2023 Climate Leadership Award Winners

Organizational Leadership

Recognizes organizations that not only have their own comprehensive greenhouse gas inventories and aggressive emissions reduction goals, but also exemplify extraordinary leadership in their internal response to climate change, and engagement of their peers, partners, and supply chain.

Bank of America is one of the world’s leading financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle-market businesses, large corporations and institutional investors. The company has operations across the United States, its territories and approximately 35 countries, which provide clients with a full suite of banking, lending, capital raising, advisory, investment, risk management, and other financial solutions to help them achieve their financial goals. The company provides unmatched convenience in the United States, serving approximately 68 million consumer and small business clients with approximately 3,900 retail financial centers, approximately 15,000 ATMs and award-winning digital banking with approximately 56 million verified digital users. Bank of America is a global leader in wealth management, corporate and investment banking, and trading across a broad range of asset classes, serving corporations, governments, institutions, and individuals around the world. Bank of America offers industry-leading support to approximately 3 million small business households through a range of innovative, easy-to-use online products and services.

Bank of America (BofA) is being recognized for an Organizational Leadership Award for the following achievements:

In 2021, BofA announced a goal to achieve net zero emissions in its financing activities, operations, and supply chain before 2050. BofA also set an interim 2030 goal to ensure that suppliers that account for 70% of its total supply chain spend set greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets or renewable energy goals.

Operations, Supply Chain and Mitigation

BofA uses the best available science by setting appropriate milestone targets to reach net zero before 2050. As part of the company’s commitment, BofA set science-aligned 2030 targets for operations and supply chain and have established their first emission reduction targets related to financing activity for the auto manufacturing, energy and power generation sectors. BofA’s Approach to Zero™ strategy is based on the assessment of the best available climate science, the GHG Protocol, the Partnership for Carbon Account Financials (PCAF) standard, the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) Guidelines and the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) Net Zero Practitioner’s Guide
BofA is installing solar panels at financial centers, ATMs, office locations, and other operational buildings through its Onsite Solar Initiative. This program is expected to generate more than 25 megawatts of renewable electricity that will reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. To date, more than 20 financial centers in Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia, three ATMs in California, North Carolina and Virginia, and two office locations, one each in Nevada and North Carolina, are already benefiting from the emissions savings from the bank’s onsite solar installations. Through 2023, the company is expected to add more than 75 solar installations across its operations.
BofA has implemented thousands of energy efficiency projects throughout the goal period. These include thousands of lighting, equipment, and controls upgrades, such as installing LED lighting and occupancy sensors, decommissioning unneeded equipment, and optimizing HVAC controls.
Bank of America and Electrify America announced plans to more than double the number of financial centers equipped with electric-vehicle (EV) charging stations by the end of 2023. As of the beginning of 2022, 172 Electrify America individual EV chargers have been installed at 46 financial centers – totals the companies intend to grow to more than 350 chargers at over 90 financial centers by the end of 2023.
All suppliers receive our Supplier Code of Conduct, which sets forth our environmental and social expectations for our global supply chain. We take a risk-based approach to managing environmental and social risk in our supply chain, engaging with our largest suppliers and suppliers within specific industries regularly to review suppliers’ policies and processes and understand climate impacts. We support our suppliers through various initiatives to build their capacity, such as webinars, toolkits and advisory services, and encourage transparency, which drives accountability and progress toward environmental and social sustainability.

Supporting renewable energy. In support of our commitment to purchase 100% renewable electricity, we have been members of the U.S. EPA Green Power Partnership since 2017 and in 2021, we purchased 1.8 million MWh of renewable electricity. We are recognized by EPA as a top 100 green power purchaser and in 2019 we received an EPA Excellence in Green Power award for our efforts to purchase and use renewable power, including our planned installation of solar panels on more than 75 financial centers, ATMs, and bank offices over the next three years and beyond. Since 2015, BofA has been a top renewable energy tax equity investor in the U.S. with a portfolio of approximately $13.5 billion at the end of 2021. Historically, its investments have contributed to the development of approximately 41 gigawatts of total installed renewable wind and solar energy capacity in the U.S.

