Winner CEF Leadership Program (2019)
Chief Sustainability Officer
Lynda leads the company’s sustainability strategy. Lynda and her team collaborate with stakeholders across the company to drive initiatives and create opportunities that advance a cleaner energy future for NRG and our customers. Over the past decade at NRG, she has been recognized for her innovative work at the intersection of sustainability and energy. Here, she has led market-facing teams dedicated to sustainability advisory, renewable energy brokerage, and commercial and new product innovation, including carbon offsets. She also ran an incubator for growing businesses and early-stage opportunities for commercial and industrial customers within NRG Business. Lynda started her career as an analyst with an investment bank. She then spent eight years at Enron, where she initiated the weather derivatives business as well as the SO₂ and NOx emissions trading desk. In 2000, Lynda co-founded and was COO of XL Weather and Energy (a division of XL Capital Ltd), a trading and insurance company based in Connecticut. She also co-founded and was the former President of the Weather Risk Management Association. Lynda is on the board of Center for Houston’s Future, a nonprofit that brings together business, government, community, and academic stakeholders to engage on issues critical to the long-term success of Greater Houston. From 2020-2024, she served as Vice Chair of EVolve Houston, a public-private partnership for transportation electrification. Lynda holds a Bachelor of Arts in History and French from Southern Methodist University and a Master of Finance from Tulane University.
Senior Vice President, Administration and Corporate Affairs
Gin oversees communications, marketing, sustainability, philanthropy, and talent & culture. She leads this diverse and talented group with a focus on building a well-rounded company culture and employee experience, shaping external thought leadership, enhancing customer experiences, advancing corporate reputation, and driving business growth. She has more than 20 years of experience in marketing, communications, and business development, with a strong foundation of more than 10 years in the global energy industry. She previously held roles in energy and cleantech startups, including the development of large-scale solar and distributed energy projects. An active member of the community, Gin is a board member of Houston Area Women’s Center. She also serves on the advisory board for the Hawthorn Club for Executive Women in Energy and Tech and is a member of the Chief Marketing Officer Council. Gin holds a degree in Journalism from the University of Georgia.
Director, Sustainability Strategy and Stakeholders
Laura is a skilled leader with a passion for solving complex problems and a belief in the power of businesses to drive positive change. With over a decade of experience in the energy industry, Laura is responsible for investor engagement, corporate disclosures, and developing comprehensive sustainability strategies that deliver tangible business value. Before joining the corporate sustainability team, Laura was the Director of Corporate Communications at NRG, where she oversaw communications related to corporate reputation, executive thought leadership, finance, government and regulatory affairs, issues management, and sustainability. She holds a degree in Sustainability from Arizona State University. She stays at the forefront of sustainability and energy market trends, advancing the energy transition and inspiring others to join her in building a more resilient future.
Sustainability Director
Maria has worked in the energy industry for 20 years. In her current role, she is proud to continue broad team collaboration on greenhouse gas reductions, enabling NRG customers to achieve their goals. Previously, she worked with the Environmental team and partnered on sustainability efforts at NRG and Midwest Generation/Edison Mission Energy. She has been a Director of Sustainability and Environmental Programs for United Airlines and Senior Environmental Expert at Nestlé USA. She has a B.S. in Physics from University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign and an M.S. in Environmental Technology from New York Institute of Technology.
Sustainability Director
Alexis is building on the company’s long track record of corporate sustainability leadership, while also supporting efforts that help NRG Energy customers achieve their sustainability goals. Prior to NRG, Alexis served as COO at PRC Wind, a Midwest-based company that develops utility-scale windfarms. Previously, Alexis was the director of environmental sustainability and compliance for Best Buy, a multinational technology retailer, overseeing environmental strategy, programs, and compliance. Previously, Alexis worked at Accenture in business process and technology consulting. Alexis received her BA from the University of California at Berkeley and was a 2017 University of Minnesota Policy Fellow. Alexis served on the board of the Minnesota Land Trust and resides in Minnesota with her husband and three daughters.
