Per EWEB’s Board-Approved Climate Change Policy (SD15), EWEB will reduce our net Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions from operations relative to 2010 baseline levels by:

• 25% by 2020 – ACHIEVED!
• 50% by 2030
• Achieve carbon neutrality from our operations by 2050

To measure progress toward these goals and to better understand our contribution to global climate change, we prepare an annual greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory. The focus is on the GHG emissions associated with core business operations, such as fleet fuel consumption, electricity, and natural gas use. Read EWEB's 2022 GHG inventory.

In 2020, EWEB not only met but exceeded both its 2020 and 2030 GHG reduction targets by achieving a 55% reduction in annual emissions. Some of this reduction can be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic as some business travel in owned vehicles and some building energy use was reduced due to stay-at-home orders.

As EWEB began to recover from the pandemic, the artificially depressed emissions from 2020 went back up in 2021. Yet 2021 emissions still show a decrease over pre-pandemic conditions in 2019. Emissions continued to decrease in 2022. In 2021 and 2022, EWEB achieved a 35% and 44% reduction in emissions over the 2010 baseline respectively. EWEB is well on its way to meeting and sustaining the ambitious goal of 50% reduction over baseline by 2030.

Here in Eugene, we are fortunate to have one of the cleanest power portfolios in the nation, with almost no electricity sourced from fossil fuels. Eighty percent of Eugene's power comes from carbon-free hydroelectric energy. The remaining 20 percent of our power comes from conventional and renewable resources.

If you're building or renovating a home, upgrading appliances, or buying a car, you will have important decisions to make, such as the type of energy you'd like to use. With EWEB's 90 percent renewable power, choosing clean energy over fossil fuels is a lot easier than you might realize. Read about the benefits of electric power and learn how our rebate and loan programs can help you save energy while reducing your carbon footprint.

Climate change presents ongoing environmental, economic and social risk to EWEB, our customers, our community and the world.  Through partnerships with our customers and others in the region, EWEB will seek to decrease carbon emissions from the electric power sector, including our own generation resources and operations, and to assist customers with similar reductions. 

Our fleet of vehicles covers thousands of miles every year, so using alternative energy sources and conserving fuel is important to us.

• EWEB is the only fleet operation in the state of Oregon that uses E15 (15% Ethanol) in place of state-mandated E10.
• We are one of only two fleets operations in the state to use E85 (85% Ethanol) in our light duty vehicles.
• EWEB fleet currently uses R50 Renewable diesel in place of diesel fuel. The renewable diesel that we use is domestically produced in eastern Kansas.
• We use in-house oil analysis to check the condition of oil before changing it, allowing for fewer oil changes.
• EWEB is one of 31 fleets in North America to have been accredited as a sustainable fleet through the National Association of Fleet Administrators.
• EWEB's fleet services is a certified Ecological Business, an Oregon program that recognizes businesses that reach the highest standards in minimizing their environmental impact.

We support local, state, national and international GHG emission reduction policies, such as the cap and trade approach that are direct, economy-wide, market-based and technology neutral. EWEB played an important advocacy and technical advisory role in the formulation of state cap and trade legislation that advanced to the final days of the 2019 and 2020 Oregon legislative sessions only to be blocked by Oregon’s atypically stringent quorum rules.

Although the Oregon legislature has not brought forward a cap and trade proposal since then, the state of Washington approved a cap and trade program in 2021 that is expected to link to California’s existing program soon. Regional carbon policy momentum coupled with ongoing efforts to reform Oregon’s quorum rules suggest that Oregon could revisit cap and trade in the future in the pursuit of a Pacific Coast Regional Carbon Program (British Columbia has a carbon tax). EWEB will be ready to reprise our advocacy and technical advisory role. Read more about EWEB's position on carbon pricing. Read EWEB's carbon policy and GHG principles.

EWEB electric crews and environmental staff monitor and evaluate nests on power poles to ensure safe nesting. Learn more about our Osprey Protection Program and how you can help EWEB protect osprey and prevent power outages.