landfill. This program focuses on re-using porcelain glass from insulators as aggregate for road base across Connecticut. In 2022, more than 250 tons of porcelain was reused across the state.
This innovative program is serving as a model for other utilities across the U.S. to minimize waste going to landfill.