How Sustainability Makes Us a Better Company

Sustainability is intrinsically connected with our vision and our values. Reflected in the formal company goals that define our vision of industry leadership—delighted customers, energized employees, rewarded shareholders and environmental leadership—is the Triple Bottom Line concept. We could not achieve these goals without a working commitment to sustainability.

At times, our pursuit of sustainability demands that we make trade-offs to balance inherent tensions among competing or even conflicting interests. Far more often, though, it simply challenges us to be more innovative and forward-thinking, more attuned to and engaged with our stakeholders and more focused on teamwork and collaboration. As a result, we believe it makes us a stronger and more agile company, more adept at identifying and managing potential risks and quicker to see and respond to opportunities.

In fact, given the nature of our industry as an energy provider, sustainability is increasingly defining the playing field on which we do business. Many of the most important opportunities we have to grow our company and the value it provides lie in solving key sustainability challenges. Examples include finding ways to integrate new low-carbon renewable energy sources into our supply, and building new infrastructure to enable cleaner and more efficient energy solutions, such as the electric car.

This reality makes sustainability for us not so much a competitive advantage as a competitive imperative. Only the companies in our industry that can manage these challenges successfully will be able to build the kind of value that continues to attract capital, lure the best talent and maintain a satisfied base of customers.