Pepco Holdings Achieves Top-Tier Ranking Among S&P 500 Corporate Climate Change Leaders
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Carbon Disclosure Project 2009 Results Announced during New York Climate Week
Washington - Pepco Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: POM) is “among the U.S. corporations leading efforts to tackle climate change,” according to this year’s Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) S&P 500 Report, released Monday in New York.
PHI scored 87 of a possible 100 points on the Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index (CDLI), placing it in the top 10 percent of all S&P companies, and in the top tier of all utilities: PHI is third behind PG&E (88) and PSEG (88) within the utilities sector. Comerica, within the financial sector, scored the highest of all CDL sectors with a score of 91. The CDP summary report of all sectors highlights PHI’s achievements in both the ranking presentation and the narrative of the report.
“We regard PHI’s ranking in this year’s Carbon Disclosure Project survey results as a validation of our ongoing commitment to environmental protection and resource conservation, a long-held core value that is fundamental to PHI’s identity as a good corporate citizen,” says Joseph M. Rigby, PHI’s Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. “I also see it as an endorsement of our Environmental Management System, and the hard work of all PHI employees who implement the company’s environmental policies in their roles producing energy and delivering electricity and natural gas safely and reliably to our customers.” PHI’s Environmental Management System (EMS) is a comprehensive framework for implementing its Corporate Environmental Policy within all aspects of the company's business activities and ensuring alignment of environmental practices with PHI’s business goals.
“I believe that the activities we undertake in support of environmental sustainability contribute to the company’s value,” says Rigby, who recently challenged each PHI employee “to uphold these corporate values and help enable a reliable, energy-efficient and environmentally friendly tomorrow for all of our customers.”
This year’s S&P 500 Report, produced by PricewaterhouseCoopers, received the highest response rate ever from corporations (332 responses, representing 66% of the S&P 500).
At this year’s event, Carbon Disclosure Project launched its new performance scoring pilot methodology. The performance scores measure corporations’ actual performance in responding to and reducing their contribution to climate change. The scores are intended to complement the Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index (CDLI), which rates firms according to the level and quality of their disclosure and reporting on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change strategy data. PHI, along with Boeing and Cisco Systems, led all 2009 survey participants in both carbon disclosure (CDLI) and CDP’s performance scoring pilot.
“Incorporating performance into CDP 2009 has been a positive step: it has provided distinction between observing and rewarding good reporting versus positive action,” says Paul Dickinson, CEO of Carbon Disclosure Project. “It will help show where risks are being managed and opportunities maximized, and provide investors with insight into how well companies are preparing to compete in a low carbon environment.”
The full Carbon Disclosure Project 2009 report is available at www.cdproject.net. PHI’s 2009 Environmental Sustainability Report can be viewed and downloaded at www.pepcoholdings.com.
The Carbon Disclosure Project, founded in 2000, represents some 475 global institutional investors, with more than US $55 trillion in assets under management. As an independent not-for-profit organization, CDP collects key climate change data from some 2,500 major corporations around the globe and has assembled the largest corporate greenhouse gas emissions database in the world. CDP also works with multinational organizations to facilitate the collection of climate change relevant data for their supply chains. www.cdproject.net.
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Pepco Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: POM) is one of the largest energy delivery companies in the Mid-Atlantic region, serving about 1.9 million customers in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland and New Jersey. PHI subsidiaries Pepco, Delmarva Power and Atlantic City Electric provide regulated electricity service; Delmarva Power also provides natural gas service. PHI provides competitive wholesale generation services through Conectiv Energy and retail energy products and services through Pepco Energy Services.
