Clean Energy is a Smart Business Strategy

Climate change is the top risk businesses face over the next decade, according to Deloitte.

At the same time, stricter California, U.S., European and global regulations are being introduced requiring businesses to better disclose and respond to climate impacts and risks.

As a result, more businesses are adopting Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) policies to reduce their carbon footprint and operation costs, including implementing energy efficiency practices.

ESG disclosures provide important metrics to understand how a company’s practices could impact future financial performance, including direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions, stewardship over natural resources and overall resilience against physical climate risks such as flooding and fires. 

And according to McKinsey & Company, businesses that perform poorly in ESG criteria “are more likely to endure materially adverse events.”

Orange County Power Authority (OCPA) is here to help companies achieve their ESG goals by offering clean energy solutions that are as easy on the balance sheet as they are beneficial for the health and resiliency of our community and planet.

Here’s how:

OCPA offers three renewable energy plans to commercial customers in Buena Park, Fullerton, and Irvine. Each plan increasingly replaces dirty fossil fuels with clean energy from solar, wind, biomass, geothermal and hydroelectric.

That includes a 100% Renewable Choice plan that costs just a fraction more than the base renewable energy plan but goes much further in meeting bold ESG goals and significantly reducing your company’s carbon footprint. For commercial customers on the 100% Renewable Choice plan, OCPA offers green certification.

The middle-tier Smart Choice plan offers 69 percent renewable energy, which is still far higher than the overall California power mix, while the Basic Choice Plan is both competitive in renewable energy and costs 2% less than Southern California Edison’s equivalent generation rate.

Given the average amount of energy consumed by Orange County businesses, OCPA’s competitively priced clean energy plans are a simple switch with a huge lasting impact.

In just its first year of operations, OCPA customers have helped reduce carbon emissions equivalent to removing 71,565 gas-powered vehicles from our roads each year.

OCPA’s first Power Content Label, which details the agency’s mix of electricity sources during 2022, demonstrates it is among the greenest and cleanest Community Choice Aggregators in California. It underscores the power of community choice energy agencies, who are putting more renewable energy onto the power grid at a faster rate than the for-profit, investor-owned utilities.

OCPA signed its first renewable power purchase agreement, to receive 90 megawatts (MW) of solar from Riverside County that will produce enough to power 40,000 homes, and up to 30 MW of battery storage capacity over 20 years. And that is just the beginning.

OCPA is also bringing choice and competition to the energy market. All of that in turn can make it much simpler and more affordable for Orange County businesses to earn the pride and distinction of becoming a net-zero carbon emissions company.

Not only is it smart for the planet, but it is also smart for the bottom line.

About Orange County Power Authority

The Orange County Power Authority is a not-for-profit public agency that offers clean power at competitive rates, significantly reducing energy-related greenhouse emissions and enabling reinvestment in local energy programs. To learn more, visit www.ocpower.org.