Customer & Community

Stakeholder Engagement & Collaboration

Con Edison works closely with local communities to keep them informed, address their concerns, and convey our Company’s mission. We inform local community groups—including business improvement districts, chambers of commerce, and local development corporations—about major capital projects, new initiatives such as smart meters, energy efficiency programs, and how to do business with Con Edison. We coordinate with operating departments to respond to enquiries about topics like construction noise, service restoration, and outages. We also maintain close working relationships with key stakeholder organizations (including but not limited to environmental advocate and environmental justice organizations, consumer advocates, large customer groups) so Con Edison can listen to their priorities and identify support for proposed programs and investments, and any anticipated concerns. These relationships are also critical to our coordination during emergencies, and they help us collaborate on new initiatives.

Policy & Regulatory Impact

Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc. (CECONY) and Orange & Rockland Utilities, Inc. (O&R) support New York State’s clean energy policies and goals, including plans outlined under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) to reduce statewide GHG emissions 85% from 1990 levels by 2050 and provide customers with 100% of their energy from emission free resources by 2040.

Our stakeholder engagement and collaboration are a key part of our policy and regulatory work. We work in partnership with our customers, policy-makers, various third parties, and other energy companies to seek innovative ways to realize the clean energy future. This includes exploring new ways to advance clean energy technologies through adoption of distributed resources, including energy storage and solar connected to the distribution system. CECONY and O&R have programs to reduce fossil fuel usage, providing incentives for customers to install electric-powered heat pumps and electric vehicle chargers, and have added incentives for converting customer heating systems to natural gas. We are also advocating at the State-level for the ability to own large-scale renewable generation. All of this is in addition to installing smart meters throughout our service areas and piloting new rate designs that will help customers manage their energy usage and bills.

We are active in regulatory proceedings, including those which seek to expand energy efficiency, develop offshore wind, establish transmission policy to advance clean energy objectives, provide customers with high efficiency electric heating options, amend regulatory structures to achieve CLCPA targets, enhance system resiliency in light of climate change, and grow the electric vehicles sector. We work with regulators, customers, and other stakeholders to develop solutions that will promote a clean energy future in a cost-effective way for all New Yorkers. We also regularly engage with key stakeholders on various regulatory and clean energy topics to keep an open dialogue. We serve these goals by being an active participant in the legislative process at all levels of government.

Strategic Partnerships

In 2021, we were proud to have provided over $12.6 million to support over 600 nonprofit organizations in New York City and Westchester, Orange, and Rockland Counties as part of our commitment to building strong communities and a clean energy future. Our programs strengthen the areas we serve through company initiatives, employee volunteer efforts, and financial contributions. Over $3 million of our portfolio is dedicated to environmental stewardship and the clean energy transition. We support local biodiversity through habitat remediation and conservation programs on land and in the water, and addressing the threat that climate change poses to all life on earth. Here, we highlight five of the many organizations we support:

Teatown Lake Reservation

Located in the heart of Westchester County, Teatown Lake Reservation is a 1,000-acre nature preserve with a mission to increase environmental literacy, encourage lifelong environmental stewardship, and promote sustainable living in the lower Hudson Valley.

Con Edison-owned electric transmission lines traverse through the reservation and create a unique habitat of shrubby open space which is uncommon in our company’s highly developed service territory. This environment is utilized by species such as box turtles, coyotes, and birds, and the partners have worked together to create educational signage for passing visitors and to implement educational opportunities for Con Edison employees to maintain the lines in a safe and environmentally friendly manner.

For nearly 60 years, Teatown has served as an environmental education center and a community resource, hosting a variety of classes and events for all ages. Con Edison has supported Teatown’s cross-generational educational programming and annual events since 1998. Utilizing in-person and virtual channels, Teatown’s environmental programs reach over 20,000 adults and students annually. These opportunities expose local students to STEM educational pathways and careers while highlighting a variety of topics surrounding sustainability and biodiversity to its adult audience.

Solar One

Climate change poses a threat to our society and our natural environment. To mitigate climate change, promote clean air in our city, and preserve living conditions for species across the globe, Con Edison partners with organizations helping our communities transition to a clean energy future. Solar One is an organization that provides an array of programs promoting urban sustainability and education that serves all five of New York City’s boroughs.

To help ensure that no one is left behind in this transition, Con Edison has been a critical partner and program sponsor of Solar One’s Community Power program, which provides renewable energy access by installing solar panels on NYC-subsidized apartment complexes and workforce training in NYC’s diverse communities. The projects across Brooklyn and Manhattan generate about 1 million watts of electricity, benefitting at least 400 low- and moderate-income Con Edison customers. We further partner with Solar One on their Green Workforce Training Program, which has trained over 4,000 adults in green building operations and maintenance, green construction, solar PV installation, and various relevant certification programs. This allows community members to play an active role in the transition while providing economic sustainability in the communities we serve.

To help ensure the next generation is prepared and engaged in this future, Con Edison has provided support and assistance in developing Solar One’s Green Design Lab (GDL) since its inception. A K-12 education program, GDL serves both teachers and students in environmental stewardship, increasing awareness of climate change, and preparing NYC youth with career focused intensive training. The organization also works directly with career and technical education schools, and they have reached over 1,000 NYC public schools through in-person and virtual instruction.

