Detroit-based DTE Energy has announced its DTE Gas branch has launched CleanVision Natural Gas Balance, a program designed to help customers reduce their carbon footprints by using renewable natural gas.
The program is part of DTE’s 2050 net zero commitment. The program also is focused on protecting Michigan forests, which absorb greenhouse gases. Renewable natural gas will be sourced by transforming landfill emissions and wastewater treatment plant by-products into useable gas.
Natural Gas Balance offers customers four levels of participation, ranging from $4 per month to offset 25 percent of an average home’s gas use emissions to $16 per month to offset 100 percent.
Madcap Coffee Co., which is based in Grand Rapids and has a downtown Detroit location (1413 Farmer St. behind the Shinola Hotel), is the program’s first customer. DTE and Madcap are offering $10 Madcap gift cards for the first 200 customers who sign up for the new program.
“When we announced our 2050 net zero emissions commitment last year, we promised our customers that they could join us on this journey,” says Matthew Paul, president and COO of DTE Gas. “Natural Gas Balance is the fulfilment of that promise and empowers both residential and small business customers to work with us to make Michigan a cleaner, healthier place to live.”
DTE’s 2050 net zero plan includes suppliers and customers as well as the company’s own gas operations. The commitment, combined with customer participation in sustainability programs such as Natural Gas Balance and energy efficiency, could reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by more than 6 million metric tons by 2050, the equivalent of offsetting natural gas emissions of 1 million homes or taking 1.3 million cars off the road annually.
“As a company, we believe that Madcap Coffee has a responsibility to fight poverty and climate change,” says Trevor Corlett, founder and co-owner of Madcap. “Joining Natural Gas Balance allows us to offset our emissions so our customers can feel even better that the coffee they’re enjoying is reflective of our shared commitment to a more sustainable Michigan and coffee industry.”
The program’s preservation of Michigan forests follows the American Carbon Registry methodology and protocol to quantify and report greenhouse gas reduction benefits that result from the forestry projects in the program.
DTE began investing in renewable natural gas more than 20 years ago and has since built a network of sources for its new program. The company’s electric company serves 2.2 million customers in southeast Michigan, and its natural gas company serves 1.3 million customers in Michigan. DTE plans to reduce carbon dioxide and methane emissions by more than 80 percent by 2040 and achieve net zero carbon and greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
