Engaging Stakeholders
Delivering safe, reliable, affordable and clean gas and electric service to our customers is PG&E’s fundamental role as a utility. To meet this objective, we actively engage with an array of stakeholders, including customers, communities, employees, suppliers and investors—working to better understand their needs, keep them informed of our progress and problem-solve together for success.
Our Approach
Recognizing the diversity among our stakeholders, PG&E is focused on localizing our presence and strategies in the communities we are privileged to serve. This includes formally empowering our teams to work more effectively together at the local level and better incorporating local needs and concerns into our operating decisions. We have built local cross-functional leadership teams who meet regularly to address local issues. The teams are led by local managers and include representatives from across the business.
Among many examples of our engagement, we have launched Step Up and Power Down, an exciting community initiative to inspire customers and employees to make simple changes to reduce energy waste at home and at work. San Francisco and San Jose have joined with PG&E to encourage energy efficiency in their cities, with a chance to earn up to $2 million in funds for local businesses to reinvest in sustainability programs. PG&E is also partnering with the cities of Redwood City, San Carlos and Woodland to help residents make their homes more energy efficient.
Because PG&E is regulated by numerous federal, state, regional and local government agencies, we also engage through the regulatory process in numerous multi-stakeholder public processes convened by the California Public Utilities Commission, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and other regulatory agencies.
The chart below highlights some of our channels of engagement with stakeholder groups and how we are working to meet their expectations of PG&E.
| Customers | Selected Channels of Engagement |
|---|---|
|
|
| Communities | Selected Channels of Engagement |
|
|
| Employees | Selected Channels of Engagement |
|
|
| Investors | Selected Channels of Engagement |
As of December 31, 2014:
|
|
| Suppliers | Selected Channels of Engagement |
|
|
Example: Responding to Feedback
Our stakeholder engagement efforts also include actively working with Ceres, a leading nonprofit that works with companies to address sustainability challenges. Since 2006, we have invited Ceres to facilitate a dialogue with a group of our stakeholders on steps we can take to improve our disclosure and performance and realize our goals. The discussion has included thought leaders from different stakeholder constituencies, such as labor union representatives, customers, investors, environmental and community groups, and suppliers.
In its review of our 2014 Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability Report, Ceres cited numerous examples of continuous improvement, such as the inclusion of our materiality matrix and report sections that better align with material issues. Ceres also shared several high-level recommendations, drawing upon its long history of engagement with PG&E and our stakeholders.
For example, Ceres recommended that we more explicitly address the evolution of the utility business model and our CEO’s vision for the future of our industry. In this report, we highlight our vision for the future of the grid—we call it the Grid of Things™—in our Message from the Chairman and CEO and reinforce this vision with examples throughout the report. Ceres also recommended that we disclose customer satisfaction performance alongside our discussion of customer engagement strategies, which we do in the Engaging Customers section.