Advancing Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) BofA announced the company will support the production and use of one billion gallons of SAF by 2030 through financing, investment, capital markets and procurement activities. Their 2030 SAF goal is comprised of the following:

Catalyzing the market through the mobilization of $2 billion in sustainable finance for the production of SAF and other low-carbon aviation solutions.
Utilizing SAF for at least 20% of the company’s total annual corporate and commercial jet fuel usage – this equates to approximately three million gallons of SAF each year. This includes 100% of corporate jet fuel and a significant percentage of fuel associated with BofA employee travel on commercial airlines.

Equity and Justice

Issued three Equality Progress Sustainability Bonds each for $2 billion in 2020, 2021 and 2022, designed to help advance racial and gender equality, economic opportunity, and environmental sustainability.
BofA committed $60 million to increase access to capital and career opportunities for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) affordable housing developers.
Since 2020, BofA has committed more than $760 million as part of its $1.25 billion, five-year commitment to advance racial equity and economic opportunity.
Through its Supplier Diversity & Responsible Sourcing Program, BofA spends close to $2 billion with diverse suppliers each year.
BofA has helped 130K women from more than 140 countries and territories grow their businesses through partnerships with the Tory Burch Foundation, Vital Voices, the Cherie Blair Foundation, Kiva, and Cornell University.
BofA launched the BofA Access to Capital Directory for Women Entrepreneurs, which has more than 300 sources of capital—ranging from grants to equity investments to loans.
BofA is one of the leading private sector financial institutions on recently announced Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs) with Indonesia and Vietnam helping these countries pursue an ambitious and just transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

Sustainable finance. BofA is using the power of its financial capital to accelerate the transition to a secure, low-carbon economy. In 2021, BofA announced its goal to mobilize and deploy $1.5 trillion in sustainable finance capital by 2030 in support of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Of the $1.5 trillion, $1 trillion is dedicated to the environmental transition to support a low-carbon economy. Since the announcement of this goal in 2021 BofA has mobilized and deployed in excess $410 billion in sustainable finance, with more than $235 billion of that focused on helping drive the transition to a low carbon sustainable economy.
Advancing Net Zero. In 2021, BofA announced a commitment to achieve net zero emissions across its financing activities, operations, and supply chain before 2050 and set out 2030 targets for its operations and supply chain. BofA followed that up in April 2022 by announcing interim science-aligned emissions targets for its first set of high-emitting portfolios, including energy, power, and automotive manufacturing.
Accountability and Transparency. BofA demonstrates a commitment to transparency by disclosing ESG impacts through a number of reporting frameworks. Environmental strategy, policies and practices are outlined in their Annual Report and Proxy Statement, which includes Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics developed by the International Business Council (IBC) of the World Economic Forum (WEF). Bank of America took a leading role in the WEF IBC, and while Chair of the Board and CEO Brian Moynihan served as chair, the company worked with global corporate executives and the big 4 accounting firms to develop and launch the Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics (SCM), which define and democratize various environmental, social and governance metrics that companies can report, regardless of their industry or region. The SCMs span the breadth of global industry, giving a consistent framework to measure and disclose how companies are addressing societal priorities and the SDGs through their business activities and operations. Nearly 200 companies around the world have committed to reporting SCMs —and more than 150 have already begun to do so. BofA publishes a TCFD report with updates on progress toward their Net Zero commitment, and follows CDP, a global disclosure system for companies, investors, cities, states and regions to manage their environmental impacts. BofA was named to CDP’s Climate Change A List for nine years.
Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI). Launched by His Majesty King Charles III in his former role as His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales to lead and accelerate the world’s transition to a sustainable future. BofA Chair of the Board and CEO Brian Moynihan serves as chair of the SMI and convened the 200 active CEO members throughout the past few years, including at COP26 in Glasgow and COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh to help drive collective creativity, innovation and capital mobilization towards a sustainable future. At COP26, Bank of America was recognized by SMI with the Terra Carta Seal for far reaching efforts to help the world transition to a low-carbon economy.

BofA’s My Environment® employee program drives positive environmental change at work, at home and in the community. To date, more than 26,000 teammates across 34 countries around the world have participated in the program, including environmentally focused volunteer activities and events, education sessions and webinars.

