Minimizing the Environmental Impact of Our Facilities

We are committed to reducing waste streams and water consumption, maintaining high waste recycling rates, modeling sound energy-efficiency practices and minimizing the use of toxic and chemical substances in our buildings and facilities.

Greening Our Own Buildings

By making our own buildings "green," PG&E is demonstrating the value of protecting the environment to our employees and the local community.

In 2006, PG&E incorporated a variety of energy efficiency and sustainable building concepts into the development of our Concord Resource Management Center (RMC), using LEED™ criteria as our guide. Key features included low-flow plumbing fixtures, lighting that automatically dims near windows during the day, cubicle sensors that control energy demand when employees leave their work stations, sustainable wood products, and ENERGY STAR-labeled refrigerators, microwave ovens, copiers, and other office appliances and equipment. PG&E's new program, "Earth & Art," helped to furnish the building with artwork from area high schools. PG&E also incorporated many of these green building features at the new Fresno RMC.

These and other efforts have helped build momentum for an emerging green building initiative, which is designed to leverage enterprise-wide opportunities and improve the environmental performance of PG&E's new and existing facilities.

Waste Minimization

In 2006, PG&E partnered with Omega Waste Management to pilot a new approach that would boost recycling and waste reduction efforts at 50 PG&E facilities throughout a 19-county area. By successfully consolidating 44 different recycling and waste management contracts into one, Omega was able to achieve economies of scale, improve recycling procedures and right-size PG&E's trash service to dramatically reduce the amount of waste being disposed. The end result was a resounding success: PG&E more than doubled the amount recycled at these sites in 2006.

In the course of operations, PG&E also generates hazardous wastes regulated by the federal government and the state of California. Federal regulations include the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and the Toxic Substances Control Act.

California-regulated (non-RCRA) wastes are not regulated by the federal government but under more stringent California requirements. (These include non-PCB used oil, oil saturated solids and debris with metals at lower thresholds than federal standards.)

These wastes are generated by routine gas and electric operations, equipment maintenance and overhauls, and facility construction and demolition. Waste is also generated by remediation and cleanup of historic legacy sites. All waste generated by PG&E is managed and minimized in accordance with applicable federal and state regulations.

Other examples from 2006 include:

Continuing to achieve environmental benefits and cost savings by receiving a growing portion of our primary underground electrical cables on returnable steel reels—versus one-time-use wooden reels. Since we began this effort in 1998, PG&E has received shipments of nearly 8,900 reusable steel reels, avoiding the use of more than 5.8 million pounds of wood, which translates into approximately 33,000 trees. PG&E has also saved a total of $2.8 million in avoided purchasing and material handling costs, and the savings continue to grow.

Recycling and reusing our "e-waste," including approximately 3,660 CPUs, 6,530 monitors, 1,220 printers and 90 servers. It is PG&E's practice not to allow our e-waste to be shipped overseas for processing.

Recycling or reusing 33,951,630 pounds of scrap iron, aluminum and copper from conductors, meters and miscellaneous infrastructure from our waste stream. We also recycled more than 100,000 pounds of plastic piping as well as used hard hats.