Messages from Leadership

Read about MGE's vision for the future from our Chairman, President and CEO, and learn about MGE's commitment to safety, reliability, sustainability, equity and engagement from our Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary.

Our Vision

Jeff Keebler, MGE Chairman, President and CEO

Jeff Keebler

As your community energy company, Madison Gas and Electric (MGE) embraces our commitment to engagement as a core value—how we serve and engage our customers, our employees, our investors and other stakeholders matters. It is key to fulfilling our mission as a critical services provider and community partner and to our long-term success. MGE is actively partnering and engaging to achieve our goals by focusing on our people, our communities and our strategies for a more sustainable future.

We’ve said since first introducing our industry-leading clean energy goals about seven years ago—if we can go further faster, we will. In 2022, MGE committed to achieving carbon emissions reductions of at least 80% by 2030 as part of our path toward our previously announced goal of net-zero carbon electricity by 2050.

We’re working with our customers and communities to continue growing our use of cost-effective renewable energy. In 2022, our Hermsdorf Solar Fields, built in partnership with the City of Madison and Madison Metropolitan School District, came online to serve those two major customers. Partnering in projects like this one advances our customers’ energy goals and helps MGE reach our renewable energy goals.

We also continue to accelerate our transition away from coal-fired resources. MGE is a minority owner of the coal-fired Columbia Energy Center, which we expect to be fully retired by June 2026—more than 10 years ahead of its original schedule.

And, by working with our partners to transition to natural gas as the primary fuel source at the coal-fired Elm Road Generating Station, MGE expects the jointly owned plant to use coal only as a backup fuel by the end of 2030. By the end of 2035, we expect to have eliminated coal as an energy source in our asset portfolio.
By the end of 2035, we expect to have eliminated coal as an energy source in our asset portfolio.

Importantly, one of our foundational objectives under our Energy 2030 framework, introduced in November 2015, is to ensure that all customers benefit from changing technology and from an increasingly sustainable, resilient and dynamic electric grid. In addition to decarbonizing our energy supply for the benefit of all customers, we’re advancing electric transportation with all customer segments and engaging customers further in programs, resources and tools to encourage energy efficiency, both of which are key decarbonization strategies.

To help ensure MGE is well positioned to serve all our diverse customers, we’re investing in our people—equipping employees with the skills, training and resources to meet the demands of our industry and the needs of those we serve every hour of every day. A healthy community and local economy are powered by safe, reliable and affordable energy.

On behalf of MGE and our community-focused Board of Directors, thank you for your interest in our vision for the future and our commitment to corporate responsibility and sustainability. From our board and our executive management, our employee-led Sustainability Steering Team and more than 700 employees, we look forward to continued engagement in our journey toward a more sustainable future.

Jeff Keebler
Chairman, President and CEO
MGE Energy and Madison Gas and Electric

Our Commitment

Cari Anne Renlund, Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, MGE Energy and Madison Gas and Electric

Cari Anne Renlund

Thank you for taking the time to get to know MGE a little better through our annual Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Report. On behalf of our Board; our team in Safety, Sustainability and Environmental Affairs; and our employee-led Sustainability Steering Team, we appreciate this opportunity to share our progress on environmental, social and governance (ESG) related matters.
MGE seeks to embody and to deliver every day on our values of safety, reliability, sustainability, equity and engagement.

In the interest of continuous improvement, we have organized this year’s report into three sections, Environmental, Social and Governance, in alignment with areas of interest to many of our investors, customers, employees and other stakeholders. We hope this format better serves readers and conveys our ongoing commitment to our priorities around sustainability and social and governance matters.

While interest in those areas continues to grow, they are and have long been priorities of your community energy company. Locally based in the area we serve, MGE seeks to embody and to deliver every day on our values of safety, reliability, sustainability, equity and engagement. 

In addition to advancing our clean energy transition for the benefit of all those we serve, we continue to make progress in other areas.

  • In 2022, the MGE and MGE Energy Board of Directors adopted a human rights statement for the company, formalizing our organization’s ongoing commitment to the protection of human rights locally and globally.  
  • In 2022, MGE Energy submitted our climate change questionnaire to CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project), a global platform for disclosure of environmental impacts. It is available in our ESG Data Center.
  • In 2022, the company approved its Occupational Health and Safety Policy, which recognizes the risks inherent to our industry and reinforces MGE’s commitment to serving our communities and to conducting our business in accordance with the policy.
  • In 2021, as part of our ongoing journey toward safety excellence and while working more than 1.5 million hours, we recorded our third-lowest recordable incident rate since MGE started keeping records in 1971.
Consistent with our proactive approach to ESG-related matters, our team in Safety, Sustainability and Environmental Affairs, in collaboration with members of our Sustainability Steering Team, is performing an analysis in 2022 of the company’s Scope 3 emissions to inform future greenhouse gas goal setting, including goals related to MGE’s natural gas operations. MGE has a long record of operating a safe, reliable and responsible gas distribution system, and we look forward to sharing the results of our analysis when complete.   

Our company continues to grow and to evolve with our industry and the opportunities presented by new and more sustainable technologies. We are privileged to serve our communities, and we are committed to building on our record as an industry leader and community partner.  

Cari Anne Renlund
Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary
MGE Energy and Madison Gas and Electric