ICF is a global consulting and technology services provider with approximately 9,000 employees. The company’s business analysts and policy specialists work hand-in-hand with digital strategists, data scientists, and creatives. ICF combines unmatched industry expertise with technology to help organizations solve their most complex challenges. It is also one of the largest and oldest climate consultancies in the world. With 2,000+ climate, energy, and environment experts, ICF has 40 years of experience helping governments, private companies, and nonprofit groups achieve their climate goals in the U.S. and across more than 100 countries.

ICF is being recognized for an Organizational Leadership Award for the following achievements:

Helping the federal government achieve climate goals. In 2021, ICF helped EPA develop guidelines to phase down the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) – super-polluting chemicals that are hundreds to thousands of times more powerful than carbon dioxide – and lower their production and consumption in the U.S. by 85% over the next 15 years. ICF drew from its 30+ years supporting decisions related to the phasedown of ozone-depleting substances – including its assistance to EPA on Montreal Protocol implementation – to support the agency and other key stakeholders.
Industry-leading utility resilience work. In 2021, ICF helped Con Edison develop an industry leading Climate Change Resilience and Adaptation plan. Referred to as the “gold standard” utility resilience plan by the New York Times, the plan outlines steps Con Edison would take to adapt to climate change in the coming decades. ICF published a thought leadership piece on this work to help advance lessons learned from the program.
Moved headquarters to a more sustainable facility. In October 2019, ICF announced the culmination of its search for a new headquarters: a new LEED Silver Building at Reston Station, Virginia, in a mixed-use, transit-oriented, pedestrian-friendly, urban landscape. The company’s internal experts, who have supported ENERGY STAR for 25 years optimizing the efficiency of buildings, advised the architect and engineers to earn the certification: Designed to Earn the ENERGY STAR (a designation for buildings that have not yet been occupied for 12 months). ICF’s new headquarters was one of only 13 projects in the U.S. to earn this designation in 2022. This designation indicates the expected performance of the building, based upon efficiency choices made during buildout. ICF’s new headquarters is expected to consume 40% less energy than if it performed at the median level, and a corresponding 40% lower GHG emissions than buildings performing at the median level.
Workplace inclusivity and diversity. In 2021, ICF launched eight Employee Community Networks (Asian, Black, Diverse Abilities, Hispanic/Latinx, First Nations and Indigenous People, LGBTQIA+, Veterans, Women) to foster mentoring, professional development, community outreach, and business impact. Efforts like these also enable ICF to attract and retain a diverse workforce. 51% of leadership above the project manager level identify as female, and 44% of both board members and executives identify as a minority or female.

Launched a thought leadership platform called the ICF Climate Center. In 2021, ICF launched the ICF Climate Center, an industry leading hub for climate insights from ICF’s 2,000+ climate, energy, and environment experts. The ICF Climate Center has released more than 100 research articles, papers, and events designed to help organizations achieve their climate goals. ICF Climate Center experts and their research have been cited in over 150 news outlets, including the Washington Post, New York Times, Axios, Politico, USA Today, Time Magazine, and more.
ICF launched the climate internship program to help train the next generation of climate experts. The internship program promoted DEI as a core component of the program. The first cohort of interns had the opportunity to work on some of ICF’s leading client work with U.S. federal agencies; gain hands-on experience with ClimateSight, ICF’s climate risk assessment platform that uses big datasets and cutting-edge science to identify key risk scenarios and actionable insights across industries; and research key data, trends, and developments in the electric vehicle industry. Finally, the interns were able to put their lessons learned into practice by collaborating on an intern-led project that assessed how climate change-induced storm surges impact the evacuation of transit-dependent communities in Florida. To gain experience, visibility, and recognition for their work, the interns were given the opportunity to present their findings to ICF’s senior leadership.

Prologis, Inc is the global leader in logistics real estate with a focus on high barrier, high growth markets. As of December 31, 2022, the company owned or had investments in, on a wholly owned basis or through co-investment ventures, properties and development projects expected to total approximately 1.2 billion square feet (113 million square meters) in 19 countries. Prologis leases modern logistics facilities to a diverse base of approximately 6,600 customers principally across two major categories: business to business and retail/online fulfillment.

