Dermot Murray is Director of Sustainability and Climate Strategy at Constellation Energy, the nation’s largest producer of clean, carbon-free energy, supplying about 10 percent of the U.S. grid’s clean, carbon-free power through its nuclear, wind, solar and hydroelectric assets, and a leading supplier of sustainable power and energy products and services for homes and businesses across the United States. In this current role, Dermot is responsible for developing and implementing Constellation’s sustainability strategy, with a particular emphasis on Sustainability reporting and engaging with external stakeholders around the company’s purpose to accelerate the transition to a carbon-free future while providing reliable and affordable energy.

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John: Welcome to another edition of the Impact Podcast. We’re really lucky to have with us today Dermot Murray. He’s the Director of Sustainability and Climate Strategy at Constellation Energy. Welcome, Dermot, to the show.

Dermot Murray: Thank you for having me, John. I’m looking forward to it.

John: Well, I know this is going to be a great show, but before we get talking about all the important and impactful things you and your colleagues are doing at Constellation Energy with regards to sustainability, I want to ask you a little bit about you. Where did you start this important journey that you’re on and how did you get inspired to do this kind of great work?

Dermot: Well, great. Thank you for the question, John. Well, I think my career journey actually started way back in the early 1990s. My original background is actually in IT. I actually have an undergraduate degree in computer science from University College Dublin back in Ireland. I came over here to the States in the early 90s and I worked in a few different facets of the IT sector. I started off doing computer sales and ended up switching over into more technical support and training, and then finally ended up that phase of my career doing data network administration. And that was all during the 90s. As I was getting closer to the end of the 90s, I started to realize that in order to further my career path, I really needed to beef up on the business management side of things. So, I bit the bullet, and I went back to business school. I got my MBA from Columbia Business School in 2001. And right after I graduated, I went to work for Verizon, which was a part of my plan or my game plan because I wanted to stay within the broader tech sector, but I wanted to move more into a business management type role. So, I started off doing a little bit of financial data analysis and ended up switching over into more product development at Verizon’s online division. I would say probably in the mid-2000s, I was starting to have a little bit of a mini career life crisis, I suppose, or a mini midlife career crisis, if you want to call it that. So, I took a little bit of time. I went to see a career counselor, did a lot of research, a lot of soul searching, and ultimately came to the realization that I really needed to be pursuing a career path that was both professionally and personally rewarding. So, that’s when I started getting interested in this field called corporate social responsibility. I was doing a lot of networking internally and externally, and I was very fortunate in that I had an opportunity within… I made the right connection, I guess, at Verizon, at their corporate foundation. And, yeah, they were looking to bring somebody in to take over their employee engagement program. So, that included things like volunteerism, employee matching gifts, employee giving campaigns, and that type of thing. It was a really good opportunity for me to make that transition from my previous, I guess, tech/business role more into the corporate social responsibility side of things. It also gave me the opportunity to get my foot in the door and just learn more about the CSR field and where there might be avenues and pathways that I might be more interested in pursuing. In the late 2000s, I guess I started getting interested in this emerging thing called sustainability. I was doing a little bit of research and benchmarking for Verizon, who haven’t had a sustainability program at the time. So, I was trying to pull together a recommendation for the leadership there to basically institute a sustainability program. Basically, part of that research, I was introduced to and I was talking to different folks who were already working in the field. And I was introduced to somebody who you know very well, a gentleman by the name of Mitch Jackson, who was heading up sustainability at FedEx at the time. And Mitch and I just hit it off. I mean, it was just like simpatico almost. And so, I was able to stay in touch with Mitch. As things were starting to develop at Verizon, and I was getting ready to move on to my next thing, which was obviously trying to move into the sustainability field proper, Mitch basically asked me if I’d be interested in coming down to Memphis, Tennessee and working for him in FedEx. So, that’s how it kind of really got started. I joined FedEx in late 2011, moved on to Memphis in the early part of 2012. And I was at FedEx for probably a little over a decade. I managed their sustainability reporting. I also oversaw FedEx’s engagement with the different ESG rating agencies, and I also led their materiality assessment processes as well. So, as you know, Mitch is such a great leader and such a great teacher. So, really, I learned a lot under Mitch. But I’d say after about 10 years or so at FedEx, I was kind of ready to make that next step up in my career path as well. So, somebody had put me in touch with a recruiter who was doing a search for a company called Constellation Energy. It was a company that had basically been spun off from a former parent company, Exxon. It was essentially the generation and commercial retail businesses that were part of the Exxon family of companies, and they were obviously building out their sustainability team. So they were looking to bring somebody in as director for sustainability and climate strategy. I guess long story short, I was successful in joining the company in mid-2022, and I’ve been with Constellation ever since.

