Partnership

NRG has developed a wide range of partnerships with local groups in communities that share our goal of protecting the environment. Among our recent efforts:

• We partnered with the Student Conservation Association to support their summer student intern program to foster the next generation of conservationists. Students learned about green jobs by visiting our Arthur Kills station in New York and our employees worked alongside students at Hermann Park in Houston to remove nonnative plants. NRG donated $50,000 to fund the program and participated in a kick-off event at the Stamford Museum Nature Center in Connecticut to help install handrails and make improvements on a universally accessible nature trail.
• The Restore America's Estuaries Nation Conference was held in Galveston in 2010. NRG was the conference's climate sponsor, offsetting 1,500 metric tons of carbon for the weeklong event. Wetland plants from our EcoCenter were donated and planted by conference participants during the Restore Galveston Bay field session.
• We've provided support in the form of funding to SeaLab in California. SeaLab is a division of the LA Conservation Corps that offers at-risk young adults and school-aged children opportunities to succeed. SeaLab focuses on environmental and service projects that benefit the community.
• Our Oswego plant participates in the Soles4Souls program, which collects new and slightly used shoes and gives them away for free to people all over the world who are victims of natural disasters or live in extreme poverty. Due to the success of this initiative, Soles4Souls participation is being expanded to our corporate offices.
• Our WA Parish station in Texas worked with a local YMCA to recycle Hurricane Ike storm debris on the YMCA's grounds. The tree debris was chipped and left onsite to be used as mulch. Solar powered accent lighting was installed at various locations around the YMCA and low flow shower heads were installed in the facility's bathrooms.
• At several of our New York plants — including Arthur Kill, Astoria, and Dunkirk — we have partnered with and donated funds to environmental projects such as restoring public spaces on Staten Island and conducting environmental studies in the Long Island Sound.
• NRG helped finance the Delmarva Odyssey project, a collaboration between the Delaware Museum of Natural History and John Wik, a recognized environmental scientist.
• We support the Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership (CWRP), part of the Coastal America Foundation—an organization dedicated to preserving, restoring, enhancing and protecting aquatic habitats throughout the United States.
• The NRG Energy Center in Pittsburgh supports the Northside Leadership Conference's Allegheny Commons Restoration Project, which works to preserve and protect trees native to the Commons.
• Our Indian River facility in Delaware contributed four obsolete condenser water boxes for an artificial reef project led by the Ocean City Reef Foundation.
• In Texas, a group of employees helped the Houston Zoo retrofit 13 electric golf carts to run solely on solar power by replacing the existing roofs with solar panels.
• At our Huntley plant, we partner with the Niagara Frontier Section of the Air and Waste Management Association to sponsor Envirun, a 5k run in honor of Earth Day. The proceeds of the run support environmental programs and environmental education in the local community.
• Louisiana's Big Cajun 2 plant partnered with local government offices and groups to develop community gardens on small areas of public property for individuals to grow their own vegetables. Individuals will plant, maintain and harvest their garden and NRG will build a greenhouse onsite to grow plants during the winter months.