As a 21st Century energy company, Citizens Energy believes that our environmental policies and initiatives enable us to operate our business in a more sustainable manner and challenge our employees, business partners, and clients to make a difference.

Just as we challenge others to live a more sustainable life, Citizens Energy holds itself accountable in the following environmental areas:

• Live green
• Buy green
• Travel green
• Teach green

Reducing our environmental footprint is a business imperative that challenges us to protect the world around us and contribute solutions to some of the most pressing problems that our nation and planet faces. But even as we do our small part to reduce global warming and climate change, we save money, help the people we serve, open the door to new business opportunities, and reduce future business risks.

Using Less Electricity
Citizens Energy tracks its energy consumption and aggressively pursues energy efficiency throughout our company. This reduces our utility costs and the environmental impact of our operations. Our building space has a number of features that improve our energy efficiency. Our office features energy efficient lighting fixtures, many of which are on motion detection sensors. Thus, when no one is in an office, our lights shut off automatically. In addition, much of our office space has large windows that let in considerable daylight, enabling many employees to shut off their lights entirely.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Because we lease our office space, our electricity is provided by the building’s owner, and thus, we are unable to purchase our electricity directly from renewable sources. Therefore, the company has purchased renewable-energy certificates (RECs) and carbon offsets to offset our remaining carbon footprint. Renewable-energy certificates (RECs) represent the environmental attributes of the electricity produced by specific renewable-energy projects that are sold separately from the electricity generated by those projects. RECs enable any person or organization to “green” a portion of their electricity, regardless of their location, and support renewable energy development.

Our Green-e certified RECs come from the Trimont Wind Farm in Minnesota.  To offset the carbon emissions associated with employee business travel, commutes, and other activities, we purchased carbon offset credits from a landfill gas project in East Molina, Illinois.  Together, these purchases helped Citizens Energy keep more than one million pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere in 2007.

Recycling
Recycling extends the usable life of our limited natural resources and cuts down on our carbon footprint. Citizens Energy is committed to recycling paper and cardboard, as well as electronic equipment that has outlived its usefulness, as appropriate.

Challenging Employees to Live Green Outside of Work
To encourage all full-time Citizens Energy employees to take aggressive action to reduce their energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, the company offers the following employee benefits:

• Hybrid Vehicle Subsidy: Citizens Energy will pay $2,000 towards the purchase of a new hybrid electric vehicle, or $1,000 towards the purchase of a used hybrid that was manufactured within the last three model years.
• Swap Your Parking Space for an MBTA Pass: To encourage greater use of mass transit, Citizens Energy will reimburse employees for the costs of a monthly MBTA pass if they give up their parking space.
• 25% Electricity Challenge: Employees who can demonstrate a 25% or greater reduction in their home electricity use over a one-year period as compared to the previous year receive a $500 bonus.
• Home Renewable Energy Electricity Subsidy: CEC will reimburse employees for the cost differential to buy renewable energy through their local utility.
• Residential Renewable Energy System Buy-Down: CEC will provide a $1,000 subsidy or up to 20% of the purchase cost (whichever is smaller) to employees who purchase and install renewable energy generation systems for their home.

By buying and using more environmentally preferable products, we reduce the ecological impacts of what we use. Citizens Energy has established procurement policies that:

• Require energy efficiency and environmental life cycle costs to be factored into the acquisition of computers, printers, and other electronic equipment.
• Require the purchase and use of recycled content office paper.

According to Environmental Defense, every ton of virgin office paper that is used consumes the following resources:

• Three tons of wood, or about 24 trees.
• More than 41% of the energy used by an average U.S. home in a year.
• More than 50% of the greenhouse gas emissions released by the average U.S. automobile annually.
• More than 19,000 gallons of wastewater
• More than one ton of solid waste.

To reduce those impacts, Citizens now uses post-consumer recycled content paper. When compared to one ton of virgin paper, each ton of 30% post-consumer recycled content paper consumes:

• Seven fewer trees.
• 13% less energy.
• 11% fewer greenhouse gas emissions
• 13% less wastewater.

We recognize that the work-related travel and commuting of our employees affects the use of fossil fuels and the climate.

To reduce travel-related emissions, Citizens has encouraged and reminded all employees to limit air travel when a telephone conference call would suffice. In addition, the company encourages employees who travel to rent hybrid or alternative fuel vehicles wherever possible, as well as to stay in hotels that have been certified by the Green Seal program or that participate in programs such as the Green Hotel Initiative, the Green Hotels Association, or the International Hotels Environment Initiative.

At Citizens Energy, we feel that it is vitally important to educate our employees and partners about our efforts to “green” the company, and about energy and environmental issues in general.

This year, Citizens Energy has expanded its website to help interested people live in a more sustainable manner. Our goal is to make it easy for individuals and businesses to make a difference through their interactions with Citizens Energy. Through our website, we not only provide background information on important energy and environmental issues, we also offer energy saving tips and links to an online store through which people can purchase environmentally-preferable products. And we are challenging all those who come to our website to take an energy challenge and commit to reducing energy use in their homes and businesses.