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 is aligned with the company’s business strategy and values, and requires us to strike the right long-term balance among the interests of our diverse stakeholders. This plan was updated in early 2013, based on feedback from stakeholders and in light of our merger with Progress Energy. We received feedback from stakeholders representing customer, community, environmental, investment and academic organizations.

Stakeholder input

While stakeholders felt that the five focus areas were still sound, they challenged us to develop additional goals, particularly in our fourth and fifth focus areas. To address this feedback, we have developed new community, governance and transparency goals. Most other goals have been updated to reflect the expanded footprint of the merged company.

What it includes

The “What it includes” section is new to this plan. It was added to address stakeholder requests for better clarity on key activities and programs within our five focus areas. This section does not endeavor to include every sustainability initiative under way at Duke Energy — and there are many. This plan will continue to evolve to reflect stakeholder feedback and our changing business environment.

We will report on our progress against these goals in future sustainability reports.

Innovative Products and Services

Provide affordable, reliable and increasingly clean energy.

Why it matters: Our customers expect us to provide the essentials, while innovating for the future.

What it includes:

Affordable rates despite rising costs in today’s electric utility industry
Energy efficiency options that help customers control their energy use and save money
Power grid modernization
Reliable energy supply and delivery
Storm/emergency preparedness and response
Renewable power, energy storage and transmission investments
Readiness for increased adoption of plug-in electric vehicles

Affordable Energy: Maintain rates lower than the national average.

Reliable Energy: During 2013, maintain the high reliability of our generation fleet with a nuclear capacity factor of at least 93.25%, regulated fossil commercial availability of at least 87.92%, and nonregulated fossil commercial availability and renewables yield of at least 92.63%.

Reliable Energy: During 2013, maintain the high reliability of our distribution system with an average number of outages* of 1.19 or less and an average time without power* of 130 minutes or less.
* Outages longer than 5 minutes, per customer

Energy Efficiency: Achieve a cumulative reduction in customer energy consumption of 15,000 gigawatt-hours (equivalent to the annual usage of 1.25 million homes) by 2020.

Energy Efficiency: Achieve a cumulative reduction in peak demand of 4,800 megawatts (MW) (equivalent to eight 600-MW power plants) by 2020.

Renewables: Own or contract 6,000 MW of wind, solar and biomass by 2020.

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.

What it includes:

Generation fleet modernization
Retirements of older coal plants
Preserving the option to add new, carbon-free nuclear capacity
Research and development of clean energy technologies
Air, water and natural resource protection
Waste reduction and recycling
Greener buildings and vehicles to support our operations

Carbon: Reduce or offset carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from our generation fleet 17% from 2005 emissions by 2020 (i.e., go from 169 million tons in 2005 to 141 million tons in 2020).

Carbon: Reduce the carbon intensity (pounds of CO₂ emitted per net kilowatt-hour of electricity produced) of our generation fleet from 1.28 in 2005 to 0.94 by 2020.

Waste: During 2013, collect baseline data and develop a landfill-waste reduction goal for the merged company.

Quality Workforce

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

Why it matters: Our future success largely depends on the quality, creativity and engagement of our workforce.

What it includes:

Worker health and safety as a core value and a daily priority
A diverse and inclusive workplace where all employees can reach their full potential
Strategic workforce planning, recruiting and hiring to preserve our talent advantage
Community college and university partnerships that help build a pipeline of energy workers
Employee development and training
Performance management and rewards

Safety: Achieve zero work-related fatalities.

Safety: Achieve top-decile safety performance in employee Total Incident Case Rate by 2015.

Employee Engagement: Maintain management and employee engagement scores of 75% and 65%, respectively, or higher, measured by favorable responses to survey questions.

Strong Communities

Help build strong and resilient communities.

Why it matters: In good and bad economic times, our success depends on the strength of the communities we serve.

What it includes:

Economic development to attract companies to our service territories
Strategic charitable giving that creates measurable results
Low-income energy assistance programs
Employee and retiree volunteerism that makes a real difference
Innovative public/private partnerships to improve science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education, workforce skills and quality of life
Public safety education and awareness

Economic Development: Stimulate growth in our communities and help attract at least 40,000 jobs and $10 billion in capital investments from 2013 to 2017.

Charitable Giving: Continue to engage key community partners to measure the number of lives positively impacted by our largest grants.

Community Leader Ratings: During 2013, develop a consistent approach for conducting community leader surveys across all of our service territories.

Governance and Transparency

Deliver industry-leading shareholder value, governance and transparency.

Why it matters: Being profitable and earning the trust and confidence of our many stakeholders keeps us in business.

What it includes:

Financial and risk management to keep our bottom line strong
Corporate governance practices that protect our shareholders and our reputation
Ethics and compliance programs that hold us to high standards of conduct
Supply chain management practices that save money, help the environment and build relationships with diverse suppliers
Participation in the political process to help shape sound public policy
Clear and timely communication with our stakeholders

Total Shareholder Return (TSR): Outperform other investor-owned utilities in TSR, annually and over a three-year period, as measured by the Philadelphia Utility Index.

Governance: Keep abreast of developments regarding corporate governance principles and recommend internal improvements as appropriate.

Transparency: Achieve top-quartile performance in disclosure, as measured by Bloomberg Environmental, Social and Governance Disclosure Scores for our industry.