John: So, wait a second, first of all, when you had your mini midlife career, as we would call it, what is typically called crisis, you really chose right. You chose CSR and sustainability, because this has turned out to be one of the, lack of better terms, megatrends that are not going to go away in our lifetime, number one. Number two, I just realized we probably even have more friends than just Mitch, who is, of course, one of the OGs of sustainability in the corporate world. We also probably are good friends together with Jim Gowen.

Dermot: That’s correct. Yes. Wow, that’s another connection there.

John: He’s another OG.

Dermot: Another OG, yeah.

John: I think he was the first chief sustainability at Verizon.

Dermot: He was, yes. In fact, when Jim came on board and I had been doing that research, or that benchmarking, if you like. So when Jim came on board, obviously, I helped Jim get some of his employee engagement efforts set up, because I was already working in employee engagement at the time. But, yeah, I found that sustainability is such a small field.

John: Small world.

Dermot: It really is. And the other thing about sustainability is we’re all there to kind of help each other out. It’s not like other career fields where there’s like that tension between companies. I used to have great conversations with some folks who used to work at UPS’s sustainability. We were able to put all that aside, but like Coke and Pepsi kind of thing.

John: The truth is sustainability officers and sustainability leaders really are so evolved in their thinking when it comes to, we have one planet, we’re all sharing the same planet.

Dermot: Absolutely. Yes.

John: And if we help each other, it’s not a zero sum game.

Dermot: Correct.

John: If UPS expands their sustainability movement and FedEx continues to do the same and we trade information, we’re only making the planet better that we all share anyway.

Dermot: Absolutely. Absolutely. A rising tide lifts all boats, John. I love it.

John: I love it. I love it. So Dermot, that’s why you’re on the show, because we need to have great leaders with you on the show to share that cultural attitude, which everyone should have. The next generations behind us should have that. So that’s literally one of the most important messages you can share. So, you started in ’22 with Constellation. Let’s just key it up a little bit for our listeners and viewers. First of all, Constellation is a big organization. It’s over 23 billion in revenue, over 14,000 employees doing business in US, Canada, and UK. And for our listeners and viewers, to find Dermot and all his colleagues and all the important work they’re doing, you can go to www.constellationenergy.com.

Dermot, so talk a little bit about coming in in ’22 and what was it like then? Was there a blank page like Mitch had and like Jim had? Or was there already a sustainability program in place at Constellation when you started the journey there?

Dermot: Yeah, it was a great question, John. I’d say the foundation for the sustainability program had already been established. And even the way the company is built, if you like, is really built for sustainability. In fact, the purpose statement of Constellation is actually accelerating the transition to a carbon free future. So, for me, that resonated, for somebody who was passionate about sustainability, had worked in the sustainability field on and off for over a decade, and really somebody who felt passionate about the need for us to really make that transition to a carbon free future for the sake of the planet and for future societies and all the rest of it. It really did resonate with me. I will also say that the company had already established that from the get go. Also, the company had already established a set of corporate values. And one of the corporate values is climate champion. I’ll read this for you. This is so great.

John: Sure.

Dermot: “We are champions for resilient climate solutions that will protect our planet for future generations.” And that is like just so core to the DNA of the company. And because sustainability is, really, it’s just a strategic imperative for Constellation. It is obviously because, first of all, we’re the largest producer of carbon free energy in the United States. And that’s not hyperbole. That is absolute fact.

John: Wow.

