This policy helps to ensure we minimise our environmental impact, make a positive social impact and ensure good corporate governance at all times. Our ESG commitment We strive to build sustainable, equitable, healthy, and diverse communities through a combination of innovative propositions and exemplary environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance. This commitment informs every aspect of our business, including how we design and build new projects, operate our company, collaborate with stakeholders and report progress. Our environmental statement We’re committed to driving down our energy and carbon impacts, as we believe that climate change is one of the greatest risks to our world. We’re also committed to driving environmentally sustainable initiatives that deliver efficiency, value, and health for our business, people, and the wider community. We seek to comply with current environmental legislation and constantly horizon scan to anticipate and prepare for future industry or regulatory change. We also encourage our customers to reduce their impact on the environment through provision of more sustainable multi-utilities solutions and tools (metering and data) to reduce consumption. We support the recommendations of for example, the Taskforce on Climate-related Disclosure (TCFD) and engage with our stakeholders to encourage compliance in an effort to advance government and industry goals, such as those of the Paris Agreement. Our social statement Our focus is to deepen relationships with our key stakeholders by investing in and engaging our colleagues (directly and via our Colleague Representative forum) and partnering with our customers, communities, investors and suppliers. We’re committed to engaging with colleagues to provide a challenging, dynamic, inclusive and diverse work environment that should support their professional development, as well as promoting a work-life balance which prioritises their overall health and wellness. We support initiatives that benefit the local community, human welfare and education. This includes learning and development programmes for our workforce and economic development in the communities in which we operate. Health and safety compliance is vital to our organisation and industry. We engage suppliers, customers and colleagues around safety, health, and wellness compliance and best practice. We preserve and promote the protection of human rights and welfare within our own business activities, as well as those of our supply chain, in accordance with wider policy. Our governance statement We promote strong oversight, transparency and risk management at all levels of our organisation, ensuring the resilience and long-term preservation of business value. We operate a group wide Risk Register which is formally reviewed quarterly by risk owners and our Senior Leadership Team. We mitigate the exposure of all identified risks, building resilience to them. We maintain strong corporate governance practises through Senior Leadership Team stewardship, leadership and management accountability, and pro-active risk management. We also maintain a robust online document management system housing all formal documents and recording and tracking their review date and owner. All formal documents go through a robust approvals process and are created using standardised approved templates which enable clear version control and approvals tracking. Embedding ESG in our corporate values and ‘focused on the future’ An ESG focus is ingrained in our corporate values – we believe it’s fundamental to our reputation and brand value. The ethical and practical activity that make up the different parts of ESG have always been at the heart of what we stand for. With the growth of ESG and the increased awareness of these factors among key stakeholders, we’ll the story of how our business makes a positive impact. ‘Focused on the future’ is a creative concept which supports and enables this. ESG for our customers Our ESG priorities are drawn not only from investor, industry or colleague concerns, but customer needs. Customers (and society) are demanding innovative, sustainable and ethical utilities solutions – this touches all propositions and operations. It’s imperative to us that all customer interactions reflect who they expect us to be in relation to ESG – an organisation they are proud to work with and recommend. ESG and our value chain Negative incidents, allegations or disputes can have serious impacts on stakeholders up and down the value chain. The ethics and practices of the third parties we partner or associate our business with should mirror our own ESG related ethos, and at a minimum fully comply with all regulatory and industry standards or advice. We carry out ESG related due diligence for new and ongoing supplier relationships, ensuring we understand any risks and take concerted action to mitigate them. We also have robust internal governance frameworks to respond to any ESG issues in the value chain should they arise.