Prologis is being recognized for an Organizational Leadership Award for the following achievements:

Prologis began linking a portion of executive and employee compensation to ESG performance in 2017 through the company’s annual bonus plan. ESG metrics are a stand-alone category and represent 10% of the bonus scorecard. The category includes environmental metrics (such as megawatts of solar and LED lighting installed), social metrics (such as measurement of culture, talent, inclusion scores and the number of new participants in the Community Workforce Initiative) and governance metrics (such as third-party assessment of Prologis’ corporate governance ratings performance).
To help fund projects that enhance sustainability and drive overall environmental benefit at Prologis facilities, the company and co-investment ventures in Europe, Japan, Mexico, and the U.S. have issued 16 green bonds and 3 green private placements of debt over the past four years. These bonds and private placements leverage the strength of the sustainable building program to provide ESG financing products that attract environmentally conscious investors from around the world.
In 2021, Prologis committed to achieving sustainable certification for 100% of all future development and redevelopment projects globally. Prologis pursues best-in-class sustainability standards around the world, including LEED, BREEAM, WELL, CASBEE, DGNB and HQE. These buildings set the standard for warehousing and logistics, streamlining customers’ operations from day one and optimizing productivity as they grow. These certifications have long been a core component of Prologis’ sustainable building strategy, driving sustainability in areas such as site selection and development, building materials, biodiversity, energy and water efficiency, and indoor environmental quality.
With the newly announced goal to achieve carbon-neutral construction by 2025, Prologis is taking a leadership role in addressing one of the largest sources of global carbon emissions: the embodied carbon of buildings. Approximately 11% of global emissions are associated with embodied carbon in construction. As such, Prologis is tackling the significant emissions associated with the full life cycle of the company’s buildings, from extraction of raw materials through processing, manufacture, transport, and installation of building materials onsite. To achieve this ambition, Prologis is employing innovative smart design strategies, making investments in new building technologies and materials, utilizing recycled materials, minimizing construction waste, and recycling or repurposing waste that cannot be avoided.
Prologis’ Technology Innovation Team and Prologis’ Development Team take additional steps to ensure the company focuses on technologies that address climate-related risks and considers new building design features and technologies, including flood protection, cool roofs, energy management systems, and other innovations to improve resilience against climate-related risks. The resilience of Prologis’ buildings is critical to ensuring the safety of employees and customers and minimizing interruption to customer operations. Extreme weather events, such as damaging flooding, hurricanes, earthquakes, and fires, affect many countries where Prologis portfolio assets are located. In response to past natural catastrophes, Prologis has mobilized to assist impacted communities and to minimize disruption to customer operations. This fast response has been a result of Prologis’ constant climate risk assessment, proactive emergency response plans, and risk management program focused on mitigating any potential damage to facilities, the business, or interruptions to customers’ operations.
Prologis also donates temporary, rent-free space in unoccupied parts of logistics buildings to Space for Good and other charitable organizations that provide disaster relief or address short-term community needs. In early 2020, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Prologis expanded the program to accommodate the critical needs of responding organizations, offering logistics space to NGOs, local, state, and federal agencies in the U.S. and France and hospitals and relief organizations throughout the world. From January to year-end, Prologis donated 1.77 million square feet in 15 markets and $10.2 million in in-kind rent, of which 1.63 million square feet and $9.3 million of in-kind rent was allocated for COVID-19 relief efforts. In total, this represents an eightfold increase over the 2019 Space for Good donations.
Prologis launched the Community Workforce Initiative (CWI) in 2018 to focus on recruitment and retention of logistics workers. CWI is a talent development program that can advance the skills and capabilities of logistics workers, while also building a pipeline to careers with Prologis customers. Feedback from stakeholders and lessons learned during early pilot programs have informed the strategy and ambition for the program. Today, Prologis’ goal is long-term systems change built on a foundation of training 25,000 people by 2025. Over the past three years, and despite pandemic-related challenges, Prologis has grown the program to reach 17 markets through partnerships with nearly 20 community organizations in three countries. As of year-end 2021, Prologis trained more than 13,000 people and placed nearly 1,500 people in logistics jobs.

