ST. LOUIS, Dec. 18, 2012 – The St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association (RCGA) recognized Ameren Corporation’s sustainability achievements today with the distinguished Star Circle of Excellence Award as part of the 2012 St. Louis Green Business Challenge.
The St. Louis Green Business Challenge is a program organized by the St. Louis RCGA to help St. Louis area companies take steps toward sustainable business practices. The Challenge encourages companies to form green teams, improve indoor environmental air quality, provide clean transportation options at the workplace and reduce the following – energy, waste, and water usage.
Ameren achieved its level of excellence by focusing on sustainability efforts related to employee education, developing and sharing sustainability guidelines, and sharing information with customers and other green business challenge participants.
“I laud the St. Louis RCGA for helping area businesses to implement sustainable practices. I know the Ameren Green Business Challenge team and workplace site champions are excited to see their hard work is making a difference,” said Thomas R. Voss, chairman, president and CEO, Ameren. “We are promoting a broader culture of sustainability – not only by focusing on providing reliable energy, but also on practices we can implement across our service territory.”
Ameren was one of 84 local companies to participate in the 2012 challenge. As part of the challenge scorecard, each sustainability strategy is worth a specific number of points. Ameren’s sustainability efforts were in the top 25 percent of all participating companies.
One example of Ameren’s sustainable efforts is the company’s single-stream recycling program. Each month employees recycle 130 tons of paper, cardboard, plastic bottles, food containers and aluminum cans, which is equivalent to 6,500 forty-pound trash cans every 30 days.
"It's hard to see the difference recycling one sheet of paper or one lunch container makes," said Mike Wright, superintendent of Building Services for Ameren. "But when you see the totals, like I do, you see the tremendous impact our efforts are making."
About Ameren
With assets of $23 billion, St. Louis-based Ameren Corporation owns a diverse mix of electric energy centers strategically located in our Midwest market, with a generating capacity of 15,900 megawatts. Through our Missouri and Illinois subsidiaries, we serve 2.4 million electric customers and more than 900,000 natural gas customers in a 64,000-square-mile area. Our mission is to meet our customers' energy needs in a safe, reliable, efficient and environmentally-responsible manner. For more information, visit Ameren.com.