Materiality
PG&E published its first materiality assessment for corporate sustainability in 2014—a strategic project to help us identify topics that are material to the long-term sustainability of our business. Conducted in coordination with PG&E’s strategic planning process, the materiality assessment engaged our stakeholders, identified opportunities and risks, and sharpened our corporate sustainability strategy and reporting.
While we continue to engage our stakeholders on these issues, we recognize that PG&E’s materiality matrix captured a snapshot in time. Because our operating climate continues to evolve, we are assessing options for refreshing the assessment.
PG&E’s Materiality Matrix
PG&E’s materiality assessment, conducted during 2013 and 2014, identified 18 issues. Every issue is material to PG&E’s long-term sustainability, regardless of its placement on the matrix.
Issues
- Community and Economic Vitality
- Cybersecurity and Data Protection
- Customer Energy Management
- Customer Engagement
- Distributed Generation
- Employee Engagement
- Enabling Technologies
- Environmental Footprint Management
- GHG and Other Emissions
- Infrastructure Reliability and Resilience
- Non-Renewable Energy Supply
- Public Policy Engagement
- Public Safety
- Rate Structure and Affordability
- Renewable Energy
- Water
- Workforce Planning
- Workforce Safety
Community and Economic Vitality
Cybersecurity and Data Protection
Customer Energy Management
Customer Engagement
Distributed Generation
Employee Engagement
Enabling Technologies
Environmental Footprint Management
GHG and Other Emissions
Infrastructure Reliability and Resilience
Non-Renewable Energy Supply
Public Policy Engagement
Public Safety
Rate Structure and Affordability
Renewable Energy
Water
Workforce Planning
Workforce Safety
What We Learned
Defining a “Material” Issue
A material corporate sustainability issue is one that has the potential to impact PG&E’s long-term sustainability, based on the perspectives of internal and external stakeholders. This is different from, but related to, financial materiality, which is a threshold for influencing the economic decisions of investors. Material corporate sustainability issues are not limited to issues that could have a significant financial impact on the organization.
Our materiality assessment provided important, actionable insights into our stakeholders’ priorities and our own business risks and opportunities. We continue to integrate these insights into our work. For example, we structured this report to highlight our strategy and performance on the issues deemed most material in the assessment. For more information on how our materiality matrix was developed, please see our 2014 Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Report.
Key insights of the materiality assessment included:
- Reinforced our focus on the basics of our business. The assessment showed that safety, reliability, affordability and customer engagement are top priorities both for PG&E and our external stakeholders—and continue to be “foundational” issues.
- Showed interconnections among issues. For example, the assessment illustrated that enabling technologies—such as those related to the smart grid, energy storage, electric vehicles and customer energy usage data—present many opportunities for PG&E and are connected to issues ranging from customer engagement to renewable energy. This interconnectivity continues to provide insight into how we might approach issues in a more integrated way.
- Highlighted the importance of emerging issues. The assessment identified a number of emerging issues, including infrastructure resilience and adapting to the effects of climate change. PG&E continues to make progress in understanding and addressing this issue with our stakeholders. For example, in 2015, we joined a new public-private partnership on climate resilience and participated in a climate change adaptation workshop co-hosted by the California Public Utilities Commission and the California Energy Commission.
- Underscored the importance of water and drought response. In our assessment, water’s importance to PG&E was notable in its interconnections to other material issues, such as the reliability of our energy supply, including our extensive hydroelectric system. As California faces the worst drought in modern history, we continue to work vigorously to conserve water in our operations and at our facilities, engage our employees to reduce water use and help our customers do the same at work and at home.