Individual Leadership

Recognizes individuals exemplifying extraordinary leadership both in addressing climate change and engaging their organization, peers, and partners.

Ms. Kerrie Romanow, Chief Sustainability Officer and Environmental Services Department Director, City of San José

Ms. Romanow is the first chief sustainability officer for the City of San José, the 10th largest City in the U.S.

In 2018, San José City Council adopted the Climate Smart San José (CSSJ) plan, one of the first city plans for reaching the Paris Agreement’s GHG emissions reduction targets. The Climate Smart San José Plan is data driven and people focused. Ms. Romanow works with City departments, nonprofits, and stakeholders to meet Climate Smart goals: increase renewable energy and electrification; meet the General Plan’s jobs-to-employed-resident target; work toward focused growth; reduce vehicle miles traveled; and reduce per capita water use. Since the plan was adopted, the City has increased its ambitious climate goals by adopting a Pathway to Carbon Neutrality by 2030.

In addition to serving as chief sustainability officer, she also serves as director of the San José Environmental Services Department (ESD) which manages citywide garbage and recycling services; watershed protection; drinking water and recycled water; the operation and improvements to the San José-Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility, which has a capacity of 168 million gallons per day (MGD).

Ms. Romanow leads a team who put into motion an idea where there was no foundation and built Climate Smart from the ground up. It is now a key City Strategy.

Ms. Romanow is being recognized with a Climate Leadership Award for Individual Leadership.

Highlights from her recent efforts include:

Climate Smart San José: In 2017, Ms. Romanow secured funding to begin the development of the San José’s first climate plan, Climate Smart San José (CSSJ). Ms. Romanow served as the plan’s chief architect and established the initiative’s guiding principles of data driven, cost effectiveness, community improvement and inclusivity. In 2018, San José City Council adopted CSSJ. The first step Ms. Romanow identified was to stop expanding GHG emissions and, since buildings contribute a significant percent of citywide emissions, she moved to require new homes be zero net energy/carbon. This could be accomplished because Ms. Romanow started a citywide Community Choice Energy utility.
Community Choice Energy: In 2018, concurrently sought CSSJ acceptance by San José City Council, Ms. Romanow launched a new citywide Community Choice Energy utility and named it San José Clean Energy. She was the first leader to head this new utility in San José. She led this effort in addition to her role as ESD director, responsible for six other utilities. Community Choice Energy was established before Climate Smart because 100% carbon free energy was key to carbon neutrality.
Building Electrification Reach Code (2020): This code calls for all new construction to be all electric, requires increased electric vehicle charging infrastructure and establishes a municipal all-electric building policy. When it was adopted, San José’s Reach Code was considered the most ambitious in the U.S. Ms. Romanow worked with City departments and stakeholders, along with resources from Bloomberg Philanthropy, to complete this code implementation in under one year.
Carbon Neutrality by 2030 (2021): In response to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, Ms. Romanow was inspired to lead San José to more assertive climate action. In November 2021, the San José City Council unanimously adopted her recommendation to adopt a carbon neutrality goal for 2030, accelerating and increasing the City’s previous 2050 GHG reduction goal.
Natural Working Lands (NWL) Element (2021): San José developed a spatially derived tool (e.g., a modeling platform) and a formal report, which will be incorporated into Climate Smart San José, that evaluates how NWL land use changes and enhancements may impact San José’s net GHG emissions profile, environmental goals, and GHG reduction targets. The environmental nonprofits and other stakeholders were engaged and played a key role in the co-creation of the NWL Element. The final draft NWL Element was adopted by San José City Council on May 2, 2023.
Lead first City Green Bond for $300 million in wastewater funding: The City of San José Environmental Services Department (ESD) operates the San José -Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility (RWF). Ms. Romanow, as ESD director, lead and secured the first City Green Bond for $300M in wastewater funding. The successfully issued $300M in Green Bonds, a first that the City has issued Climate Bond Certified (CBI).

