LONDON – National Grid plc, the parent of the U.S. utility company, today announced it has raised its target for greenhouse gas emissions reduction by the company from 60 percent to 80 percent by 2050.
The U.K.-based utility company also said it would adopt new carbon budgets across its British and American electricity and natural gas businesses from April 2009 – integrating them into the management of its day-to-day business operations and company performance process – to help achieve this target.
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Integrating the carbon budgets into National Grid’s business performance process will spur a “bottom-up” employee involvement in meeting the company’s goal to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent, by encouraging employees to identify new ways to achieve the target, National Grid CEO Steve Holliday said in today’s announcement.
“Minimizing our impact on the environment while delivering safe, secure and economic supplies of energy to customers is not an option, it is a must,” Holliday said “We have already reduced our greenhouse gas emissions by 35 percent, but we need to do more.”
Over the next 12 months, National Grid will conduct a review of its operations following a protocol used by The Climate Registry, based on World Resource Institute (WRI) methodology. This will provide a detailed assessment of the carbon footprint for each National Grid business and enable managers to determine the most effective and economic ways of reducing emissions.
Annual and five-year emissions targets, measured in tons of carbon dioxide, will then be established for each business and integrated into the company’s performance process alongside customer service, reliability, operational and financial targets.
Adopting carbon budgets will allow National Grid to calculate a “shadow price” of carbon and determine emissions costs for future design, construction and maintenance of its electricity and gas networks, management of its fleet and facilities, and any potential new investments. This will ensure the company is prepared for future legislation by properly accounting for the potential cost of emissions under a carbon tax or mandatory cap and trade program.
National Grid already has implemented a variety of programs to enhance its environmental performance, including regulatory incentives schemes targeted to reduce emissions associated with gas and electricity assets, gas distribution mains replacement programs in both the United States and Great Britain.
National Grid, a division of the U.K.-based National Grid plc (NYSE: NGG, LSE: NG), distributes electricity and natural gas to nearly 4 million customers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Rhode Island. Additional information is available at www.NationalGridUS.com.
