GreenEdge

Customers may sign up for GreenEdge online or by calling our customer care contact center. Participation in the GreenEdge program is completely voluntary. Customers elect to pay an additional $3 per program block per month to balance a portion of the carbon generated from their natural gas usage.

Each block addresses the carbon emissions associated with 12.5 therms of natural gas usage. The monthly participation cost goes toward the purchase of carbon offsets and renewable natural gas certificates from projects that reduce or prevent the release of greenhouse gases as well as program administration. Piedmont does not profit from this program.

Your enrollment in GreenEdge allows you to address the emissions from your natural gas use through a mix of carbon offsets and renewable natural gas certificates. These carbon offsets support nature-based projects that could include improving forestry management and grasslands and wetlands preservation. Renewable natural gas certificates support the production of renewable fuel from landfills, farms and wastewater treatment plants. Customers will receive an annual participation report highlighting their contribution and the overall effect of the program.

GreenEdge participants have helped support the following projects:

• Doe Mountain Recreation Area – At more than 8,500 acres, this area represents one of the largest remaining blocks of privately owned forest in the Southern Blue Ridge region. Protecting these woodlands provides significant climate benefits through carbon sequestration.
• Davidson County Landfill Project – This landfill gas-to-energy project produces enough clean energy to power approximately 1,500 homes, and the emissions captured by the project are equivalent to removing more than 10,000 passenger vehicles from the road every year.
• Middlebury Improved Forest Management – Middlebury College, one of the oldest liberal arts colleges in the United States, launched an Improved Forest Management project on over 2,500 acres of forest in the Green Mountains of central Vermont. The project ensures the long-term conservation and sustainable management of the forest, promotes healthy wildlife habitat and prevents future compromise of the forest carbon stocks.
• Maryland Bioenergy Center – This organics recycling facility is the first anaerobic digester of its scale in the state. The facility is capable of recycling 110,000 tons of organics annually to produce approximately 312,000 MMBtu of renewable natural gas for energy.

Residential and commercial Piedmont customers on rates 101, 201, 301, 102, 202 and 302 are eligible to participate in GreenEdge. Customers will need to be in good financial standing with Piedmont, without any currently past-due bills.

No, the amount of emissions addressed is your choice. Four blocks represents the approximate average natural gas usage for residential customers in North Carolina and South Carolina, which is 50 therms. Five blocks represents the approximate average natural gas usage for residential customers in Tennessee, which is 62.5 therms.

Piedmont seeks to source natural gas environmental attributes within the states where the company operates with a preference for resources in the program's operating state.

GreenEdge's positive environmental impact is achieved thorough roughly 99% carbon offsets and up to 1% renewable natural gas environmental attributes. The 1% level allows us to acquire impactful amounts of RNG environmental attributes while keeping GreenEdge affordable.

The short answer is “no.” In fact, the phrase “carbon neutral” is coming under increased scrutiny as it is extremely difficult to achieve. However, by converting the gas generated by decomposing waste into RNG, we can significantly reduce the environmental impact of either releasing the gases into the atmosphere as methane (which is 25 times more harmful* than CO₂ during combustion) or burning them in biomethanization plants. To avoid those two scenarios, the waste gases are recovered, cleaned and injected into the natural gas system as RNG to mix with fossil-derived natural gas. CO₂ will still be released; however, the impact is far less than that resulting from the release of untreated waste gases.

A carbon offset, commonly associated with a carbon credit, is a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions created when 1 metric ton of carbon dioxide emissions, or other greenhouse gas equivalent, is captured, avoided or destroyed to compensate for an equivalent emission made elsewhere.

The cost of renewable natural gas is made up of two components: the gas itself and an environmental attribute. This attribute is a certificate that verifies that energy was produced from a renewable source – in this case, renewable natural gas.

A therm is a standard unit of measuring energy, used primarily to measure natural gas usage. One therm is equivalent to 100,000 British thermal units (Btu). A residential natural gas customer uses, on average, 50 therms per month.

Improved forest management (IFM) projects work by preventing or reducing timber harvesting activities that would otherwise likely occur in forests. This allows the forest to continue sequestering and storing carbon at levels undiminished by deforestation. This retained carbon sequestration capacity generates carbon offsets for the GreenEdge program, all of which are verified through the American Carbon Registry or other tracking system. Many IFM projects have the added benefits of preserving wildlife habitat and protecting water quality.

RNG is pipeline-quality natural gas produced from existing waste streams and a variety of renewable and sustainable biomass sources. Sources may include wastewater, landfills, agricultural waste or food waste. RNG environmental attributes will be purchased under the program, but RNG will not be purchased to supply individual homes. Since RNG cannot be distinguished from natural gas once injected into the natural gas pipeline, the RNG environmental benefit in the form of a “certificate” is the proof that the natural gas originated from a renewable resource.

Carbon offsets are created from projects that reduce or prevent the release of carbon emissions into the atmosphere. Renewable natural gas (RNG) transforms organic waste into a renewable energy source that can be delivered through existing infrastructure to fuel fleets and heat homes. Some projects can choose to produce either carbon offsets or RNG certificates, but not both.

Your participation fees are used to cover the costs of carbon offsets to procure RNG environmental attributes and to help support program administration.

No, Piedmont does not profit from the GreenEdge program.