FLORIDA (Commodity Online): After years of quietly building what has become the largest renewable energy business in the nation, FPL Group, top producer of wind power in North America, has established itself as one of the nation’s cleanest electric power providers. More than anything else, this defines the company’s commitment to sustainable business practices.

“In an era when climate change threatens potentially catastrophic consequences for the planet, sustainability confronts corporate America with a simple question: What are you doing to reduce your carbon dioxide emissions? At FPL Group, we have a simple answer: A lot. Through our substantial investments in low-carbon electricity generation, we are now one of the cleanest power companies in the nation,” FPL Group chairman and CEO Lew Hay said in the company’s 2009 sustainability report.

FPL now generates more electricity from its wind farms than from its largest nuclear power plant. It owns the largest wind farm in the world, the 736 megawatt Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center in Texas.

FPL’s zero-emissions generation avoided 42.6 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2008. That’s the carbon equivalent of removing eight coal-fired power plants or preserving 269,000 acres of forest, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency’s greenhouse gas equivalencies calculator.

In the national debate over climate change, FPL Group has been a forceful advocate of putting a price on carbon dioxide to drive additional investments in clean energy.

Within Florida, the company runs successful programs to protect sea turtles, manatees, crocodiles and other wildlife. For example, FPL provides a unique habitat for the American crocodile among the 5,600 acres of cooling canals at its Turkey Point site south of Miami. Since the early 1980s, more than 3,000 crocodile hatchlings have been documented at the site, which has been responsible for virtually the entire increase in the crocodile population over the past two decades. The result: On March 20, 2007, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reclassified the American crocodile from endangered to threatened, giving special recognition to FPL for its contribution to the species’ recovery.

Just as FPL Group’s environmental stewardship has contributed to economic success, the company’s economic success enables it to support the communities where it does business.

The company sponsors a range of education programs from the elementary school through college levels. Under the utility’s program to create “Solar Education Stations,” local schools receive solar arrays and educational curricula to help teach students the benefits of renewable energy. FPL Group also maintains an Education Partnership Program with colleges and universities to prepare students to work in the electric power industry. (Courtesy: Businesswire)

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