Dermot: We produce around 10% of all clean energy that’s generated here in the United States. So, off the bat, that’s equivalent to basically powering 60 million US homes. The company has such a huge impact just in terms of the business that we’re in and the products and services that we provide. And I’ll give you just for context, like last year, 2024, we generated 188 terawatt hours of clean, reliable electricity in the United States. And that’s basically equivalent to avoiding 126 million metric tons of carbon emissions.

John: Huge impact.

Dermot: I just wanted to set the context there for what I was about to get. Certainly there was somewhat of an open canvas. I won’t say it was a clean slate, but an open canvas in terms of how we built out the sustainability team and how we started really putting more structure around the governance of how we implement sustainability initiatives and also in terms of the reporting piece of that as well. And that was obviously one of the key reasons why I was brought on board, was to take over the responsibility for the annual sustainability reporting process. By the way, I was quite surprised because company had actually just spun off in February of 2022. I started in May of 2022. I can still remember the conversation I have with my new boss. It was like, we were talking about what’s the priorities for this year. And here’s me thinking a company that literally just got started three or four months ago, we’d at least wait a year before we start putting out a sustainability report. And she goes, “Oh, no, we’re putting it out in September.” I’m like, “Okay.”

John: [inaudible] from May to September. She puts you [inaudible]. Wow.

Dermot: Just like the South. But no, I will say, a great colleague of mine had already started doing a lot of the work to get the process underway. I kind of came in, it wasn’t completely from scratch, but certainly there was still a lot to do between May and September to get that first report out the door. I guess I bring that up just to say that this wasn’t a company that was just kind of going to kind of stay in the wing.

John: No casual approach to sustainability.

Dermot: Absolutely.

John: You were coming on and she was all in and you were all in.

Dermot: Oh, yeah. And like the CEO, all the way down, everybody was all in. In fact, there was a mandate that we needed to get the first sustainability report out that fall. There was no argument about it. We just get it done. So, in that respect, it was really an incredible culture to really be coming into and feeling that sense of pride and energy and passion from, again, from the CEO, all the way down to the frontline employees, everybody at the company really feels a strong sense of commitment to the company’s mission and the company’s role in driving that clean energy future. If you think about, and if you go on our website, you’ll see, we talk about our corporate business strategy. We’ve got these key strategic pillars, and they all have sustainability [inaudible] baked into them. For instance, the first pillar you’ll see is powering America’s clean energy future. And that speaks to the fact that we operate the largest clean energy fleet and that’s predominantly our nuclear fleet. We have the largest operator of nuclear plants in the United States. We do have a smaller portfolio of renewables as well. And then of course, we’ve got some natural gas assets too. Then the nuclear assets are really the foundation and the backbone of the company. The second pillar is expanding America’s largest fleet of clean energy centers. This speaks to the fact that we’re not just going to rest on our laurels and just keep operating the things the way they are. We’re looking to expand the capacity of these facilities. We’re doing a series of projects, for instance, to operate our nuclear plants. And we’ve already started that work with some of our nuclear plants in Illinois. If we have the opportunity to do that across our fleet, it would be basically the equivalent of adding a gigawatt of new clean energy to the grid, just by virtue of upgrading and operating our existing nuclear plants. And then we’re also in an ongoing process to request the extension of the operating license of those plants well into the 2060s, even. So, really, to have those vital clean energy assets there for future generations. And by the way, at the same time, we’re also researching new types of clean energy technology. So things like small modular reactors, for instance, is an area that we’re involved with in some of the early stage type work there as well on that front. So we’re always thinking about the future as well as making sure that we’re maintaining the level that we’re currently at in terms of the generation capacity of our fleet.

John: Is your leadership in the United States analogous to your leadership in the UK and Canada as well?

Dermot: We’re predominantly a US-based company. And so obviously, I would say the vast majority of our business is in the United States. We have one generation station up in Canada, and we have, I guess, it’s an energy trading division in the UK as well. There’s a lot of trading. As I mentioned, we’re a combination of generation business, but also a commercial retail energy business as well. So the business in the UK is more focused on the commercial retail, the competitive retail side of things.

John: You know, Dermot, there’s rarely a day now where we turn on Bloomberg or read the Wall Street Journal, and we see the explosion of AI and the explosion of data centers that have to support AI and all the energy there’ll be pulling in the future. So data centers are expanding, but also the energy pulled to the data centers is also growing concurrent with the data center footprint growing. How does that interrelate with your sustainability goals at Constellation Energy?

