2021 SGA Award Finalists

Program Description

In December, Atmos Energy published its annual Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability (CRS) Report to further enhance transparency with stakeholders. The CRS report details our commitment to preserving and protecting the environment, fueling safe and thriving communities, and strong governance along with our significant investments in employees, infrastructure, and safety. This transparent account of our ESG accomplishments is valued by all stakeholders including elected officials and city staff, investors, vendors, and community partners as well as our 4,700 employees and 3 million customers. ESG highlights include:

Environmental

• Identified operational and technological solutions that drive continuous improvement to achieve our target of a 50 percent reduction in methane emissions from our natural gas distribution system by 2035, including ongoing system modernization efforts.
• Delivered 5.1 Bcf of Renewable Natural Gas and Compressed Natural Gas; equivalent to removing 58,000 cars from the road annually.
• Joined ONE Future, which is a coalition of natural gas companies working together to proactively reduce methane emissions across the natural gas value chain.

Social

• Contributed $14 million to charitable organizations that:
  • provided resources to help students read on level by the third grade.
  • supplied the breakfasts, lunches, snacks, and healthy meals that all children need to grow, develop, and succeed.
  • helped customers stay warm last winter.
  • provided fire department equipment and personal protective gear, raised awareness for community safety, supported firefighter professional development, and expanded volunteer fire departments.
• Voluntarily suspended natural gas disconnections at the outset of the pandemic and made a $1.5 million donation to stock the shelves at local food banks.
• Donated $1 million to energy assistance agencies across our service territory to support friends and neighbors in need and supported community assistance agencies working to distribute over $11 million in financial assistance through the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), the company’s own Sharing the Warmth program, and other assistance programs to help struggling customers manage past-due balances.
• During our annual Week of Giving campaign, employees across the enterprise pledged more than $875,000 in donations to benefit United Way, No Kid Hungry, and The Salvation Army. Further amplifying the impact of this tremendous financial support, the company matched all employee donations to double the vital resources crucial organizations use to enrich childhood literacy, provide nutritious meals, and offer a helping hand to our most vulnerable neighbors.

Governance

• In 2020, 100 percent of active employees completed our annual Code of Conduct training.
• Continuous improvement is made possible through communication channels for employees, contractors, and the public to offer feedback or make recommendations for improvements to safety, risk identification, prevention, and mitigation.

Results/Response to the Program

Atmos Energy’s most recent Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability (CRS) Report was published on December 17, 2020 and was:

• Prepared with input from executive leadership, corporate communications, public affairs, investor relations, operations, finance, marketing, technical training and workforce development, human resources, and energy assistance team members.
• Shared with more than 3 million customers and with city staff, elected officials, members of the media, vendors, and community partners across the 1,400 communities we serve.
• Made available on the company’s website and social media platforms which include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Validating our approach, Atmos Energy was named to Newsweek’s 2021 list of America’s Most Responsible Companies based on publicly available key performance indicators presented through our CRS Report and an independent survey. Newsweek conducted a detailed analysis beginning with a pool of over 2,000 companies that were screened by a variety of criteria. Then an independent survey was conducted among more than 7,500 U.S. residents along with research-based on publicly available key performance indicators derived from Corporate Annual Reports, CSR Reports, Sustainability Reports, and Corporate Citizenship Reports.

Program Description

In an effort to reduce emissions and mitigate the company’s impact on climate change, in 2020 Summit Utilities, Inc. (Summit) piloted methane recapture technology in two states. Summit’s teams challenged themselves to be innovative leaders in the natural gas industry and pursued studying the feasibility of methane recapture technology as a 2020 ESG goal. Thanks to the pioneering spirit of Summit’s engineering and operations teams, they determined that not only was the technology feasible it was worth trying that very year. To minimize social and environmental impact, Summit utilized Zero Emissions Vacuum and Compression (ZEVAC ®) to capture and reuse gas that would otherwise have been emitted into the atmosphere through normal construction/operation practices.

Results of/Response to the Program

These pilots demonstrated a step forward for the company as it works to reduce emissions on its system and limit its environmental impact. By simply piloting this technology twice, Summit was able to save approximately 28.1 metric tons of CO2e, which is equivalent to taking 6 cars off the road for one year.
As a result of this pilot program, methane recapture was included in Summit’s Standard Operating Procedure for Purging a Pipeline. All high-volume purges must now consider methane recapture, if practical.