Eversource has long been committed to leadership in environmental, social and governance (ESG) areas. We understand the increasing concerns about the impacts of climate change, and we accept the profound responsibility we have as the region’s largest energy provider to deliver solutions that will lessen the burden — especially for those who have borne disproportionate environmental burdens in the past. These are complex challenges, requiring us to rethink the way we do business and serve our communities. The 10,000 employees of Eversource are stepping up and responding with actions that reduce our region’s greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint in the near term while laying the long-term groundwork for a clean energy future. 

In 2023, we made significant progress toward our goal to reach carbon neutrality from our operations by 2030, with over a 30% reduction in emissions from our baseline year of 2018. Separately, in December 2023, we submitted our application to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) seeking validation of a new GHG target, which will address emissions from scope 1, scope 2 and indirect scope 3 sources. This new target and related initiatives support aggressive state and regional emission reduction goals while we maintain our focus on top-tier reliability, superior customer service and effective corporate governance. 

We continued to serve as a catalyst for clean energy in 2023. Eversource received positive national attention for our first-in-the-nation networked geothermal pilot project in Framingham, Massachusetts. We invested in electric vehicle charging stations across our service area and proposed additional solar energy projects coupled with battery storage. We broke ground on a first-of-itskind transmission project to both strengthen our system and lay the groundwork for the integration of offshore wind on Cape Cod, and we are working to raise awareness of the need for system investments to support increased electrification and distributed generation. One major effort in this direction is our Massachusetts Electric Sector Modernization Plan, an extensive document that provides a roadmap of the investments Eversource will need to make over the next five to 10 years to help the state achieve its emission reduction targets. 

Despite financial and supply chain challenges that affected every participant in the offshore wind industry, Eversource’s joint venture with Ørsted achieved a major milestone in 2023 with the production of the first power by our South Fork Wind project. We take tremendous pride in CEO Message 3 contents helping to move American offshore wind from a dream to a reality — a new industry that is producing both clean electricity and well-paying jobs. Although Eversource has announced agreements to sell its ownership shares in our offshore wind projects, we will continue to support this important new source of clean energy by procuring wind power for our customers, and by building the transmission and infrastructure upgrades needed to connect offshore wind projects to the regional grid. 

We are working to incorporate equity into all of our decisions and actions. I’m pleased to report that we completed our initial round of internal Equity Fundamentals training ahead of schedule, with 100% of employees taking the training by the end of the year. Additional opportunities for our organization to learn about equity and environmental justice are planned for 2024. We also maintained our commitments to environmental and social justice and diversity, equity and inclusion, again surpassing our board-level goal for hiring women and diverse employees for leadership positions. Eversource has produced a separate Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Report, and I encourage you to review that report for a detailed summary of our recent work in this important area. 

Finally, Eversource provided its usual strong support for our communities through volunteering and nearly $6.8 million in charitable giving. We again held our successful signature events, helping charities across New England raise over $2.5 million. Additionally, more than 6,000 Eversource employees donated over 31,000 hours of volunteer time, participating in company-organized volunteer opportunities. Our dedication to ESG resulted in numerous independent national recognitions, which are listed in more detail in this report. 

The achievements and success stories outlined in our Sustainability Report are the result of the hard work and focus of Eversource’s dedicated, smart, diverse team of employees. I am tremendously proud to lead this team as we continue to incorporate our ESG focus into all areas of our operations in 2024.