Consumers Energy Announces Plan to Keep 1 Million Cubic Yards Out of Landfills

Energy Provider Increasing Sustainability Efforts Leave Michigan Environment 'Better Than We Found It'

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May 05, 2015, 06:00 ET

JACKSON, Mich., May 5, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Consumers Energy – already a sustainability leader in the energy field – announced today a commitment to double the amount of landfill space it saves.

"Our goal to save 1 million cubic yards of landfill space through 2019 aligns with Gov. Rick Snyder's recycling initiatives for Michigan," said Dennis Dobbs, Consumers Energy's vice president of generation engineering and services. "This goal represents a doubling of the amount we currently recycle and supports our guiding principal at Consumers Energy of leaving it better than we found it, a principle we apply directly to Michigan and our environment."

One million cubic yards of landfill space saved is equal to five football fields stacked from goal line to goal line, 100 feet deep.

Since beginning the waste minimization program in 1992, Consumers Energy has recycled more than 700,000 cubic yards of material – including 112,566 pounds of lighting ballasts, for example. That represents more than $14 million in avoided landfill costs.

In the last four years, Consumers Energy's recycling ratio has averaged nearly 34 percent, which is above the current state average and helps support the governor's goal of 30 percent for the entire state.

"Companies with top-tier waste minimization programs not only help protect the environment, they also provide better value to their customers and investors," Dobbs said.

To achieve the landfill avoidance goal in the next five years, Consumers Energy will look for ways to recycle more items and other initiatives to save landfill space. It will find ways to avoid generating material as a waste, review how items they purchase are packaged, and set up teams in local headquarters to brainstorm ways to reduce waste, based on a model used to improve safety throughout the company.

"In short, we will do a lot of rethinking, such as how we can best utilize surplus materials so that disposal is the very last option," Dobbs said. "We really want to go from where we are now in the first quartile for sustainability among industry peers to our goal of industry best performance by 2017. Increasing sustainability efforts will benefit our company, our customers, the state of Michigan and our environment."

Consumers Energy, Michigan's largest utility, is the principal subsidiary of CMS Energy (NYSE: CMS), providing natural gas and electricity to 6.6 million of the state's 10 million residents in all 68 Lower Peninsula counties.

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