Dermot: Absolutely. Yeah, that’s a great question, John. And in fact, our AI data center strategy is really becoming a huge part of our business strategy in general. For instance, as you rightly point out, there has been huge demand growth in energy consumption, especially in the data economy. So for instance, the Department of Energy, I think last year or this year—I forget exactly when, I think it was last year— had published a study saying that data center power demand had tripled since 2024.
And of course it’s, it’s projected to continue growing, maybe who knows at what rate, but certainly it’s definitely projected to grow. And a lot of that growth, of course, is driven by AI and will continue to be driven by AI. These technology companies and hyperscalers are also looking to meet that demand growth, through reliable, clean power. And so Constellation, we are perfectly situated as a company to help support that segment of our customers’ needs for that clean, reliable… Remember, reliable is huge issue for data centers, because as our CEO likes to say, you can’t run a full-time economy on part-time energy. You need to have that reliable, always on guaranteed power to be able to keep those data centers humming. So one of the strategies that we’re looking at, at Constellation is in relation to… And by the way, this also speaks to this expand America’s clean, largest fleet of clean energy centers, because it also speaks to the fact that we’re looking to leverage those clean energy assets through co-locating large customer loads at or near our nuclear facilities, or clean energy centers. And there’s some obvious benefits if we can end up doing that. One of course is you’re able to essentially directly connect our source of clean, reliable energy directly to that data center facility or other large energy user, whatever it might be. But data centers, I think, is obviously the most immediate and probably the most compelling opportunity right now. You can do that without having to build out new transmission and distribution infrastructure. I’m sure a lot of your listeners have read about that. That’s a huge challenge right now in the US, is building out the transmission and distribution or T and D infrastructure to be able to accommodate this huge growth in demand, especially when it comes to data centers, but in terms of other end uses as well. So we could make that connection directly and then you’re able to get bypassed that particular challenge. In addition, our nuclear plants tend to be located in areas that have abundant land access as well as water. Because we use water as a cooling mechanism and our steam generation mechanism within our nuclear plants. We have access to abundant water resources as well. So that’s another benefit, if you like, for a data center customers who need water for cooling purposes as well. But then it’s not just about co-location. We can also support those customers’ needs by providing that clean, reliable power at 24/7, always on clean nuclear power via the grid as well, through long-term PPAs and our power purchase agreement. And John, stop me if I start doing acronyms, should I say, because you know how it is, every industry has them, right? You may have heard, maybe towards the end of last year, we announced a historic 20-year PPA with Microsoft, essentially to support the restart of the three mile Island unit one reactor, which we had been operating at industry level the standards of safety and reliability for decades before it was closed in 2019 for economic reasons. But thanks to this new opportunity around the data center growth and this opportunity, this partnership with Microsoft, we’re now going to restart that unit. We’re going to rename it the crane clean energy center. By the way, that’s 835 megawatts of clean carbon-free energy being added back to the grid. The power that’s going to be generated from that facility is going to help Microsoft match their power consumption in their AI data centers, in the PGM region, which is the regional grid that stretches from the Midwest across to the mid Atlantic States. This is just one example of an opportunity that we’re exploring, but certainly, yeah, we’re all really excited about the opportunity that data centers provide and the fact that we can provide that clean 24/7 energy that these tech companies and hyperscalers really need in order to be able to support that growth, I think, is really exciting opportunity for Constellation.

John: If we looked at a US map and looked at the dots of where you are, how many dots approximately, not exactly, but approximately would be on that map? And how has the communities that you operate in directly benefit from all the great work that Constellation does?

