Rod explained that when power outages used to occur, the conversation between Utilities and customers was strictly how to get the power quickly back. Now customers demand to know how much power outages cost them.
Rod maintains that Utilities need to understand that customers want to talk about affordability, reliability, and sustainability, and Utilities must develop a "Customer Centricity” relationship model.
Michael was joined on stage by Scott Traweek Manager, EEI Corporate Customer Outreach, and Steve DePalo, a long-time EEI Member and now former Sustainability Director with McDonald's after announcing his retirement last week.
The panel began discussion by encouraging customers to attend all open sessions to facilitate more productive conversations. Michael advised attendees to think of EEI as an investment in creating long-term relationships. He urged them to listen to their customers to learn how company energy initiatives were evolving and to cultivate connections.
Walmart's Sustainability Initiatives
Walmart's Energy Director, Steve Chriss, shared how they partner with utilities to support their "Regenerative Journey" and major project: Project Gigaton™.
During the show, it was repeatedly noted how intertwined companies and their suppliers are in regards to their carbon footprint ratings, supporting the push for them to work together to achieve carbon reduction goals. Several presentations revolved around how energy data can be harnessed and used to help support reduction initiatives.
One presentation looked at how investors drive companies' sustainability by requiring more disclosure on energy and environmental impacts. There is money in good sustainability ratings, which makes companies more valuable.
ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) ratings is one such value driver, with 92% of Nasdaq companies now reporting on sustainability measures. These ratings have become a basic expectation.
Company value is also based on the suppliers and vendors they work with as they can add to their “carbon score”. For example, if you purchase a food item, and one of its ingredients has a high carbon footprint, the carbon score goes up. The onus is starting to be on companies to push back on supporting suppliers who do not improve their manufacturing processes.
Another carbon reporting item brought up at the event was that CFOs have new reporting requirements for Nasdaq that include sustainability reporting. And although the data can be pretty complicated, presenters noted the importance of ensuring it is clean data collected and organized well, which is a huge struggle for companies.
The issue arises as data is largely siloed, and the responsibility for gathering and interpreting data falls on various company roles, as shown in the below slide. The lack of uniformity and expertise is significantly impacting companies from reporting well. (Learn how we can help with this with our new feature Carbon Manager™!).
Lineage Logistics Senior Manager of Energy Analytics Jesse Tootell talked about leveraging data to support business strategies and carbon reduction plans.
Jesse talks about how Lineage uses data in its food refrigeration storage and distribution business in a sustainable way. He shares examples of how they have reduced energy consumption and lowered their carbon footprint in a myriad of ways by using data to inform their decisions.
One such example Jesse provided was how they installed electric charging stations for their refrigerated trucks to have them charging when waiting to unload, rather than having gas trucks idle during wait times.
EEI's P.E. Steven Rosenstock gave a thorough update of government and executive energy decisions and actions, which included:
Alex Schroeder from the Joint Office of Energy & Transportation talked about how the Dept of Energy and Dept of Transportation are working together to implement EV’s (electric vehicles). The program known as the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) is a 5-year program that will evolve with the market. He says their plans involve implementing charging stations every 50 miles along our nation’s highways in all 50 states, allowing four vehicles to plug in simultaneously with peak charge.
Our team always has a blast at EEI events! We love getting to know our partners to continue to grow with and support them.
We look forward to connecting with you at the next EEI National Key Accounts workshop in Fall - October 23-26 at the JW Marriott in Indianapolis, IN!