Our electric, gas and water companies strive to protect the environment while providing the best solutions for our customers and the communities we serve.

As a centerpiece of our environmental commitment, we’re dedicating ourselves to an ambitious but attainable target to be carbon neutral by 2030 and help our customers and our region reduce their carbon footprint.

We will achieve this while supporting regional economic growth and without compromising the safe, reliable, affordable service we provide to approximately 4 million customers. The benefits of our regional clean energy initiatives will more than offset Eversource’s greenhouse gas emissions.

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Climate Leadership

Reducing our Carbon Footprint from Corporate Operations

We are targeting these steps to help us reduce our emissions:

• Reduce our own energy use by improving the efficiency of our facilities and reducing fleet emissions.
• Reduce line losses in the electric transmission and distribution system.
• Reduce sulfur hexafluoride in our electrical gas-insulated switchgear.
• Replace remaining bare steel and cast-iron mains in our natural gas distribution system to improve safety and eliminate methane leaks.

Increasing Resiliency to Climate Change Impacts

To keep our system strong and reliable, we are pursuing the following actions:

• Continue to make infrastructure investments that improve our system resiliency, including vegetation management, wire hardening and pole strengthening.
• Implement a grid modernization plan that will upgrade our electric distribution infrastructure, continue to deploy smart technology to automate the system, and facilitate integration of distributed energy resources, such as solar generation.
• Improve the efficiency of our electric and gas distribution systems and continue to provide customers with ways to minimize their energy use and access clean energy solutions.

Clean Energy

As New England’s largest utility and dedicated environmental steward, we are committed to bringing more clean and affordable energy to the region.

Here are some of the ways in which we will contribute to reducing New England’s greenhouse gas emissions:

• Partner with Ørsted, the largest and most successful operator of offshore wind facilities in the world, to develop up to 4,000 MW of wind generation off the coast of New England, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by millions of tons per year.
• Maintain our #1 utility ranking in the nation for energy efficiency programs, saving our electric customers approximately 1 billion kilowatt hours per year and gas customers over 9 million therms per year. This equates to over $210 million our customers save annually.
• Foster solar development opportunities, including operation of the existing 22 Eversource facilities totaling 70 MW of solar capacity, which provides an emissions reduction benefit equal to taking 7,600 cars off the road each year.
• Develop innovative battery storage projects that reduce the need for fossil fuel-powered generation while improving power quality and reliability.
• Expand electric vehicle infrastructure, starting with the installation of approximately 3,500 charging ports in Massachusetts by the end of 2020, a 255 percent increase from 2018.
• Provide our customers with the benefits of emissions-free renewable power, such as wind, solar and hydropower, through energy supply contracts we enter into on their behalf.

Accountability

We hold ourselves accountable for the impact our business has on the environment, meeting, and in many cases, exceeding all environmental laws and regulatory commitments and requirements.

• We value our relationships with customers, community members, environmental groups and regulatory agencies, and work to be transparent with our performance.
• Suppliers and contractors are expected to adhere to all environmental laws as stated in our employee and supplier codes of conduct.
• We publicly report our emissions and sustainability efforts, including the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). We were among the first companies in the country to use standardized reporting templates developed by the Edison Electric Institute and the American Gas Association.

Stewardship

At Eversource, we take great care to promote conservation and protection of wildlife, natural and cultural resources.

• We strive to foster the long-term vitality of the land we manage, such as 1,100 acres of land held by the Eversource Land Trust which was created to promote the preservation of open space.
• Our rights-of-way maintenance practices promote diverse, native habitats and help to sustain several rare, threatened and endangered species.
• We develop best management practices for species protection and hold specialized training for our vendors to protect sensitive resources in our rights-of-way.
• Our partnership with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation works to restore and sustain healthy forests and rivers in New England.
• We partner with state Historic Preservation and Tribal Historic Preservation offices to identify and protect cultural resources of significance during construction projects.