Dermot: Oh, absolutely. Well, I mean, I would say, like, we just talked about our nuclear [inaudible], it’s predominantly located in the Midwest. So like in Illinois, also in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and we also have a couple of plants in upstate New York. We have a partial ownership in a nuclear plant in New Jersey. I think it’s New Jersey, Salem. And then we have a part ownership in a nuclear plant down in South Texas. But in terms of our nuclear footprint, it’s predominantly in that PJM district or regional grid, as well as the upstate New York. But then we also have, with our renewable assets, we’ve got wind and solar, and we’ve even got a couple of hydro plants in Pennsylvania. We’ve got wind and solar spread out mostly in the Western part of the United States. And then we also have a fleet of combined cycle natural gas facilities predominantly in Texas. We’ve got one in [inaudible] Alabama. But something else I’m sure maybe some of your listeners will have heard is that beginning of this year, we announced that we’re acquiring another large player in the power generation space called Calpine. They’re actually one of the largest operators of natural gas facilities, in fact, one of the most efficient operators of natural gas facilities in the United States. And their presence is it’s throughout the United States, heavy in Texas and California, but they’ve also got presence throughout the rest of the United States as well. So we already have a lot of dots on the map. We’re going to have a lot more dots on the map after the Calpine acquisition closes, hopefully by the end of this year.

John: Besides that acquisition, you and I know retrospective hindsight is 20/20. We’re telling the future much more difficult. How do you continue to position with your colleagues, Constellation Energy, for the growth in the clean energy sector, which is coming because we know it’s coming, but how do you best prepare for it in terms of the juggling act of how do you place your bets in terms of nuclear versus solar versus hydro and things of that such? How do you sit together and do that kind of planning?

Dermot: Yeah, no, that’s a great question. And of course, there’s a lot more knowledgeable people in the company than I, who could answer that question probably more effectively. But I would say that first of all, when it comes to nuclear, obviously we’re heavily invested in our existing fleet. It’s just the nature of the nature of the investment required for nuclear means, that it would be unlikely you would see a lot more new nuclear facilities built in the United States. But what you are seeing is, and I mentioned it earlier in terms of the work that we’re doing to operate the existing facilities that we have, as well as some of the initial work that we’re doing around potentially[?] preparing those facilities in the future to be able to implement new advanced nuclear technologies, like small modular reactors and other types of technologies in the future as well. So obviously, that’s always going to be a very big component of what we do at Constellation. And one of the reasons, of course, also why we’re requiring the Calpine business is because the fact of the matter is that there is this demand, this growing demand for low carbon reliable generation in this country. And Calpine already has that, and they’ve got actually one of the most efficient and modern combined cycled gas fleets in the country. So, I think that was one of the key strategic decisions that went into really pursuing that particular acquisition as well. I think we’re always looking at what the future holds. You’re right, there’s a lot of very educated placing going on in terms of where to look at, at directing those investments. But certainly, as I mentioned, the data center opportunities is one that’s very exciting for us. And also the fact you’re looking at other growth in energy demands and things like potential onshoring of manufacturing transportation, electrification, and our industrial process electrification, that type of thing as well. By the way, I apologize, I forgot to answer your other question about the communities. Let me know if you want me to come back.

John: Yeah, of course, yeah let’s go back to that.

