El Paso Corporation Issues 2009 Corporate Sustainability Report

El Paso Corporation has published its third annual corporate sustainability report (CSR), which provides a comprehensive overview of the company's sustainability efforts, programs, and initiatives.

"As we've done in past years, we took additional steps to enhance the disclosures in our 2009 CSR, including additional information on El Paso's hydraulic fracturing operations, cumulative recycled land, and recycling activities associated with our downtown Houston headquarters renovation," said Bob Baker, executive vice president and General Counsel for El Paso Corporation. "Beyond telling our sustainability story, El Paso's CSR provides a platform for us to engage in an ongoing conversation with our neighbors, investors, customers, employees, and other stakeholders on issues that are important to all of us -- the company's social, environmental, and economic impact."

In its CSR, El Paso reports on more than 30 Global Reporting Initiative G3 profile disclosures and 13 performance indicators in support of its vision to be the Place to Work, the Neighbor to Have, and the Company to Own. Key sustainability highlights in each area include the following:

The Place to Work

El Paso continued to execute on opportunities to improve its workplace in 2009, delivering:  

• A year-over-year increase in total tuition reimbursements to employees in support of a degree or certification program related to their work responsibilities;
• A year-over-year increase in total annual employee transportation subsidies in support of workforce mobility and flexibility; and
• A three-year trend of reductions in energy consumption related to the remodeling of the company's downtown Houston headquarters. 

In addition, in 2009 the company was named one of the Best Adoption-Friendly Workplaces in America by the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption and received the Alfred P. Sloan Award for Workplace Flexibility for the third year in a row.

The Neighbor to Have

The company continued to make a positive difference in communities where it operates and enhance its efforts to minimize impact to the environment. Sustainability-related accomplishments in this area included:  

• A 67 percent year-over-year increase in employee volunteer hours as a result of an enhanced and focused corporate giving strategy;
• An 82 percent year-over-year increase in donations of office furniture, computers, and other surplus equipment to organizations in need through the company's in-kind giving program; and
• The California Climate Action Registry's (CCAR) approval and registration of the company's total emissions for all applicable greenhouse gas pollutants in the United States in 2009, making El Paso the first natural gas company to obtain a complete CCAR approved greenhouse gas emissions inventory. 

In January 2009, as part of the Ruby Pipeline project, El Paso initiated a first-of-its-kind agreement with the U.S. Forest Service and the National Forest Foundation. Under the agreement, the company's contribution will help to produce more than 117,000 seedlings to reforest 561 acres of fire-damaged forest in the Plumas National Forest in California. The trees planted will mitigate up to 50,000 tons of carbon dioxide over their lifetime.

The Company to Own

El Paso's natural interstate gas pipeline system and exploration and production business continued to provide a platform for value for shareholders. In 2009, the company delivered:  

• Double-digit earnings growth at its Pipeline Group, while placing four growth projects in service, securing a partner for the Ruby Pipeline Project, announcing a new expansion for its Marcellus Shale business, and continuing to grow El Paso Pipeline Partners, L.P.
• Outstanding performance at its Exploration & Production Company, further reducing its cost structure, delivering excellent reserve growth and reserve replacement metrics, and substantially increasing its inventory of low-risk, repeatable drilling opportunities.
• Consistent execution on business strategies and programs focused on producing, transporting, and selling natural gas, the most environmentally friendly of all fossil fuels. 

In the area of governance, RiskMetrics Group reported that, in the categories of Board Structure, Compensation, Shareholder Rights and Audit, El Paso's current governance practices and policies reflect a "low" risk level of concern, with levels of risk categories of low, medium, or high.

Consistent with the company's approach to minimizing the environmental impact of its CSR, the report is available as an interactive Web site at www.elpaso.com/csr/index.html and as a downloadable file on the CSR page.

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