Sustainability Report: Skim it again and again

Last week, Duke Energy published its seventh Sustainability Report – the first since the merger with Progress Energy in July 2012.

To be honest, I’ll skim it today. I’ll stop to mull over some interesting fact – like the $2.5 billion the company has invested in renewable energy since 2007.

Next week, I’ll probably skim it again, double-checking the percent of Gen X’ers in the company’s workforce – 32.7 percent.

The following week, I’m back again to see what the typical cost per kilowatt-hour is for a U.S. resident (12.83 cents) versus the typical Duke Energy customer in Kentucky (8.77 cents).

Do you see a trend? Duke Energy’s 2012 Sustainability Report is a great reference tool all year long. It’s a comprehensive overview of all that we’re doing to be a more sustainable company – filled with facts and data you’ll be looking for soon enough.

It also showcases Duke Energy employees in the “Living it” section – reporting on what they are doing to support sustainability in their personal lives.

As Duke Energy seeks to be more transparent with our stakeholders, the company has laid out interesting facts and figures about the operations of our company, and the goals the company is striving for. Some of the data is being published for the first time.

• As part of Duke Energy’s $9 billion generation fleet modernization program, the company will retire more than 3,400 megawatts of older coal-fired units by the end of 2013. That number will grow to 6,300 megawatts of coal capacity retired over the next few years.
• Investments in new power plants and upgrades at other units have reduced sulfur dioxide emissions by 83 percent and nitrogen oxides emissions by 64 percent since 2005.
• The company has set a goal of owning or purchasing 6,000 megawatts of wind, solar and biomass energy by 2020.
• Since 2010, Duke Energy and Progress Energy combined have distributed nearly 37 million CFLs to customers.
• Economic development efforts helped attract more than $3.5 billion in capital investment and about 13,000 jobs to Duke Energy service territories in 2012.

So don’t worry about not reading it all today. Feel free to browse, scan, peruse, skim – maybe just look at the photos. If you’re like me, you’ll be back.