Ensuring Safe and Sustainable Operations
Environmental risk management and mitigation are key drivers for ensuring safe and sustainable operations. In order to maintain environmental compliance, our operational business units have developed and implemented processes, procedures and tools specific to their work.
Each business unit is responsible for addressing aspects such as environmental issue management, due diligence, permitting, compliance, event response, change management, training, auditing and risk management. Our environmental risk management programs are designed to ensure the company has identified all potential risks so that we properly develop plans to avoid, minimize or mitigate issues.
Compliance is Just the Beginning
As part of our commitment to the environment, we comply with federal, state and local environmental laws, regulations and permits that govern our company's and our industry's operations. Each business unit:
- Has developed processes and procedures to manage these requirements; and
- Looks for opportunities to exceed these requirements as part of the company's commitment to excellence and continuous improvement.
Our corporate goal is to have zero significant environmental events.
Our Management Toolkit
We employ a multifaceted, proactive approach to managing environmental protection and stewardship. Our programs include daily site inspections, routine self-assessments, environmental audits, quarterly meetings with our Corporate Environmental Governance Council, and quarterly due diligence reporting to executive management and the NextEra Energy Board of Directors.
Read more about how our management toolkit programs help protect the environment and prevent potential violations below.
Our Corporate Environmental Governance Council
This council performs quarterly reviews of each business unit deemed to have potential for environmental exposures.
Business unit representatives rank environmental risks based on the likelihood of occurrence and severity of the consequences. Risk mitigation countermeasures are reviewed and potential opportunities for application to other business groups is evaluated. In addition, business units report on their performance against business-unit specific environmental metrics and share environmental events, possible environmental consequences of current and pending regulations and process changes.
Corporate Environmental Compliance Inspection and Auditing Programs
Dedicated teams perform environmental inspections of our construction sites and audits of our operations to verify compliance with environmental laws, regulations and permits.
These programs provide a conduit for identifying and communicating best practices, risks and improvement opportunities among sites. During a project's construction and commissioning, teams perform environmental construction compliance inspections to ensure that all environmental license and permit requirements are implemented. To ensure environmental compliance during operations, facilities are audited periodically throughout their operating life to verify the facility is complying with applicable environmental requirements. We also recognize the risks associated with disposal and/or recycling of waste generated from our operations and, therefore, we have a program to audit and approve our waste disposal/recycling vendors.
Due Diligence
Environmental risks are reviewed and assessed through a comprehensive due diligence process during the development, construction and operating life of each facility.
During a project's development, multiple internal risk vetting sessions occur at progressively higher levels of management, and review sessions are held with senior executives prior to project approval by the NextEra Energy Board of Directors. These sessions include environmental representation to ensure environmental risks are being identified and managed.