Director, Sustainability Advisory
Greg leads a team of sustainability advisors that assists clients in driving their organizations toward a cleaner energy future. He has two decades of experience in strategic analysis, financial modeling, and project management with a sustainability focus. Greg has a strong background in public-private partnerships, smart grid assets, climate risk, and utility regulatory policy. He has presented on the future of the grid to public and private sector audiences throughout the country. Greg holds an MBA from Presidio Graduate School in sustainable management and a BSAST in nuclear engineering from Thomas Edison State University. He has previously held positions as a program manager of a public-private partnership for the Dutch government, based on sustainable energy projects, and as a chief nuclear mechanical operator in the U.S. Navy for six years. Greg also served for four years as Sustainability Commissioner for the City of Sausalito in California.
Manager of Sustainability Consulting and Senior Sustainability Advisor
Michael is an accomplished Manager of Sustainability Consulting and Senior Sustainability Advisor with NRG Energy. With expertise in climate change, sustainability, and environmental planning, Michael is committed to promoting education and making measured impacts on our carbon footprint. His impressive career includes roles at Rutgers University, Temple University, and the Global Association of Risk Professionals. He co-led the Strategy Delivery Unit within the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities program, focusing on environmental change across the Americas. Currently, he's also a faculty member at The Johns Hopkins University, guiding graduate students in environmental science and climate change studies. Michael is a LEED-certified professional and a licensed landscape architect. Born in New Jersey and now residing near Boathouse Row in Philadelphia, Michael's dedication to sustainability and climate action is evident in both his professional and personal life. In his spare time, he enjoys running, road tripping, and traveling by train, always mindful of his carbon footprint.
Senior Analyst, Sustainability
Nivetha Sundaravadievelu is a Senior Analyst on NRG’s Sustainability team. In her role, she is building on the company’s long track record of corporate sustainability leadership while also supporting efforts that help our customers achieve their sustainability goals. Nivetha started her career as a consultant in an environmental consulting firm where she worked on various environmental compliance and sustainability reporting-related projects. Nivetha holds a BE degree in Chemical Engineering from Osaka University and an MS degree in Environmental Analysis from Rice University.
(August 2024)
Highlights
NRG ENERGY / RENEW HOME / GOOGLE CLOUD — NRG Energy and virtual power plant (VPP) company Renew Home are partnering to boost residential VPP capabilities. The companies aim to distribute hundreds of thousands of VPP-enabled smart thermostats in Texas by 2035 (starting in 2025) and create a nearly 1 GW AI-powered VPP to lower household energy costs and improve the state’s grid resiliency. The project will be enabled by Google Cloud’s data, analytics, and AI technology, to help forecast weather conditions and renewable energy output, create predictive pricing models, and allow for more efficient production. (Nov 2024)
DCFlex —Launched by EPRI (The Electric Power Research Institute), this new initiative will explore how data centers can strengthen the electric grid, enable better asset utilization, and support the clean energy transition. DCFlex will establish 5-10 flexibility hubs, demonstrating innovative data center and power supplier strategies that enable operational and deployment flexibility, streamline grid integration, and transition backup power solutions to grid assets (with demonstration deployment starting in the first half of 2025). Founding members include CEF members: Duke Energy, Google, Meta, and NRG Energy. (Nov 2024)
FORBES — Published its 2024 Net Zero Leaders list of 100 companies helping to slow climate change by eliminating or compensating for the emissions they, their suppliers and their customers produce. CEF Members included in the Top 20 include: Johnson & Johnson (2), Moody’s (4), HP (5), NRG Energy (10), Microsoft (12), and The Clorox Company (17). (June 2024)
NRG Energy assisted the City of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania Energy Consortium in achieving their renewable energy goals by purchasing competitively priced renewable energy and seamlessly embedding it into its current electricity supply, eliminating the need for onsite installation or significant upfront investments. Link.
NRG and the City of Houston join forces to plant 100,000 trees across the city, supporting beautification, improving air quality, and combatting heat in Houston’s underserved complete communities. Link.
NRG Completes Acquisition of Vivint Smart Home, Inc., Creating the Leading Essential Home Services Platform. Link.