Dermot: Absolutely. Okay, great. So one of the other pillars of our strategic business strategy also is what we refer to as uplifting and strengthening our communities. That involves that involves a combination of things. For instance, we have a really proactive community engagement strategy, especially at our nuclear plants, but throughout our plant communities in general. For instance, at a lot of our nuclear plants, we will host community events. We’ll do information nights. We’ll have group tours, things like that. We also obviously engage closely a lot with both traditional and social media to reach the communities, engage with communities where we have our presence as well. Because we really rely on those communities to provide the talent that we need in order to operate those plants. But also we provide a lot of benefits back to the community in terms of the family sustaining jobs that we’re creating, as well as obviously the taxes we pay and the other economic benefits that come from having a major power generating station in your local community. So we’re very actively engaging in communities through those types of activities. But also we have a really fantastic corporate philanthropy program as well. The pillars of our philanthropy program include climate and environment. And that’s no surprise. Obviously, sustainability is really core to the business. The climate and environment pillar really focused around conservation and stewardship types activities. Education and workforce development is another key pillar of our corporate philanthropy. And workforce development is really a hugely important issue for companies like Constellation because we need to make sure that the future talent that we need, to maintain and operate these very complicated machines, that we’re able to develop and nurture that talent in communities in and around our generation plans. And that we’re able to build out that skill set, if you like, amongst those community members. And by the way, big focus on STEM, obviously, as part of that. And then lastly our employee philanthropy and volunteerism is the third pillar of our community strategy. I’ll give you an example. In 2024, our company, we contributed $20 million in corporate contributions to different organizations and causes. And our employees volunteered 116,000 hours. And think about it, for 14,000 employees volunteering 116,000 hours, that’s actually… And I used to manage employee engagement, volunteerism programs at Verizon, a much bigger company. And these are really solid numbers right here when I heard what our numbers looking like on that front. So again, we work closely with those communities. We just initiated a new program last year called… The acronym is CLEAN, and it stands for Constellation Leading Environmental Accelerators Network. It’s a bit of a mouthful, but CLEAN actually rolls off the tongue. And CLEAN is a, it’s focused on environmental stewardship projects. So basically, it’s a million dollars in funding that’s been set aside for 35 different environmental conservation stewardship projects, again, in and around our CLEAN Energy Center community. So, again, we want to have a really good working relationship with those communities. We want to make sure that they benefit from us being there, that they want us to be there. And actually, all these studies have been done. I wish I could quote you one off the top of my head, but there’s one that was about a couple of years ago, or maybe last year surveying people who live in those types of communities, and they are super favorable towards nuclear energy, like much more so than the national average, because they know and they see the benefits of having a really good neighbor, like Constellation, operating in their local communities.

John: You know, Dermot, I know you’re a very humble man, but I know one of your big achievements at Constellation Energy has been leading the company’s first double materiality assessment. Can you explain, first of all, for our listeners that don’t know what that means, what does double materiality assessment mean? And why is it so important to not only Constellation Energy, but to other companies as well?

Dermot: Yes. So, I will say that we haven’t quite finished the project yet. So, we’re in the final stretch. I’m an Irishman, so I like a bit of horse racing. So, we’re in the final furlong, I think.

John: I love it.

Dermot: But yeah, no, it’s been an exciting opportunity. And of course, I had experience leading materiality projects before joining Constellation. But the double materiality thing, that’s even new for me, because like the last materiality project I led at FedEx was in 2019. I think double materiality was kind of just getting started, but it haven’t really taken off. And then, of course, the EU CSRG had really elevated that to the point now, where you don’t do materiality unless you’re doing double materiality. So I would say, well, right now, we’re in the middle of it, or maybe towards the latter end of it. But it’s been a really interesting exercise. First of all, I think it’s important for companies to undertake the process, because it allows the companies to better understand what are the most material sustainability topics and issues that they should be focused on, as a company should be focused on. I was about to say sustainability issues, but also, I have this voice in the back of my head from a consultant I worked with when I was at FedEx. A lovely lady from the UK, who always like chastised me whenever I said sustainability issues. She’d go, “They’re sustainability topics, because it can be positive and negative.” So they don’t have to be just negative.

John: Good point. That’s a good point.

Dermot: It’s always stuck in the back of my head. It’s allowed us to really think very broadly about what are all the potential sustainability topics that could be material to the company. And then really it kind of forced us collectively to kind of think through, “Okay, what are the positive and negative impacts? What are the potential risks, potential financial risks and opportunities associated with each of these topics?” And really allowed us to kind of distill this very broad list of potential material topics down to a really core set of material topics. I know I’m saying topics a lot here, but of material topics. And now we’re in the process of getting that stakeholder. Also, by the way, it also kind of encouraged us to really also start thinking about our value chain as company as well, and really start kind of formalize and map that out in a way that I don’t think we really had the opportunity to do that before we undertook this project as well. So it really encouraged us to be thinking about in that respect. So thinking about the upstream, the operation side of things, the downstream, all the rest of it. And now we’re in the process of soliciting the input from both internal and external stakeholders to get their perspective. And then once we get all that data in, then we’ll be sitting down with our consultants and crunching the numbers and ultimately coming up with that materiality matrix, which will inform—these are the most material topics that we need to be thinking about both from a financial materiality, as well as an impact materiality perspective as well. And it will definitely help inform our future sustainability strategy and our future planning efforts, as well as of course, our sustainability reporting as well.

