2005 Annual Report - Accountability for Sustainability

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Accountability for Sustainability

The Vice-President of Sustainability is accountable for BC Hydro’s external sustainability focus, while the Senior Vice-President of Distribution is accountable for enabling the implementation of sustainability within BC Hydro. Each Line of Business (LoB) is responsible for the implementation of sustainability through the LoBs’ sustainability groups. The Sustainability Managers’ Committee, a cross-LoB management team, meets monthly to identify areas and opportunities for implementing and integrating sustainability within BC Hydro. Reporting on environmental risk is met through the Quarterly Risk Report which is provided to the Risk Management Committee and the Audit and Risk Management Committee of the Board.

All executive and management bonuses (variable pay) are based on achievement of BC Hydro’s performance targets, as approved by the Board of Directors.

External inputs into BC Hydro’s business decisions are obtained through the newly formed Stakeholder Engagement Group, who incorporate the needs and expectations of our stakeholders into our triple bottom line decision-making processes so that the public understands and are consulted regarding BC Hydro’s business decisions.

As an example of how triple bottom line (TBL) values are being factored into our decision-making, BC Hydro owns lands around Sugar Lake Reservoir in the Shuswap area that are surplus to our current requirements. Surplus real estate decisions are typically driven by financial considerations. However, BC Hydro does consider a triple bottom line focus in its surplus real estate decision-making process, if appropriate. For the Sugar Lake lands, a Valuation Pilot Program was set up to review and consider possible methodologies to measure the impacts of the environmental and social attributes of real estate decision-making versus traditional financial decision-making attributes.

The purpose of the pilot was to see if these TBL valuations resulted in a different development option being selected than that using a purely financial analysis. BC Buildings Corporation and the B.C. Ministry of Water, Lands and Air Protection were consulted as partners in this pilot to maximize the alignment of any new valuation methodology with what is in use or may be in use in the future with other Crown corporations and provincial government agencies. The first phase of the project, involving partnering and inventory of environmental and social attributes, has been completed. The next two phases, which involve refinement of various development scenarios, data and evaluation, are underway and will be completed in the next fiscal year. A final decision on the disposal or development of the property will follow.