11 State of the Canadian Electricity Industry 2022 Accelerate Net Zero
Theme 2:
An Industry Ahead of the Curve: Looking Beyond the ESG Hype What is ESG?
Context
ESG stands for Environmental, Social and Governance considerations that organizations are expected to annually measure, report and integrate into their decision-making structures.
Driven by the ongoing pandemic and public concerns around environmental and social justice issues, 2021 was another year of tremendous growth for ESG-related activity by governments, investors and companies. The meteoric rise of ESG considerations comes at a critical juncture in human history. The COVID-19 pandemic is still raging in waves; climate-induced severe weather events are wreaking havoc in many parts of the world; social injustices are coming to the forefront of public discourse; and Indigenous reconciliation remains a distant reality, especially in Canada. There are no silver bullets to solve these mega-trends overnight and the work ahead is no less arduous than it is today. However, the heightened interest in ESG is an indication that the world is finally heeding these considerable challenges and looking for solutions, especially from the private sector. Some governments and industries have been at this task for decades, while others are starting fresh. Whatever the case may be, the time has arrived to accelerate the integration of ESG into organizational decision-making processes and use ESG considerations to drive continuous performance improvement for the betterment of the world. The electricity industry’s journey on this path started in the late 1990s when Electricity Canada and its members launched the Environmental Commitment and Responsibility (ECR) program to improve performance on a range of issues, including climate change. As part of this initiative, Electricity Canada members also agreed to manage key environmental risks consistent with ISO 14001 Environmental Management System[1] Standard.9
