The 2018 Cox Corporate Social Responsibility Report CEI_2018_CSR_Report | Page 26

COX CONSERVES
Our Cleantech Focus Areas
Energy Services
Cox has long been committed to renewables,
deploying more than 30 on-site solar generation
projects at different locations. But the opportunity
to deploy solar at our own facilities is finite. That’s
why, in pursuit of our carbon neutral goal, we’ve
expanded our portfolio to include ventures to build
utility-scale solar. Our first was the investment by
Seven Islands Environmental Solutions (a wholly
owned Cox subsidiary) in Dukemont Solar, a
2.5 MW solar array in North Carolina. The success
of that endeavor led us to a much larger
partnership when we became the majority
investor in a $25 million project to construct
four solar farms. With installations in Jacksonville,
Florida, and the Georgia cities of Winder,
Douglasville and Cairo, the Southeastern Solar
Farm Fund project generates 20.5 MWh per
year for the grid, producing a carbon offset of
13,850 tons and generating enough energy to
power more than 2,200 homes annually.
Our alternative energy investments also include
the New River Clean Energy facility in Beckley,
West Virginia, a landfill gas power generation
project that annually offsets 7,000 tons of
carbon while producing enough energy to
power nearly 1,000 homes.
Golden Isles Conservation Center:
A New Chapter Unfolds
Several years ago, we launched Golden Isles Conservation Center,
a facility in coastal Georgia pioneering an experimental pyrolysis
technology that converts discarded tires into their source components
— carbon black, synthesis oil, synthesis gas and steel. It was the first
of its kind in the U.S. When you’re on the leading edge of experimental
technology, events can take unexpected turns, as we saw when there
was a system failure and shutdown at the facility in 2017. Problems
with the original design were identified, and we determined it was not a commercially viable system. Fortunately, the Golden
Isles story has a new and promising chapter. In the months that followed shutdown, our teams completely reengineered,
redesigned and rebuilt the facility almost from the ground up. The center is expected to process, and divert from landfill,
some 80,000 tires per year — the equivalent of Cox’s annual tire disposal.
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