2018 Takes the Lead in Safety and Environmental Goals

Safety and environmental stewardship are two of our most critical power values at NRG, and 2018 was the best year yet for meeting safety and sustainability goals. We are proud to announce the 2018 Safety and Environmental award winners: The Plum Point energy station located in Osceola, AR received the Plant of the Year award (as well as the STRIVE safety award recognizing the plant for their exemplary safety record), while our WA Parish generating station in Thompsons, TX received the Green Glass Award for their Environmental Stewardship.

The criteria to be selected for the Safety award included:

• best demonstrating the NRG power value of Safety and Well-Being
• consistently proactive safety behaviors
• employee involvement at all levels
• safety improvement 

In order to be nominated for the Plant of the Year award, plants need to demonstrate all-around performance in safety, environmental stewardship, station adversity, and outage/project execution.

Mike Levesque, Plum Point Plant Manager, accepted the Safety and STRIVE Award at an NRG town hall meeting on February 28th. “To be recognized among your peers as a leader within NRG’s robust safety culture is deeply humbling, but it is also a testament to the hard work put forth by this outstanding team of caring professionals at Plum Point. We are truly proud of our effort during this record year for NRG, and with the same enthusiasm we look forward as one team focused on the safety and well-being of everyone here and everyone around us,” said Levesque.

Eligibility for the Environmental Award depends upon a review through the the ecoNRG project committee for all projects across NRG. WA Parish’s ecoNRG projects included awarding four scholarships to high school students from Lamar Consolidated ISD. Plant personnel replaced on-site traditional landscaped areas with “xeriscapes,” which are landscaped areas that do not require supplemental watering.  Additionally, they hosted a group of eight birders who identified 53 bird species on-site as part of the Brazos Bend Christmas Bird Count. WA Parish also organizes 2-3 plant tours a month for students and community members, highlighting the plant’s operations and environmental control systems.

In his acceptance of the Environmental Award on behalf of the plant, Steve Hedge, WA Parish plant manager, said, “I’m honored to receive this award on behalf of all the support organizations that help us perform the way that we do year after year from an environmental standpoint. Every day we’ve got operators, maintenance employees, environmental and a lot of support groups that help us stay within regulations to go above and beyond and get the performance we do.”

Congratulations to the 2018 Safety and Environmental Award winners and nominees!