2012 Sustainability Report

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Managing the Environmental Agenda

Employee Innovation

Employees are encouraged to share their ideas about how to lower our carbon footprint, and improve our environmental stewardship.

Employee Innovation

Con Edison employees have extensive experience designing, managing, and operating electric, gas, and steam infrastructures. The company encourages its personnel to apply this expertise to enhance sustainable business practices. Modeling green behavior internally and progressing toward an injury-free workplace are important aspects of Con Edison’s sustainability strategy. Employees are encouraged to contribute their own ideas and initiatives in helping the company reduce its carbon footprint and also improve its environmental stewardship.

Con Edison of New York has an education campaign and an intranet site called Greening House to share news about the company’s sustainability efforts and environmental issues. In 2012, employees were invited to submit suggestions and share information using the Greening House Ideas feature of the site. Orange and Rockland’s Bright Ideas program encourages employees to develop new ways of working more safely, operating more cost-effectively, conserving energy and reducing environmental impact both on the job and at home, and then putting those ideas to work. One ongoing employee-generated initiative at Orange and Rockland is to conduct energy audits of company facilities and also to identify electronics, copiers, and other office equipment that can be upgraded with comparable EnergyStar devices when replacement is necessary.

Many process improvements, programs, and other innovations suggested by employees have been implemented. Among them are:

  • A team of employees at Con Edison of New York directed development of a new trenching machine that allows street excavations to be made much more quickly and efficiently than older methods employing jackhammers. The new machine also eliminates the potential safety risks associated with jackhammer operations.
  • A team of employees at Orange and Rockland applied new methods for providing oil-spill boom protection at a transformer storage yard. The boom installation is more durable and less expensive than the older spill-boom technology it replaces.
  • When an active secondary fault occurs in a manhole, Con Edison of New York crews cannot enter until the fault is cleared. A team of employees developed a cutting-head holder and cable grabber tool that makes cutting the power to this type of fault easier and safer.
  • A group of employees at Orange and Rockland created a new safety training curriculum for the company’s meter readers. In addition, they actually accompanied newer meter readers as they made their rounds, and using a structured checklist, they noted ways the meter readers could work more safely and minimize their safety risks in the field.
  • A group of Con Edison Development employees successfully completed the acquisition of a 92 MW solar power installation in California. The energy supplied by this installation is sufficient to satisfy the needs of approximately 10,000 homes for an entire year.
  • To help the City of New Bedford in Massachusetts expand its use of renewable energy, a team of Con Edison Solutions employees designed a multi-site photovoltaic installation mounted on rooftops of several city-owned properties.
Greening House tips are shared on electronic screens throughout our facilities.