Exelon Energizes National Volunteer Week With 36 Environmental Service Projects

As part of its commitment to environmental stewardship, Exelon dedicated nearly half of its employee-led volunteer work during National Volunteer Week to environmental projects. Overall, more than 1,300 employees across the Exelon family of companies participated in more than 80 community service projects.

 

This campaign is part of Exelon’s Energy for the Community volunteer engagement program, which has been named Corporate Volunteer Program of the Year two years in a row by VolunteerMatch, the Internet’s largest and most popular volunteering network.

 

National Volunteer Week is an annual, nationwide observance of individuals’ and organizations’ contributions to their communities. This year’s National Volunteer Week program empowers employee volunteers to design their own service projects and recruit colleagues. Employees once again chose to concentrate on a wide variety of environmental projects that support the company’s Exelon 2020 low-carbon strategy and goals.

 

“I applaud our employees for continuing to improve the quality of life in the communities we serve,” said Exelon Chairman and CEO John W. Rowe. “Exelon employees have organized and rallied behind projects that reflect Exelon’s commitment to take a leadership role in the corporate response to global climate change.”

 

Employees from every Exelon operating company participated in the annual celebration of volunteerism. This includes ComEd in Chicago and northern Illinois, PECO in Philadelphia and southeastern Pennsylvania, and Exelon Generation and Exelon Business Services Company employees in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic.

 

“The enthusiasm our employees have for volunteerism allowed Exelon to double its National Volunteer Week effort this year,” said Steve Solomon, Exelon’s director of corporate relations. “Our employee volunteer program as a whole has grown by more than 30 percent over the last year, which is a testament to the company’s culture and its dedication to the community, particularly in an economic climate when our communities can use our help the most.”

 

Although National Volunteer Week officially runs from April 19-25, Exelon’s celebration this year kicked off early with environmental projects on April 18 and will extend through May 9 with a Chicago River cleanup project. Earth Day events took place on April 22.

 

The 36 green projects staffed by Exelon volunteers in the Mid-Atlantic area included:

 

-- Schuylkill Canal Association’s Earth Day clean-up of the Schuylkill River (April 18)

-- Philadelphia Clean Air Council Earth Day 5K Run (April 18)

 

-- Landscaping and tree planting projects in York County, Pa (April 21)

-- Clean-up of Anson Nixon Park in Kennett Square, Pa (April 22)

 

-- Lay Road clean-up in Delta, Pa (April 23)

 

-- IT Green Day celebration garden work at the Riverbend Environmental Education Center in Gladwyne, Pa (April 23)

 

-- Eddystone Lighthouse clean-up in Eddystone, Pa (April 23)

 

-- Beautification project at the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, Pa (April 24)

Exelon, a Chicago-based company, is one of the nation's largest utilities and the largest owner/operator of nuclear plants. Its Exelon 2020 strategy to address climate change set a goal of reducing, displacing or offsetting more than 15 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year by 2020. This is more than the company’s annual carbon footprint.

 

Exelon recently announced that as of the end of 2008, it had reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 35 percent from 2001 levels, far surpassing its voluntary 8 percent reduction goal under the U.S. EPA Climate Leaders program.