Consumers Energy
Consumers Energy’s environmental stewardship story stretches back more than a century to when company founders utilized the flow of Michigan rivers to bring the life-changing benefits of electric power to communities scattered across the fledgling state. To them, sustainability means operating with a fundamental commitment to leave their company, state and world better then they found them. Pursuing sustainability requires viewing corporate and individual decisions through a broad lens to consider how they impact not only financial performance, but people and the planet, too. Consumers Energy is committed to understanding and enhancing its sustainability performance.
To accomplish this, Consumers Energy is working with Sustainalytics, a company that specializes in sustainability analysis, to help them measure how they rank in sustainability performance as compared to peers around the country. At the end of 2012, Sustainalytics determined that Consumers Energy’s sustainability performance was in the 2nd quartile compared to our peers. In 2013, their team implemented a companywide sustainability plan and established a corporate sustainability breakthrough goal. To date, they have advanced to first quartile sustainability performance compared to their peers.
Today, 10 percent of the power they generate comes from Michigan-based renewable sources including hydro, wind, biomass, landfill gas and anaerobic digestion. They’re well positioned to meet the state’s new 15 percent renewable energy standard. They are expanding our wind energy generation portfolio and tapping the sun through their Solar Gardens program.
In 2016, the company closed seven of its oldest coal-fired generating plants. Between 2007 and 2017, $1.3 billion in air quality control systems were constructed to make Michigan’s environment cleaner by further reducing power plant emissions. By 2020, Consumers Energy plans to reduce total sulfur dioxide emissions by 92%, nitrogen dioxide emissions by 89%, mercury by 83% and particulate emissions by 98%. The substantial investments in the environmental program are also expected to create more than 2,000 construction jobs as well as improve the environment.
Contact
Consumers Energy
4000 Clay Ave. SW
Grand Rapids, MI 49548
Representative
Megan Rydecki
Community Affairs Manager
megan.rydecki@cmsenergy.com
Jessica Spagnuolo
Sustainability Director, Consumers Energy
Jessica.Spagnuolo@cmsenergy.com