New York, NY August 13, 2013 -NYSE Euronext today announced that it has achieved carbon-neutral status for the third year in a row, again making it the only global exchange operator to do so. This distinction was accomplished through the implementation of company-wide energy efficiency initiatives as well as the purchase of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) and Carbon Offsets (COs).
"As the only carbon-neutral global exchange group, we lead by example by running our business in an environmentally responsible manner," said Duncan L. Niederauer, CEO of NYSE Euronext. "By leveraging the power of our global platform, we work to encourage collaborative responsibility among our NYSE Euronext community and beyond to highlight best practices and solutions related to sustainability."
For 2012, NYSE Euronext completed company-wide energy efficiency initiatives including the installation of new energy efficient windows and variable frequency drives, the completion of steam reheat modifications and the consolidation of its data centers.
The company also purchased Green-e certified RECs and Climate Action Reserve (CAR) verified COs, which helped make NYSE Euronext carbon-neutral for its 2012 Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 emissions for business travel. CodeGreen Solutions, a national energy-efficiency and sustainability consulting firm, brokered NYSE Euronext's REC and CO purchases, which were purchased from Green Mountain Energy Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of NRG Energy (NYSE: NRG). These purchases are made retroactively so that NYSE Euronext can measure how much energy was used and purchase the appropriate amount of certificates and offsets to match it. Each REC represents the generation of one megawatt-hour of electricity from 100-percent U.S. wind power, while the COs represent one metric ton of carbon dioxide-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions reduced or avoided from a landfill gas recovery project in Nebraska.
NYSE Euronext's green-power and carbon-balancing commitment helped avoid an estimated 86,643 metric tons of CO2 greenhouse gas emissions. Using calculations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's greenhouse gas equivalencies calculator, this amount is equivalent to the CO2 emissions generated from burning 201,495 barrels of oil, the emissions from the use of electricity at 12,971 average U.S. homes, or the annual greenhouse gas emissions of 18,051 passenger vehicles. Click here to view an infographic that illustrates these measures.
This distinction further demonstrates NYSE Euronext's leadership in and commitment to sustainability. In 2013, the company joined the United Nations' Sustainability Stock Exchanges (SSE) Initiative, which aims to explore how exchanges can work together with investors, regulators, and companies to enhance corporate transparency on Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) issues and encourage responsible long-term approaches to investment. In 2012, NYSE Euronext was named to CDP's S&P 500 Carbon Performance Leadership Index and received a Green Power Leadership Award from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). For a number of years, the company has also been named to several key sustainability indices, including CDP's S&P 500 Disclosure Leadership Index, the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and FTSE4Good, and is a member of the EPA's Green Power Partnership.
For more information on NYSE Euronext's initiatives related to sustainability, please click here. For further details on all of the company's strategies and accomplishments related to corporate responsibility, please read our 2012 Corporate Responsibility Report available here.
Media Contacts:
Keara Everdell
212.656.2159
keverdell@nyx.com
About NYSE Euronext
NYSE Euronext (NYX) is a leading global operator of financial markets and provider of innovative trading technologies. The company's exchanges in Europe and the United States trade equities, futures, options, fixed-income and exchange-traded products. With approximately 8,000 listed issues (excluding European Structured Products), NYSE Euronext's equities markets - the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE Euronext, NYSE MKT, NYSE Alternext and NYSE Arca - represent one-third of the world's equities trading, the most liquidity of any global exchange group. NYSE Euronext also operates NYSE Liffe, one of the leading European derivatives businesses and the world's second-largest derivatives business by value of trading. The company offers comprehensive commercial technology, connectivity and market data products and services through NYSE Technologies. NYSE Euronext is in the S&P 500 index. For more information, please visit:ÂÂ http://www.nyx.com.