NRG Energy and Smart Energy Decisions Publish 2022 State of Decarbonization Study, Showing Reputational Risk and Cost Reduction are Top Motivators for Study Respondents in Their Pursuit to Decarbonize. Link.
NRG Energy Recognized for Excellence in Greenhouse Gas Management at the 2021 Climate Leadership Awards for exemplary leadership in reducing carbon emissions and addressing climate change in the company’s operations and strategies. Link.
NRG Energy Named Champion of Board Diversity by The Forum of Executive Women, honoring the top public companies in the Greater Philadelphia Region with 30% or more women on their respective boards. Link.
NRG Energy NRG awarded for exemplary leadership in environmental initiatives established to drive environmental progress and impact global sustainability by 2021 SEAL Business Sustainability Awards. Link.
XPRIZE Announces the Two Winners of $20M NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE, with each team creating Valuable Products out of CO2 Emissions Both $7.5M Grand Prize Winners Developed Technologies Focused on Decarbonizing Concrete, the World’s Largest Material Industry. Link.
Committed to
electrifying 100% of its light-duty fleet by 2030 and to annually reporting on its progress. It also
joined the Climate Group EV100 initiative.
(Nov 2021)
MORE »
Houston network for carbon capture and storage (CCS) —
11 petrochemical and energy companies—including CEF members
Chevron, Dow, ExxonMobil,
and
NRG Energy— agreed to“begin discussing plans” to develop a hub of CCS projects in Houston, Texas, which
Exxon proposed in April. The project is estimated to cost around $100 billion and, with "appropriate policies in place,"
could capture and store 50 million metric tons of CO2 annually by 2030 and 100 million per year by 2040.
(Sept 2021)
MORE »
Carbon to Value (C2V) Initiative
— The group of business, government, and NGO stakeholders formed to accelerate a carbontech economy
selected its first cohort of
10 startups working toward commercializing carbontech innovations. The companies will have opportunities to engage with C2V Carbontech Leadership Council members, which include
ABInBev 100+ Accelerator, NRG Energy,
and
Unilever.
(Aug 2021)
MORE »
The City of Houston signed a 7-year contract with NRG Energy to purchase 100% renewable energy for all municipal operations. As a result, the City is estimated to save $65 million in electricity costs over the contract period. (April 2020)
NRG Energy committed $2 million to support first responders, local communities, small businesses, and teachers. (April 2020)
NRG Energy
acquired Direct Energy from Centrica, adding an additional
3 million residential, small business, commercial, and industrial customers across North America in addition to an established
natural gas retail platform.
MORE »
NRG Energy joined a group of CEOs from more than 70 companies and union leaders, representing 12.5 million workers, and signed a joint statement calling for the United States to stay in the Paris Agreement. (Dec 2019)
Wells Fargo signed a 10-year agreement with NRG Energy subsidiary Reliant to purchase approximately 62,000 megawatt-hours of renewable energy annually to power 400 of its properties in Texas. (Oct 2019)
NRG Energy joined a group of 87 companies to commit to set science-based climate targets in line with “limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and reaching net-zero emissions by no later than 2050.” The commitments were made in response to a call-to-action issued by a group of business, civil society, and UN leaders. (Sep 2019)
NRG Energy accelerated its science-based GHG emissions reduction goals to align with limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. The company’s accelerated targets include plans to achieve its 50% reduction target by 2025 (five years ahead of schedule) and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, surpassing its original goal of a 90% reduction. (Sep 2019)
Recognized as one of 120 companies — out of more than 5,500 companies analyzed — on CDP’s Supplier Engagement leaderboard (“Global Supply Chain Report 2019”) for their work with suppliers to reduce emissions and lower environmental risks in the supply chain. (Feb 2019)
laura@corporateecoforum.com | (617) 921-2307
Amy O’Meara, Executive Director
amy@corporateecoforum.com | (857) 222-8270
Mike Rama, Deputy Director
mike@corporateecoforum.com | (607) 287-9236
Margaret Zamoyta, Program Lead
margaret@corporateecoforum.com I (917) 678-4161
MR Rangaswami, Founder