John: Explain to me, because I’m a little confused myself, Dermot. How does something qualify as materiality versus double materiality?

Dermot: Right. I have to be very carefully because then there’s like SEC financial materiality, which is all of [inaudible].

John: Right, right.

Dermot: Well, it’s interesting because like in the old days, I guess the old days of materiality, of sustainability materiality, should I say, it was really about the, what’s referred to as the impact side of things. In other words, what are the impacts that the company’s business operations are having on society and the planet. And that’s basically what materiality used to be about. And then what the double materiality came into effect is essentially also considering the potential financial impact that those material topics can have on the business. The first part is like inside out. Like what are the impacts that we’re having on society? And then the other part is what impact are those topics having on our business from a financial perspective. So that’s where the double materiality kind of comes in, the financial and the sustainability societal kind of impact.

John: Well, Dermot, talk a little bit about green finance. I know Constellation recently supported a $900 million green bond. Talk a little bit about the importance of green finance to organizations and the opportunities that allows for our sustainability goals across the planet to continue to grow?

Dermot: Absolutely. Yeah. No, it’s a great question. In fact, I advised or consulted on that particular project as well. And by the way, it’s my second time doing that because I also worked on FedEx’s, their first green bond, which was, I forget, that was like 2019 or… No, it was, actually, in the 2020s now that I think about it, maybe 2021. I think it’s important, first of all, I guess it helps to demonstrate leadership in terms of how companies can look to the capital markets, to help raise the types of capital that’s required in order to invest in building out investments and technologies, et cetera, or maintaining even to that regard. Just sort of making sure that you give investors that opportunity to play that direct role or indirect role, if you want to call it that, in terms of how you’re pursuing your sustainability objectives. And, of course there’s huge demand, obviously, in the capital markets when it comes to these types of green bond instruments. And we found out, of course, when we went to market last year with our first green bond. By the way, it was also the first green bond for a US-based nuclear energy company, as far as I know. [inaudible]…

John: Wow.

Dermot: …I want to say North America. I think there was a couple of Canadian companies that had already issued green bonds. In nuclear companies up in Canada had issued green bonds. But we were the first in the US. So I think what it does is that it obviously helps to really solidify the business case internally to continue to make these kinds of investments. I mean, obviously, you’re not doing it just so you can raise capital in the market. There also has to be a business case to make these investments. And of course, at Constellation, there is a business case and it’s really what the company is really based upon. But at the same time, it’s a great opportunity to be able to communicate back to the capital markets that this is something that is really, really strategically important to us. And it also gives the opportunity, again, to our investors to come and join us in that particular journey as well and for them to reap the benefits as well, in terms of the capital that they’re giving us into these green bond offerings or lending us, I suppose. I’m not sure exactly what the technical term is, but, yeah.

John: Dermot, you’ve been at Constellation Energy now for three years. May is your third year anniversary.

Dermot: Oh, wow. Yeah.

John: Three fast years, right? Three fast years.

Dermot: Very fast. Yes.

John: Talk a little bit about what gets you… You and I know, because of our history in it, that sustainability is truly a journey. What gets you excited about the next three years? Are you going to be leveraging any of this? You and I open up, we watched Bloomberg tonight, or we read the Wall Street Journal. There’s not a day that goes by that we can’t read about AI and how AI is going to transform the world. Are you excited about the prospects of leveraging AI and some new technologies to further the sustainability journey and mission at Constellation Energy, and what else gets you excited?

