Washington
Gas Energy Services, Inc. (WGES), one of the largest competitive
energy suppliers in the mid-Atlantic region, announced today that Northern
Virginia Community College (NOVA) is matching 35 percent of its
natural gas usage with WGES
CleanSteps® Carbon Offsets. One of the largest community colleges in
the country, NOVA’s offset purchase will have an environmental impact
equivalent to avoiding the consumption of almost 125,000 gallons of
gasoline. WGES is a subsidiary of WGL, which offers a diverse set of
energy sources including natural gas, wind, and solar as well as a range
of energy solutions – generation, storage, transportation, distribution,
supply, and efficiency – which serve customers in more than 25 states.
“Northern Virginia Community College’s sustainability strategy includes
aggressive greenhouse gas reduction goals, and working with Washington
Gas Energy Services to neutralize the impact of our natural gas usage is
a simple and effective way to reduce our carbon footprint,” said Rob
Johnson, sustainability officer at NOVA. “This commitment to matching 35
percent of our natural gas usage to WGES CleanSteps® Carbon Offsets,
coupled with our other projects and initiatives across our six campuses,
will help us extend our leadership in environmental sustainability.”
WGES CleanSteps® Carbon Offsets support independently verified local
carbon-reduction projects in the areas of efficient transportation and
landfill gas capture and destruction. The carbon-reduction projects have
environmental benefits for the region, such as improved air and water
quality. Through WGES’ partnership with the Chesapeake
Bay Foundation (CBF), a portion of all offset purchases supports the
Carbon Reduction Fund, which is used to develop future clean air and
water projects, such as tree plantings, throughout the Chesapeake Bay
region. NOVA students and faculty interested in supporting these
projects will be invited to volunteer at WGES’ annual Earth Month tree
planting event, held in conjunction with CBF, in April.
“Northern Virginia Community College is the first higher education
institution to utilize WGES CleanSteps® Carbon Offsets to help achieve
carbon reduction goals. Using offsets matched to natural gas is an
effective and credible way to counterbalance the impact of the school’s
energy usage and complement NOVA’s other efforts, which include
constructing LEED-certified buildings and offering comprehensive
recycling and composting programs,” said Harry Warren, president of
Washington Gas Energy Services. “This carbon offsets purchase
demonstrates to the NOVA community and to other educational institutions
that lessening their environmental impact can be simple and have local
benefits.”
All WGES standard natural gas contracts include a baseline 5 percent
match of carbon offsets to natural gas usage for residential customers
and a 3.5 percent match for small commercial customers. Both residential
and small commercial customers have the option of choosing natural gas
matched with 100 percent WGES CleanSteps® Carbon Offsets. Large
commercial customers have the option of customizing the percent of their
natural gas that is matched with carbon offsets.
Since WGES launched WGES CleanSteps® Carbon Offsets in September 2010,
customers have purchased more than 109,000 offsets. This is equivalent
to taking 22,000 cars off the road for one year, or avoiding the
consumption of over 12 million gallons of gasoline.
To learn more about WGES CleanSteps® Carbon Offsets, visit http://www.wges.com/carbonoffsets.
About Washington Gas Energy Services, Inc.
Washington Gas Energy Services, Inc. is one of the largest competitive
energy providers in the mid-Atlantic region. Washington Gas Energy
Services supplies electricity, natural gas and green energy options to
commercial and residential customers in Delaware, the District of
Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia. In 2011, the U.S.
Department of Energy (DOE) named Washington Gas Energy Services the
Green Power Supplier of the Year in the non-utility category. Headquartered
in Herndon, Va., Washington Gas Energy Services is an affiliate of
Washington Gas, the regulated natural gas utility, and a subsidiary of
WGL Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:WGL).
www.wges.com
About Northern Virginia Community College
Northern Virginia Community College is the largest institution of higher
education in the Commonwealth of Virginia and one of America's largest
community colleges. NOVA enrolls more than 75,000 students at its six
campuses in Alexandria, Annandale, Loudoun, Manassas, Springfield and
Woodbridge, and through the Extended Learning Institute. For more
information about NOVA and its programs or services, call 703-323-3000
or visit the College's Web site, www.nvcc.edu.
Copyright Business Wire 2014