Divest from carbon investments: In early 2020, Ms. Romanow worked with the City Finance Department and Retirement Services Department to recommend to the Retirement Board to divest from carbon investments. In March 2020, San José City Council approved the passing of ceasing fossil fuel investments and later that year expanded on the policy to ensure no new direct investments in entities that directly engage in the exploration, production, refining, or marketing of fossil fuels.

Steve Demetriou, Executive Chair, Jacobs

With approximately $15 billion in annual revenue and a talent force of more than 60,000, Jacobs provides a full spectrum of professional services including consulting, technical, scientific and project delivery for the government and private sector, creating solutions to some of the world’s most critical problems for thriving cities, resilient environments, mission-critical outcomes, operational advancement, scientific discovery and cutting-edge manufacturing.

Of Jacobs’ 345 global offices, approximately 68% of the company’s revenue is related to projects within its U.S.-based offices. These teams work across many high-profile projects to deliver sustainable solutions, such as the Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida, greening the King County Metro bus fleet to zero emissions by 2040, and developing plans for EV infrastructure in Nevada.

On January 24, 2023, Mr. Demetriou became Executive Chair of Jacobs. Prior to that time, he was Chair and CEO of Jacobs and regularly reported to all other members of the Jacobs Board of Directors.

Mr. Demetriou is being recognized with a Climate Leadership Award for Individual Leadership.

Highlights from his recent efforts include:

Launched the company’s initial PlanBeyond sustainable business strategy in 2019, and an update in 2021, which committed Jacobs to six Sustainable Business Objectives that embed climate risk mitigation and adaptation into its market strategies as well as continually expanding its climate risk and resilience capacities.
Implemented Jacobs’ inaugural Climate Action Plan in 2020, and an update in 2022, which outlines Jacobs commitments to address the climate challenge, and includes completion of an enterprise-wide climate risk assessment and development of a three-year roadmap for delivering the company’s science-based carbon targets.
Integrated climate KPIs into quarterly business reporting, establishing an ESG & Risk Committee in July 2021 to further increase the Board of Directors’ oversight of ESG issues, reporting and enterprise risk management.
Included climate-related goals in his annual strategic goals since 2020, with a portion of his executive compensation tied to meeting these goals.
Led the creation of a brand-new Office of Global Climate Response and ESG designed to deliver on the company’s commitments to climate change.
Led Jacobs’ partnership with the Royal Scottish Geographical Society and launch of a Climate Solutions Accelerator online course in June 2021 to help employees understand the role they can play in climate change action, and to support the creation of a learning culture for future green skills.
Jacobs funded the participation of 16 employees in a Sustainability Advocates program with Engineers Without Borders U.K., with the goal to develop them as future change makers with the skills required to advocate for positive change across Jacobs. Collectively they contributed over 640 hours of time, committed to 66 personal actions, and identified many ways to drive a sustainable culture across the business.

Innovative Partnership Certificate

Recognizes organizations working collaboratively on leading edge climate initiatives that are above and beyond business as usual. Partnerships that are candidates for recognition should be comprised primarily of stakeholder institutions from government, academia and/or the private sector that have collectively established objectives to measurably address greenhouse gas reduction goals and/or adaptation and resilience activities.

BGE BDC Interconnection Partners

Partner organizations: Bioenergy Devco (BDC) and Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE) an Exelon Company, with strong sponsorship from Maryland Energy Administration (MEA)

Bioenergy Devco built a facility in Maryland that uses anerobic digestion to recycle food waste and capture renewable natural gas (RNG). The facility is powered by a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) system funded in part by an award from the Maryland Energy Agency (MEA) Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Grant Program. To fully recognize the benefits of the project, Bioenergy Devco partnered with Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) to send the RNG output directly to the local utility system. Through the partnership, BGE and Bioenergy Devco designed an interconnection from the recycling system to the gas distribution system, and BGE worked with MEA and other state agencies to gain the necessary approvals for operation.

