June 2, 2022
Natural gas marketer purchases an additional 10 million pounds of carbon offsets to mark World Environment Day, June 5, 2022
ATLANTA – June 2, 2022 – Georgia Natural Gas® (GNG) announced today that its Greener Life® program which helps customers make their natural gas use carbon neutral, reached a program milestone of 100 million pounds of carbon emissions offset from the environment. That amount is the equivalent to over 110 million miles driven by an average gasoline-powered passenger vehicle.
"We want to thank our over 18,000 loyal customers who chose Greener Life to manage their carbon footprint,” said Keith Gallagher, director of mass markets at GNG, Georgia’s leading natural gas marketer. “Together, we offset 100 million pounds of carbon dioxide from the environment, and in celebration of that achievement and in time for World Environment Day, GNG will offset an additional 10 million pounds.”
(Gallagher is pictured above, left, with Art Fix, Chief Operating Officer of the Atlanta Botanical Garden)
Led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and held annually on June 5th since 1974, World Environment Day is celebrated by millions of people across the world. This year’s theme, #OnlyOneEarth, advocates for transformative environmental change on a global scale. By empowering customers to reduce their carbon footprint, Greener Life is helping thousands of Georgians join this mission and take collective action.
When customers sign up for Greener Life, GNG calculates the estimated greenhouse gas emissions from their use of natural gas each month and purchases and retires carbon offsets to balance the impacts of those emissions. That means customers can be confident their natural gas use will have a net zero impact on the amount of greenhouse gases in the environment. For the average GNG customer, offsetting greenhouse gas emissions with Greener Life is equivalent to driving 10,000 miles less each year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency's Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator.
GNG partners with Wolf Creek Landfill Project in Georgia and the Doe Mountain Forest Improvement Project in Tennessee. GNG purchases enough carbon offsets from these projects to offset the greenhouse gases released by Greener Life customers’ natural gas use.
Greener Life has received Green-e Climate certification from an independent third party, the Center for Resource Solutions. Green-e Climate is the leading certification program for voluntary carbon offset programs. Greener Life is $4.99 per month for residential customers and $9.99 per month for small business customers on GNG's standard price plans. For more information about Greener Life or to enroll, visit gng.com/greener life or call GNG at 877-850-6200.
About Georgia Natural Gas
Georgia Natural Gas is part of SouthStar Energy Services. SouthStar is owned by Southern Company Gas, a wholly owned subsidiary of Southern Company (NYSE: SO). SouthStar also operates as Ohio Natural Gas, Florida Natural Gas, Maryland Energy, Pennsylvania Energy, Grand Rapids Energy (in Michigan) and in other parts of the Southeast as SouthStar Energy Services. SouthStar's subsidiaries in Illinois operate as Illinois Energy and Illinois Energy Solutions.
About Southern Company Gas
Southern Company Gas is a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE:SO), America’s premier energy company. Southern Company Gas serves approximately 4.3 million natural gas customers through its regulated distribution companies in four states with more than 600,000 retail customers through its companies that market natural gas. Other businesses include investments in interstate pipelines and ownership and operation of natural gas storage facilities. For more information, visit southerncompanygas.com.
Media Contact: Pete Symons -- m: 470.630.3093 | psymons@southernco.co