Dermot: Yeah, that’s a great question. I think the study came out yesterday, was it? Or maybe it was last week. I remember seeing there was a study… I think PWC had put out a study, which kind of talked about the energy efficiency benefits of AI in general in the economy and how that can actually, essentially, I hate to use the word offset, but that can essentially compensate for any increased energy that AI data centers use. It was quite an interesting concept, I think, because a lot of people are just fixated on, well, AI means more energy consumption, and it’s going to mean more greenhouse gas emissions, etc. You really need to think about it in the holistic side of things, the broader picture. And that is there’s also that opportunity for AI to help make business processes more efficient. We’ve even seen an example of that within Constellation. Of course, it’s just really getting started. We had some really quite impressive internal projects around using AI, for instance, to optimize how we go about generating clean power within some of our facilities, and how we can do that in a way to match the specific times of the day when our customers need that clean energy the most, and then how that can help improve or to help conserve resources like water, for instance, that type of thing. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, because we’re some of these stories right now for our 2025 sustainability report, which hopefully will be coming out in late June. So I don’t want to give the game away too much on that front. But we’re already starting to see those types of initiatives going on within the company. And I’ll also just think there’s just so much opportunity, especially around new types of clean energy technology. Like I mentioned, for instance, this development area around small modular nuclear reactors and how that could potentially really revolutionize the clean energy sector. And not just here in the United States, but globally, obviously. And then you see other exciting developments going on in areas like geothermal technologies. Obviously, carbon capture and sequestration is an area that I think has a lot of promise as well. In fact, one of the things that the Calpine is working on, they’d be doing a lot of work and research and sort of pilot testing around carbon capture and sequestration within their fleet. So we’re excited to learn more about that when we have the opportunity to get through that, acquisition and the integration piece of that. These are kind of things that are definitely exciting. I always just feel heartened, especially at Constellation, I just feel heartened by the passion and the commitment of my colleagues. It doesn’t matter whether they’ve got sustainability in their title or not. It’s like, they all feel a sense of that this is part of their job and that we collectively have to put our shoulder to the wheel and come up with the solutions and the technologies that our customers need in order for customers to be able to meet their sustainability goals. And at the end of the day, that’s kind of what really drives us as well. It’s one of the other pillars I forgot to mention, was… And bear with me for a second, I had this written down here, was providing energy and sustainability solutions to customers. And in particular, you’re seeing this obviously with the data center, the AI, the tech and AI data center customers. They have a huge interest in being sustainable themselves, and they look to us to help them come up with solutions to achieve their sustainability goals. And so much so, for instance, that we actually launched an advisory service last year called Constellation Navigator. Which when you think about it, Constellation and Navigator, [inaudible].

John: That is good. I like that.

Dermot: Yeah, I didn’t come up with it myself, but I thought that [inaudible].

John: No, still good.

Dermot: That was a good one. Yeah, that was quite good. And this is a platform where we basically combine expert advisory, kind of consultancy services with AI enabled data analytic platforms as well, to really help guide our customers through their sustainability journey. Like that, to me, is really exciting, that our customers are fully invested in this, that they want to make their businesses more sustainable. They want to operate in such a way that they’re contributing to this transition to the clean energy future of tomorrow. And that they’re looking for companies like Constellation who have the expertise in this area to come and help them and help them figure out how to achieve those goals. So, I guess, at the end of the day, that’s what keeps me excited and optimistic about the future.

John: That’s a lot. And by the way, just so our listeners and viewers can understand this, once you produce the sustainability reports, they live in perpetuity up on constellationenergy.com, right?

Dermot: That is correct. And if you want to go directly to the report, it’s constellationenergy.com/CSR and CSR in this instance stands for constellation sustainability report, but /CSR.

John: I like it. I like it. We’ll put the link to that also.

Dermot: Thank you.

John: We’ll put the direct link into our show notes when the show publishes. The best part about the show is this, Dermot, you and I both know that sustainability is a journey. So what I want you to know is I want you to come back in a couple of years, back onto the Impact Podcast and share the continued journey in sustainability, because I know by then, you’re going to have a lot more updates and a lot more exciting news about the growth of your company and all the great things you’re doing. So I just want to say, thank you again, not only for what you do today, but just thanks for all this great work you’re doing in sustainability. For our listeners and viewers, to find Dermot and all of his colleagues and all important impactful work they’re doing in sustainability, please go to www.constellationenergy.com. Dermot, thank you not only for 50 minutes today, but most important, thank you for making the world a better place.

Dermot: Thank you, John. I appreciate everything you do, John, to help highlight the work that I and other sustainability professionals are doing as well, and of course, in addition to the great work you’re doing at ERI as well. So thank you and thank you for giving me the opportunity to share a little bit about Constellation on your podcast.

John: You’re welcome.

Dermot: Thank you.

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