BGE BDC Interconnection Partners is being recognized for an Innovative Partnership Certificate for the following:

The partnership is between a private developer and the regulated gas utility, with strong state sponsorship that all came together to advance the first RNG interconnection project in Maryland. In its entirety, the project expands renewable energy in Maryland, while also incorporating energy efficiency benefits.
By locating itself near the food center, Bioenergy was well-positioned to take the lead in a sustainable and cost-effective process to produce an alternative energy source for heat and electricity—plus prevent nearly 125,000 tons of landfill waste per year. With the consideration of the Combined Heat and Power (CHP) system used to power the site, it is expected to provide enough energy to power 4,800 homes throughout the area, with BGE helping distribute the renewable natural gas through its existing gas distribution system.
The CHP System is expected to produce about 185,000 therms of thermal energy to satisfy the facility’s thermal demands, thereby eliminating the need for additional natural gas use in separate boilers. CHP system controls will be used to adjust CHP system operations based on the availability of the Utility service and the facility’s energy demands to minimize emissions and avoid reverse power. This onsite generation will enable the site to contribute to roughly 4000 Metric tons of CO2 reduction each year.
By locating itself near the food waste center, Bioenergy is well-positioned to take the lead in a sustainable and cost-effective partnership with food distributors for producing an alternative energy source from food waste. By going the step further to coordinate with BGE for interconnection to the natural gas distribution system, the Bioenergy facility helped to establish RNG blending as a reality for Maryland statewide and support reducing supply chain GHG emissions for natural gas production.
Both Bioenergy and BGE have been working to share information through public meetings and tours (https://bioenergydevco.com/blog/), lessons learned and best practice sharing across Exelon sister utilities and other energy industry peer groups. Through this information sharing they are helping other end-users understand the potential of RNG as a solution and raise interest in it in the market. They are also helping to build competency and technical standards within the industry and developing an understanding of these types of projects and their benefits with the public service commissions and state regulators.

Climate Risk and Resilience (ClimRR) Portal

Partner organizations: AT&T, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and Argonne National Laboratory

Using climate science modeling that is among the most sophisticated methodologies worldwide, ClimRR gives state, local, tribal, and territorial emergency managers, and community leaders free access to localized data about future climate risks that can be used to devise strategies for resilience. Initial hazards included in ClimRR are temperature, precipitation, wind, and drought conditions. Additional risks, such as wildfire and flooding, will be added in the coming months.

The Climate Risk and Resilience Portal (ClimRR) partnership is being recognized for an Innovative Partnership Certificate for the following:

Provide free and equitable access to leading, peer-reviewed climate datasets to support analysis and data-driven planning for future climate risks.
Empower non-technical individuals, organizations, planners and decision-makers at state, local, tribal, and territorial governments to gain awareness of future climate conditions and to conduct climate risk–informed analyses to support decision-making and adaptation efforts.
Enable technical audiences to access data and apply results to examine infrastructure design criteria, development plans and other technical analyses that would benefit from the use of robust data for future climate conditions.
Contextualize how climate risks factor into equity considerations and barriers to community and infrastructure disaster resilience.
Provide near-nationwide assessments of the variables affecting future climate conditions and their potential impacts.

Freightliner Electric Innovation Fleet

Partner Organizations: Penske Transportation Solutions (Penske), Daimler Truck North America (DTNA), NFI Industries (NFI), Gladstein, Neandross & Associates (GNA), and South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD)

The Freightliner Electric Innovation Fleet project partners have come together over the past several years to develop a comprehensive plan to help ensure the wide scale deployment and success of heavy-duty battery-electric trucks.

The Freightliner Electric Innovation Fleet partnership is being recognized for an Innovative Partnership Certificate for the following:

