Beyond compliance

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Complying with rules and regulations is not enough. In many of our operations, we know we can do better, and we believe we owe more to our employees, our neighbors, shareholders and future generations. That’s why we have committed to achieving and maintaining voluntary environmental programs and initiatives that take us beyond compliance.  These include certifying our substations, power plants, and natural gas operations to the international standard for environmental management systems (ISO 14001). We also have earned state recognition at many of our major industrial facilities for demonstrating  industry-leading environmental practices. 

We look for ways to reduce environmental impacts in our office buildings, operations and vehicle fleet, and even when we demolish obsolete facilities. We also look for ways to use the open land surrounding many of our facilities for wildlife habitat or community gardens. Some of these voluntary initiatives – and some of the awards, recognition and certifications that we have received for these efforts – include:

• Earning designation at many of our facilities from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment as a Clean Corporate Citizen.
• Earning ISO 14001 certification for the environmental management systems at many of our facilities, encompassing power generation, electrical distribution, natural gas distribution and other operations. 
• Earning recognition from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Wastewise Partnership for our recycling and waste-reduction efforts.
• Initiating a program to significantly increase the recycling of power plant fly ash. Recycling prevents landfilling of this material. Also, for every ton of fly ash used to replace cement in concrete, a ton of carbon emissions is avoided, since cement production requires the use of large fossil-fuel-fired kilns.
• Choosing to “deconstruct”  certain obsolete company buildings rather than remove them using traditional demolition techniques. By carefully dismantling the buildings and properly handling the components and materials,  a significant percentage of the structure and its contents can be recycled or reused.
• Sponsoring programs to remove the last vestiges of oil containing polychlorinated biphenyls from electrical equipment.
• Adopting an initiative to significantly increase the number of company vehicles that use hybrid technology or run on biodiesel, natural gas or hydrogen.