The Bee Conservancy

Pollinators provide essential ecosystem services by supporting the very foundation of our food chain – plants. Yet, habitat destruction and pollution threaten their existence. The Bee Conservancy (TBC) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting bees, safeguarding the environment, and securing food justice through education, research, habitat creation, and advocacy. For the past 5 years, Con Edison has been a supporter of the organization’s Sponsor-a-Hive program. Con Edison funding has contributed to over 300 native beehives have been distributed throughout the life of the project, many of them reaching schools, community gardens, and nature centers throughout the 5 boroughs.

Con Edison is also a proud supporter of the Conservancy’s Bee Sanctuary, nested in the Urban Farm on Governors Island, NYC. The Sanctuary serves as an outdoor education, event, and conservation space where visitors learn about and engage with native pollinators and ecology. Through this important partnership, TBC was able to revamp the pollinator gardens and native hives at the Bee Sanctuary during the pandemic. Today, the Conservancy provides both virtual and self-guided community science programs to educate children of the importance of protecting the native bee species and native plants.

Gowanus Canal Conservancy

Waterways are essential for sustainability, providing habitats for species, food, recreation, and economic opportunities in our communities. Since 2006, Gowanus Canal Conservancy (GCC) has been dedicated to facilitating the development of a resilient, vibrant, open space network centered on the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, NY. GCC works with both the public and schools in the watershed, advocating to build and maintain innovative green infrastructure around the Canal.

Since 2010, Con Edison has partnered with GCC to support programs that benefit both the community and the waterway. Their Blue Schools program educates middle schoolers about watershed ecology, while their Community Science program provides water quality testing in the canal and throughout the city, to protect both public and ecosystem health. Our support of Gowanus Canal Conservancy will also enable high school students to help scientists design, fabricate, and install modular mussel habitat and conduct monitoring and analysis. Students will learn how Atlantic Ribbed Mussels can help improve the Gowanus Canal’s polluted waters, why mussel habitat is at risk, and solutions that community scientists are researching. By engaging the community in the preservation of this important ecosystem, we aim to enable the development of sustainable solutions for the future.

Rockland Farm Alliance

Sustainability requires that we reexamine the way we interact with the environment to produce food and feed our communities. The Rockland Farm Alliance (RFA), located in the heart of New City, NY, has a mission to conserve farmland in Rockland County and beyond by bringing our communities together through local, sustainable farming projects and agricultural education programs which reconnect us all to real organic food from the soil up.

Orange & Rockland Utilities is a proud supporter of their Outdoor Experimental Education program, which provides students the opportunity to develop hands-on gardening and farm work skills. In addition, their Project Green will help families experiencing food insecurities and food inequity. RFA distributes fresh healthy greens to thousands of families in need.

Shareholders

We are the longest, continuously-listed company on the New York Stock Exchange and have increased dividends to shareholders for 48 consecutive years.

For more information, refer to our Shareholder Services page (https://www.conedison.com/en/investors/shareholder-services).

[Footnote: *In January 2022, the Board declared a quarterly dividend of 79 cents a share on its common stock — an annualized increase of 6 cents over the previous annualized dividend of $3.10 a share]

Stockholder Engagement

Overview

Recognizing that regular communication with our stockholders enables the Company to better understand their viewpoints and to obtain feedback regarding issues that are of interest to them, the Company continued to engage, in a mostly virtual format, with stockholders due to COVID-19. The Company values stockholder input and is committed to taking such input into consideration in making executive compensation and governance decisions.

The chart below represents certain actions that the Company takes before, during and after the annual meeting.

2021 Stockholder Engagement Highlights

During 2021, the Company held its second annual ESG webinar, participated in over 600 meetings, including investor conferences and virtual roadshows targeting the U.S., Europe, Canada, and Australia, with a broad range of stockholders, including index funds, union and public pension funds, actively-managed funds, ESG-focused funds, and stockholder advisory firms.

During 2021, the Company engaged virtually with stockholders holding in aggregate 36% of shares outstanding and 27% of the Company’s debentures.

Key topics of shareholder engagement on corporate governance related issues included Con Edison of New York’s Climate Change Adaptation and Resiliency Plan; the Company’s corporate strategy; pursuit of net-zero-carbon-emission goals including reimagining our gas distribution system; diversity, equity and inclusion; disclosure practices including ESG standardized reporting; corporate governance; political spending and lobbying practices; and operations and financial matters (including issues raised by COVID-19).

In response to stockholder feedback received during 2021, the Company:

(i) Enhanced disclosures concerning political lobbying activities, resulting in an increase in the Company’s CPA-Zicklin Index for Corporate Political Disclosure and Accountability score to 100 from 94.3;

(ii) Broadened our Clean Energy Businesses’ disclosures;

(iii) Expanded our diversity, equity, and inclusion reporting through disclosure of the Company’s Federal Employee Report EEO-1 that provides further transparency on the make-up of our workforce;

(iv) Released the Company’s updated Clean Energy Commitment; and

(v) Further refined the disclosures in its proxy to, among other things, provide clearer and more accessible information on human capital management.

Throughout the year, the Company communicates stockholder feedback to the Board and its committees, and the Board considers this feedback in making its decisions.