The Freightliner Electric Innovation Fleet project takes place in Southern California and is expected to yield tremendous emission benefits from zero emission on- and off-road technologies operating in South Coast Air Basin. During the project, the initial 30 electric trucks will displace over 190,000 gallons of petroleum diesel fuel use per year. Beyond these initial units, the petroleum reduction benefits will increase exponentially with wide scale adoption. Based on the most conservative estimate that 500 new trucks purchased from Daimler Truck North America (DTNA) in California every year starting in 2030 will be electric tractors, this technology could effectively reduce more than 4.4 million gallons of diesel fuel consumption in the state annually. This increase in the use of electric truck technologies will significantly advance the sustainability of the heavy-duty truck market, with such benefits spreading well beyond California’s borders.
The initial 30 electric trucks will reduce at least 2,741 metric tons of GHG emissions annually. When the deployment of these electric technologies reaches 500 units per year (by 2030), the total annual GHG emission reductions from this technology will reach up to 63,000 metric tons annually. Looking at the project in the long run and understanding that technology will continue to advance in conjunction with state support of alternatives, there is also the potential for the electricity powering these trucks to be completely renewable before they reach the end of their useful life.
Since the vehicle deployments by Penske and NFI, DTNA has coordinated with its project partners to continuously collect information on vehicle performance, operational costs, charging infrastructure usage, and potential mechanical issues. This data collection is recorded, analyzed, and provided to SCAQMD in quarterly reports to ensure project objectives and outcomes are delivered. DTNA, in addition to its project partners and SCAQMD, will develop a select public-facing data set from these initiatives. The information shared will assist in the development of zero-emissions goods movement successes, best practices, and insight into the nuances of heavy-duty electric truck deployment decision-making overall that will help replicate success in the broader electric vehicle/truck marketplace.
DTNA’s long-term macroeconomic investment in the green technology economy has resulted in ready-to-scale, advanced technology deployment. Through the project, charging infrastructure has been added to four (4) of Penske’s locations. Given the strategy’s ability to be replicated, Penske could install well over 30 chargers across its 15 SCAQMD locations in the future, creating a solid network of charging infrastructure for its large fleet within the South Coast Air Basin. The initial sites serve as foundational infrastructure for the growing market of heavy-duty electric trucks.
Beyond the significant economic impacts that can result from the development of this technology, this project has laid the foundation for a green economy where there is a greater focus on sustainable business practices. This project has directly created or retained 92 jobs, 61 of which are located within SCAQMD. These positions are new, California-based jobs in several important categories of the workforce, including construction, maintenance, and service-support. The specialty training provided will employ workers with unique and important skill sets that can be leveraged for further employment and economic advancement as alternative fuel technologies become more prevalent.

Climate Pioneer Leadership Award

Governor Jay Inslee, State of Washington

Jay Inslee is a fifth-generation Washingtonian who has lived and worked on both sides of the state. He grew up in the Seattle area where his father, Frank, was a high school teacher and coach. His mother, Adele, worked as a sales clerk at Sears & Roebuck. Jay worked his way through college and graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in economics before earning his law degree at Willamette University. He and his wife, Trudi, then moved to Selah, a small town near Yakima where they raised their three sons. Jay worked as an attorney and prosecutor.

Jay and Trudi are now proud grandparents to six active little Inslees. Besides writing and illustrating books for his grandchildren and sketching scenes from around Washington, Jay is an avid cyclist and charter member of Hoopaholics, a youth basketball academy.

Jay first became involved in public service in 1985 when he and Trudi helped lead the effort to build a new public high school in Selah. Motivated to fight against proposed funding cuts for rural schools, Jay went on to represent the 14th Legislative District in the state House of Representatives. He was then elected to Congress in 1992. The Inslees later moved back to Kitsap County where Jay was elected to Congress in 1998, serving until 2012 when he was elected governor.

He is currently the longest serving governor in the United States.

During his time in Congress, Jay became known as a forward-thinking leader, especially on issues of clean energy and climate change. He co-wrote a book, “Apollo’s Fire: Igniting America’s Clean-Energy Economy,” about fighting climate change through clean energy innovation and job-creation. As governor, he has helped put Washington state at the forefront of climate action and is helping lead numerous subnational partnerships. Since 2013, the state has passed nation-leading policies to transition to 100% clean electricity, cap carbon pollution, electrify transportation, and more.

Over the past decade, Washington has consistently been among the few states to rank as one of the best states for business and one of the best states for workers. From commercial space and sustainable maritime to advanced agriculture and forest products, the growth of Washington’s key sectors is helping attract new companies and create jobs in communities all across the state. Washington has one of the nation’s highest minimum wages, paid sick leave for all workers, a best-in-the-nation paid family leave program, and one of the highest union membership rates.