Hawaiian Electric, parent company tout progress in new reports

By the end of 2022, 37% of single-family homes across the five islands Hawaiian Electric serves had rooftop solar, Oʻahu’s first grid-scale solar and storage project was online and the state’s last remaining coal plant was retired.

That’s the kind of progress Hawaiian Electric is now touting in its 2022-23 Corporate Sustainability Report, “Building a Strong and Resilient Hawaiʻi Together,” which is now available online.

Included in the report are generation maps that feature nearly a dozen utility-scale renewable
energy projects that are scheduled to be completed between now and 2025, an example of the
company’s continued work on its Climate Change Action Plan. The plan outlines steps being
taken to reduce carbon emissions from power generation by as much as 70% by 2030.

Among the 2022-23 report’s highlights:

• More renewable generation was added to Hawaiian Electric’s island grids, including Clearway Energy’s two solar and storage facilities on Oʻahu. In 2022, more than 4,400 new private solar systems, mostly residential rooftop, were installed companywide, and 91% of new rooftop solar installations included battery storage.
  
• The company marked a major milestone in its Climate Change Action Plan by ending the use of coal for power generation. The retirement of the AES coal plant at the end of a 30-year contract eliminated one of the state’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases.

Hawaiian Electric Industries, Inc, the parent company to Hawaiian Electric, American Savings Bank and Pacific Current, also announced the publication of a consolidated report describing its updated policies, actions and performance for 2022 with respect to a range of environmental, social and governance matters.

The theme of Hawaiian Electric Industries’ latest environmental, social and governance report is “Laulima,” which translates to “many hands working together.” The report details the work of all Hawaiian Electric Industries companies in 2022, including in areas such as decarbonization; economic health and affordability; reliability and resilience; diversity, equity and inclusion; and human capital management.

“Laulima reflects the fact that creating a sustainable, thriving future is a collective effort,” said Celeste Connors, CEO of Hawaiʻi Green Growth Local2030 Hub and an Hawaiian Electric Industries board member. “As an island economy, we are constantly reminded of our interdependence and finite resources, and that informs the way we work together and the way business is done in Hawaiʻi and at HEI.”

The report extends HEI’s Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures – aligned reporting from the previous two years. Included this year is an expanded greenhouse gas inventory that details Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions and Scope 3 emissions categories across all Hawaiian Electric Industries companies. This year’s report continues to present data aligned with Sustainability Accounting Standards Board guidelines for Hawaiian Electric Industries’ utility and bank subsidiaries.

• The Hawaiian Electric Industries environmental, social and governance report is available here
  
• A link to the Hawaiian Electric sustainability report is available above
  
• American Savings Bank’s environmental, social and governance report is available here