NRG Energy – Sofi­a Ramos Guerrero – 2017

Goals 

In 2017, NRG established goals to reduce its supply chain carbon and water intensity 25% by 2025. The company enlisted EDF Climate Corps fellow, Sofía Ramos-Guerrero, to develop a supply chain sustainability roadmap tool for analyzing assets based on sustainability criteria and climate-based risk analysis for the company’s Business Solutions unit. 

Solutions

Ramos-Guerrero began by estimating a carbon and water baseline for NRG’s supply chain based on 2016 spending data. Using industry best practices, she developed a step-by-step roadmap to achieving NRG’s 2025 goal. Recommended actions included collaborating with industry partners, engaging suppliers, and updating the request-for-proposal process. Ramos-Guerrero then built a tool that explores how external carbon emissions scenarios might impact NRG’s fleet of assets. Finally, Ramos-Guerrero analyzed qualitative data, collected through interviews, and performed a scenario analysis to assess the risks that climate change may pose for the NRG’s Business Solutions group. The assessment found that 4 specific factors account for approximately 50% of the estimated total climate-related risk.

Potential Impact

Ramos-Guerrero’s work has created a tool that can assist NRG in its analysis of steps or measures to be taken to achieve its goal of reducing supply chain carbon and water intensity 25% by 2025. Holding revenue constant, achieving this goal would avoid 1.18 million metric tons of CO2e and 2.44 million cubic meters of water per year.

NRG has made plans to refine the baseline carbon and water estimate and explore sustainability risks in even greater detail.