Sustainability Plan and Progress

Our Sustainability Plan and Goals

This sustainability plan reflects Duke Energy’s commitment to operate in a way that is good for people, the planet and profits. It expands on the company’s business strategy and values.

This plan was updated and simplified in early 2010 based on stakeholder feedback. Given the large number of goals, we now categorize them as “corporate” and “departmental” sustainability goals. The corporate goals focus on areas that are most material and/or provide opportunities to engage our employees in sustainability. Other key areas being managed at the operating / functional level are included as departmental goals and metrics.

Given stakeholder preference for numeric targets, all qualitative goals in last year’s plan have now been retired. In many cases, supporting initiatives continue to exist. For example, we continue to improve ways to transfer critical knowledge as employees retire or leave the company, even though this is no longer a goal in the plan.

All goals with numeric targets from last year’s plan have been retained and now appear as either corporate or departmental goals.

Our plan and goals will continue to evolve to reflect stakeholder input and our changing business environment.

Innovative Products and Services

Provide innovative products and services in a carbon-constrained, competitive world.

Why it matters: Our customer want products and services that keep them competitive, yet respond to environmental concerns.

Corporate Sustainability Goals

Energy Efficiency: Reduce customer energy consumption by 2,500 gigawatt-hours and peak demand by 2,100 megawatts (MW) by 2013.

Renewables: Scale up to 3,000 MW of wind, solar and biomass by 2020.

Affordable and Reliable Energy: Maintain rates lower than the national average and the high reliability of our generation and distribution system, as measured by:

Nuclear generation capacity factor
Fossil generation commercial availability
International generation equivalent availability
Average customer outage frequency and duration

Departmental Goals and Metrics

Smart meters installed

Green power and carbon offset programs - customer participation

Customer satisfaction survey results

Environmental Footprint

Reduce our environmental footprint

Why it matters: As an energy company, we have a large impact on the environment and depend on natural resources for our fuel.

Corporate Sustainability Goals

Carbon Emissions: Reduce or offset the carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from our U.S. generation fleet 17 percent from 2005 by 2020 (i.e., go from 105 million tons in 2005 to 87 million tons in 2020)

Carbon Intensity: Reduce the carbon intensity of our total generation fleet from 0.63 tons of CO₂per megawatt-hour (MWh) in 2005 to 0.50 tons of CO₂ per MWh by 2020

Waste: Increase the percentage of solid waste that is recycled from 52 percent in 2008 to 62 percent by 2012

2009 Status: The percentage of solid waste recycled was 55 percent; we are on track to meet the 2012 goal

Departmental Goals and Metrics

Generation and capacity by fuel type

Fuels consumed for U.S. electric generation

Water withdrawn and consumed

Emissions from generation

U.S. Toxic Release Inventory

U.S. on-road and off-road vehicle fleet emissions and fuel consumed

U.S. natural gas line leaks repaired

U.S. coal combustion products beneficially used

Hazardous waste generated

U.S. low-level radioactive waste (class B and C) generated

U.S. electricity consumed (13 largest commercial buildings)

Reportable oil spills

Environmental regulatory citations

Quality Workforce

Attract, develop and retain a diverse, high-quality workforce.

Why it matters: Energy companies will be differentiated by the quality, creativity and customer focus of their employees.

Corporate Sustainability Goals

Safety: Achieve zero work-related fatalities and top-decile safety performance in total incident case rate (TICR) by 2012

2009 Status: Although we are on track to be top-decile in TICR by 2012, we did not meet our goal of zero work-related fatalities in 2009

Employee Engagement: Maintain management and employee engagement at 75 percent and 64 percent, respectively, or higher, as measured by favorable scores on survey questions.

Departmental Goals and Metrics

Employee lost workday case rate

Contractor TICR

U.S. generational diversity

Collective bargaining unit/union membership

U.S. ethnic diversity

U.S. females and minorities as percent of workforce/management

U.S. employee turnover

U.S. percentage of employees eligible to retire in five/ten years

Employee satisfaction

Strong Communities

Help build strong communities

Why it matters: Our success is linked to the health and prosperity of the communities we serve.

Corporate Sustainability Goals

Philanthropy: Develop the baseline number of lives positively impacted by our support of key community partners during 2010

Departmental Goals and Metrics

Economic development (jobs, capital investment)

Charitable giving

Global Service Event statistics

Governance and Transparency

Be profitable and demonstrate strong governance and transparency

Why it matters: Creating shareholder value and earning the trust and confidence of our many stakeholders keeps us in business.

Corporate Sustainability Goals

Shareholder Return: Outperform our peers in total shareholder return, annually and over a three-year period, as measured by the Philadelphia Utility Index.