JUNO BEACH, Fla., Oct. 12, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NEE) is investing billions of dollars annually to help create a clean energy future sustainably and responsibly. As a result, the company generated more electricity from the wind and sun than any other company in the world last year. In its 2015 corporate responsibility report, released recently at www.NextEraEnergy.com/crr, NextEra Energy details how it is meeting customer and community needs, providing a safe, healthy and challenging work environment for employees, and delivering strong financial results.
"Whether it's providing affordable and reliable electricity to more than 9 million Floridians or helping utilities and other customers outside of Florida meet their energy goals, our team is working day in and day out to build a clean energy future," said Jim Robo, chairman and chief executive officer of NextEra Energy. "With sustainability and corporate responsibility as core elements of our business strategy, we look for innovative ways to solve America's energy challenges by increasing the use of renewable energy sources, modernizing infrastructure, protecting the environment, and delivering value for our customers, our communities, our employees and our shareholders."
Among the recent achievements detailed in the company's 2015 report are:
NextEra Energy continues to grow its clean energy leadership.
- NextEra Energy Resources, LLC, the company's competitive generation subsidiary, installed more than 1,600 megawatts of emissions-free wind and solar power in 2014, making last year its strongest year ever for new renewable energy capacity placed into service.
- The company's emissions-free nuclear power plants in four states safely generated enough energy last year to power 5 million homes.
- NextEra Energy also continued to invest in transmission lines and other critical infrastructure to ensure the future reliability of the electric grid.
NextEra Energy operates in an environmentally responsible manner.
- Nearly all the power NextEra Energy generated in 2014 was from clean or renewable sources, including wind, solar, natural gas and nuclear energy.
- Nearly 99 percent of the water the company withdraws for use in power generation is returned to its original source.
- Where it has operations, the company helps protect wildlife species, including monitoring sea turtles and manatees in Florida, installing eagle nesting platforms in Ontario, Canada, and supporting habitat conservation research in the Midwest and Great Plains.
NextEra Energy delivers superior value to its customers.
- FPL, the company's rate-regulated electric utility, delivered 99.98 percent service reliability in 2014, and continues to invest in advanced smart grid technology to improve service even more.
- FPL's typical 1,000-kWh residential customer bill is about 30 percent lower than the national average and the lowest in the state of Florida among reporting utilities.
- The cumulative effect of FPL's energy efficiency programs since 1981 − including 3.5 million residential home energy surveys and 200,000 business energy evaluations − has reduced electricity demand equivalent to the generation capacity of 14 medium-sized power plants.
- NextEra Energy Resources is helping a variety of utilities and other customers meet their renewable energy goals. As of June 2015, 29 states and the District of Columbia had mandates requiring electricity providers meet a certain percentage of their retail sales with energy from renewable sources.
NextEra Energy is helping communities thrive.
- NextEra Energy and its employees made $7 million in charitable contributions in 2014, while employees volunteered more than 54,000 hours of community service and served on more than 200 boards of directors of nonprofit organizations.
- The company invested $7 billion across a wide range of capital projects in 2014, creating good jobs and supporting schools, emergency services and other community needs through more than $500 million in tax payments.
- The company equipped teachers in Florida to help young people learn science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), and invested in education programs in California, Texas and Michigan, as well as in Canada.
NextEra Energy cultivates a high performance organization that focuses on safety, health, continuous learning and teamwork.
- The company's OSHA safety performance rate in 2014 was 75 percent lower than in 2005.
- NextEra Energy again was honored as a Best Employer for Healthy Lifestyles® for its effective workplace well-being programs.
- More than 1,200 employees are actively engaged in 11 employee resource groups − organizations that allow employees to interact with colleagues with similar interests, develop their careers, learn new skills, get involved in the community, and help make the company more adaptable and more reflective of its customer base.
NextEra Energy delivers strong financial performance.
- The company generated a total shareholder return of 300 percent for the 10 years ended Dec. 31, 2014, nearly triple the 109 percent recorded by the S&P 500 Index over that period.
- During that same period, NextEra Energy generated an 8.4 percent compound annual growth rate in dividends per share.
NextEra Energy's Corporate Responsibility Report also provides a detailed compendium of the company's initiatives and performance on corporate responsibility and sustainability metrics developed using the widely accepted Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines and methodology. In 2015, NextEra Energy responded to all 183 indicators requested by the GRI's new G4 and Electric Utility Sector Guidelines.
During the past year, NextEra Energy has been recognized as being:
- One of the 10 top companies in the world in both innovativeness and community responsibility on Fortune magazine's 2015 "World's Most Admired Companies" list;
- The top "green utility" in North America and No. 4 in the world in 2014 based on carbon emissions and renewable energy capacity, according to an annual report from EI Energy Intelligence; and
- A World's Most Ethical Company® by the Ethisphere Institute for the eighth time.
Learn more about NextEra Energy's commitment to corporate responsibility by visiting: www.NextEraEnergy.com/crr.
NextEra Energy, Inc.
NextEra Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NEE) is a leading clean energy company with consolidated revenues of approximately $17.0 billion, approximately 44,900 megawatts of generating capacity, which includes megawatts associated with noncontrolling interests related to NextEra Energy Partners, LP (NYSE: NEP), and approximately 13,800 employees in 27 states and Canada as of year-end 2014. Headquartered in Juno Beach, Fla., NextEra Energy's principal subsidiaries are Florida Power & Light Company, which serves approximately 4.8 million customer accounts in Florida and is one of the largest rate-regulated electric utilities in the United States, and NextEra Energy Resources, LLC, which, together with its affiliated entities, is the world's largest generator of renewable energy from the wind and sun. Through its subsidiaries, NextEra Energy generates clean, emissions-free electricity from eight commercial nuclear power units in Florida, New Hampshire, Iowa and Wisconsin. NextEra Energy has been recognized often by third parties for its efforts in sustainability, corporate responsibility, ethics and compliance, and diversity, and has been ranked in the top 10 worldwide for innovativeness and community responsibility as part of Fortune's 2015 list of "World's Most Admired Companies." For more information about NextEra Energy companies, visit these websites: www.NextEraEnergy.com, www.FPL.com, www.NextEraEnergyResources.com.
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