A way to balance the carbon footprint of your business

In today's competitive business environment, managing your organization's environmental impact is no longer optional – it's a strategic imperative. Join other businesses that have chosen to make a difference for the environment by enrolling in the Piedmont Natural Gas GreenEdgeSM program.

GreenEdge is an easy and affordable way to help offset the carbon footprint from your business’s natural gas usage and bring you closer to achieving your sustainability goals. This voluntary subscription program also enables the funding of projects that help protect and manage forests and reclaim wetlands.


Meet your sustainability targets without disrupting your business

In the complex world of corporate sustainability, GreenEdge offers a straightforward solution. Here’s how it works:

  • Your business subscribes to monthly “blocks” at $3 per block. You choose the level of participation that’s right for your business.

  • Block fees are used to cover the cost of carbon offsets and renewable natural gas environmental attributes as well as to help support program administration.

  • Business participants receive an annual report highlighting the impact of their contributions and the overall effects of the program.

If some of those terms are new to you, here’s a helpful glossary.


Carbon footprint – A carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane, that are generated by our actions.


Carbon offsets – Carbon offsets fund projects that either lower CO2 emissions or “sequester” CO2, meaning they take some CO2 out of the atmosphere and store it. This “offsets” the carbon emitted by using natural gas.


Renewable natural gas – Renewable natural gas, or RNG, is produced by capturing methane from existing waste streams, such as landfills and a variety of renewable and sustainable biomass sources.


Renewable natural gas attributes – The value of renewable natural gas is made up of two components: the natural gas itself and its environmental attributes. Ownership of these attributes is represented by a certificate that verifies the energy (in this case, renewable natural gas) was produced from a renewable source.


So, how is GreenEdge working so far?

Since launching in June 2022, the program has achieved some extraordinary results – over 6,900 Piedmont customers have enrolled, purchasing more than 51,000 blocks.


Funds from our customers’ subscriptions allowed GreenEdge to purchase:

  • 600 metric tons of carbon offsets from Doe Mountain Improved Forest Management Project

  • 2,292 metric tons of carbon offsets from Davidson County Landfill Gas Destruction Project

  • 598 renewable thermal certificates (RTCs) from the Maryland Bioenergy Center; each of these certificates represents 1 dekatherm (10 therms) of renewable natural gas and together they equate to eliminating 10 more metric tons of CO2

All together, these carbon offsets are equivalent to eliminating the greenhouse emissions generated by driving an average car for 8.6 million miles or driving 748 average cars for one year. These carbon offsets also have the same emission-reducing impact of recycling 329 tons of garbage instead of sending it to the landfill.

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Frequently Asked Questions

  • Customers may sign up for GreenEdge online or by calling our customer care contact center. Participation in the GreenEdge program is completely voluntary. Customers elect to pay an additional $3 per program block per month to balance a portion of the carbon generated from their natural gas usage.

  • Residential and commercial Piedmont customers on rates 101, 201, 301, 102, 202 and 302 are eligible to participate in GreenEdge. Customers will need to be in good financial standing with Piedmont, without any currently past-due bills.

  • Each block addresses the carbon emissions associated with 12.5 therms of natural gas usage. The monthly participation cost goes toward the purchase of carbon offsets and renewable natural gas certificates from projects that reduce or prevent the release of greenhouse gases as well as program administration. Piedmont does not profit from this program.

  • Your enrollment in GreenEdge allows you to address the emissions from your natural gas use through a mix of carbon offsets and renewable natural gas certificates. These carbon offsets support nature-based projects that could include improving forestry management and grasslands and wetlands preservation. Renewable natural gas certificates support the production of renewable fuel from landfills, farms and wastewater treatment plants. Customers will receive an annual participation report highlighting their contribution and the overall effect of the program.

  • GreenEdge participants have helped support the following projects:

    • Doe Mountain Recreation Area – At more than 8,500 acres, this area represents one of the largest remaining blocks of privately owned forest in the Southern Blue Ridge region. Protecting these woodlands provides significant climate benefits through carbon sequestration.
    • Davidson County Landfill Project – This landfill gas-to-energy project produces enough clean energy to power approximately 1,500 homes, and the emissions captured by the project are equivalent to removing more than 10,000 passenger vehicles from the road every year.
    • Middlebury Improved Forest Management – Middlebury College, one of the oldest liberal arts colleges in the United States, launched an Improved Forest Management project on over 2,500 acres of forest in the Green Mountains of central Vermont. The project ensures the long-term conservation and sustainable management of the forest, promotes healthy wildlife habitat and prevents future compromise of the forest carbon stocks.
    • Maryland Bioenergy Center – This organics recycling facility is the first anaerobic digester of its scale in the state. The facility is capable of recycling 110,000 tons of organics annually to produce approximately 312,000 MMBtu of renewable natural gas for energy.

  • Piedmont seeks to source natural gas environmental attributes within the states where the company operates with a preference for resources in the program's operating state.

  • GreenEdge's positive environmental impact is achieved thorough roughly 99% carbon offsets and up to 1% renewable natural gas environmental attributes. The 1% level allows us to acquire impactful amounts of RNG environmental attributes while keeping GreenEdge affordable.

  • The short answer is “no.” In fact, the phrase “carbon neutral” is coming under increased scrutiny as it is extremely difficult to achieve. However, by converting the gas generated by decomposing waste into RNG, we can significantly reduce the environmental impact of either releasing the gases into the atmosphere as methane (which is 25 times more harmful* than CO2 during combustion) or burning them in biomethanization plants. To avoid those two scenarios, the waste gases are recovered, cleaned and injected into the natural gas system as RNG to mix with fossil-derived natural gas. CO2 will still be released; however, the impact is far less than that resulting from the release of untreated waste gases.

  • The cost of renewable natural gas is made up of two components: the gas itself and an environmental attribute. This attribute is a certificate that verifies that energy was produced from a renewable source – in this case, renewable natural gas.

  • Improved forest management (IFM) projects work by preventing or reducing timber harvesting activities that would otherwise likely occur in forests. This allows the forest to continue sequestering and storing carbon at levels undiminished by deforestation. This retained carbon sequestration capacity generates carbon offsets for the GreenEdge program, all of which are verified through the American Carbon Registry or other tracking system. Many IFM projects have the added benefits of preserving wildlife habitat and protecting water quality.

  • Carbon offsets are created from projects that reduce or prevent the release of carbon emissions into the atmosphere. Renewable natural gas (RNG) transforms organic waste into a renewable energy source that can be delivered through existing infrastructure to fuel fleets and heat homes. Some projects can choose to produce either carbon offsets or RNG certificates, but not both.

  • Your participation fees are used to cover the costs of carbon offsets to procure RNG environmental attributes and to help support program administration.

  • No, Piedmont does not profit from the GreenEdge program.