UI Releases 2010 Sustainability Report

Today, The United Illuminating Company (UI) has released its 2010 sustainability report.
The 24-page report documents 2010 efforts across the three spheres of sustainability: environmental, social and economic. It covers a wide range of topics, from UI’s nationally recognized conservation programs to employee charitable giving. Among the 2010 highlights:
UI, through a partnership with Connecticut’s Energy Efficiency Fund, worked with Chick’s Drive-In of West Haven, Conn. to make efficiency upgrades expected to save the small business approximately $9,000 a year. Chick’s was one of many businesses that benefitted from this partnership between UI and the Energy Efficiency Fund.
Materials left over from the demolition of the former Showcase Cinemas were reused as structural fill at the construction the site of UI’s future Central Facility in Orange, greatly reducing the need to haul materials on and off the site in trucks.
Scrutinizing its own operations, a UI department found a simple way to save hundreds of thousands of pages of paper a year: reducing UI’s expenses and its environmental footprint at the same time.
Each week, residents of the Opportunity House Inc., a Hamden nonprofit that serves autistic adults, visit UI’s offices in New Haven, North Haven and Milford. They collect and redeem the cans and bottles to raise funds for recreational activities. At UI’s locations in Shelton, recyclable items are donated to the Birmingham Group of Ansonia, which provides mental-health, addiction and counseling services.
“UI’s collaboration with Opportunity House and Birmingham Group perfectly demonstrates UI’s vision of sustainability,” said James P. Torgerson, chief executive officer of UI and its parent company, UIL Holdings Corporation. “It serves important environmental and social needs, while allowing UIL to continue our efforts at being a strong corporate citizen.”
“A healthy bottom line is a must for any corporation, but it’s not enough. For a corporation to thrive it must be able to show that it has a healthy respect for the communities and the environment it operates within,” Torgerson added.
UI’s 2010 report can be found online at www.uinet.com/sustainability. A limited number of paper copies (printed in soy ink on Forestry Stewardship Council-certified paper) are also available and can be mailed on request.
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