Portland General Electric (PGE) recently released its fifth annual Sustainability Report. The report includes PGE’s sustainability results from the past fiscal year and stories from across the company highlighting achievements, areas for growth and where the company is focused.
As highlighted in the report and outlined in PGE’s vision, the company intends to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on its system by more than 80% by 2050, consistent with its proportionate share of the state’s 2050 greenhouse gas reduction goal. PGE’s vision takes an economywide perspective, identifying both its own decarbonization goal and the role it can play in helping the state meet its 2050 goal.
The report includes metrics and stories categorized by PGE’s five pillars of sustainability:
- Customer Value: Keeping customers at the center of everything the company does
- Environmental Footprint: Protecting natural resources
- Quality Workforce: Powering a safe and engaged workforce
- Strong Communities: Investing where PGE customers and employees live and work
Responsible Management: Maintaining stewardship of the company while taking a long-term approach
The Path to Low Carbon
PGE commissioned a deep decarbonization study that investigated options to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for all energy services by 80% across our service area.
The study found that:
- Significant electrification will be an important part of the solution, especially transportation electrification. PGE’s decarbonization study projected that charging EVs on a low-carbon grid could decrease overall passenger transportation GHG emissions by 95%. Our communities can realize additional reductions by electrifying buses, delivery vehicles and intermodal freight trucks — giving customers the ability to choose electric and clean regardless of their needs.
- Energy efficiency continues to be a key strategy for reaching deep greenhouse gas reduction goals, but new technologies will also drive significant energy savings, like electric vehicles, heat pumps and hot water heaters.
- Electricity systems in a deeply decarbonized future will need new capabilities to efficiently integrate vast amounts of renewables, both distributed renewables like rooftop solar and centralized renewables like wind farms.