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Top ESG Trends Shaping Businesses Today, and Insights for Action
The challenge with corporate sustainability strategy is no longer about whether or not to set Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) goals but, rather, how to achieve them.
In this report, you’ll find:
- The top areas in which businesses are focusing their sustainable impact strategies, informed by stakeholder needs and ambitions.
- How businesses are shifting from one-off approaches toward building comprehensive sustainability strategies to overcome top challenges — including limited time, resources, and expertise — to reach their goals.
- One impactful yet underutilized strategy to help your business achieve comprehensive sustainability goals faster and at scale.
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65 ESG and corporate social responsibility examples to guide conversations with your energy provider.
Businesses can and should expect more from their energy provider when it comes to delivering positive sustainability impact in the communities where they work. For energy consumers, only 40% are confident their energy provider will create future value for the community. A business’ energy provider can help you meet your consumer and stakeholder demands for increased sustainability action.
AES is proud to deliver impact in our communities beyond just providing renewable energy. Here are 65 ways that AES achieves holistic sustainability across all areas in environmental, social, and governance that you can use to guide conversations with your energy provider and demonstrate your commitment to creating long-term value for both your business and the community
Environment
Driving a sustainable future through innovative environmental practices
Our commitment to environmental stewardship is demonstrated through our comprehensive initiatives aimed at promoting sustainability and resilience. We are dedicated to reducing our and our customers’ carbon footprint, fostering biodiversity, advancing the circular economy, and innovating renewable energy.
1. Decarbonizing their own portfolio
We are strategically removing coal from our portfolio while increasing renewables. Renewables make up 53% of our generation portfolio, including solar, hydro, wind and energy storage.
2. Climate risk and resilience
AES became the first publicly-traded US utility to publish a Climate Scenario Report per TCFD guidelines and third-party scenarios for physical risk and transition risk from climate change in 2018. We have since updated our risk analysis, highlighting AES' strategy to lead sector decarbonization. Using IEA and IPCC scenarios, AES stress-tested our portfolio's resilience against climate risks, aiming to meet energy needs with innovative solutions.
3. More innovative and impactful clean energy solutions
Google and AES partnered together to develop a world-leading 24/7 carbon-free energy solution to supply Google’s data centers with time-matched carbon-free energy through a custom mix of solar, wind, hydropower and battery-based energy storage resources.
4. Helping businesses be more energy efficient
Through Clean Energy Navigator, AES’ energy management portal, customers can access personalized information to increase energy efficiency, reduce energy consumption, and reduce time spent analyzing their bill.
5. Promoting a circular economy
In partnership with SOLARCYLCE, we are sending damaged or retired solar panels to SOLARCYCLE’s advanced recycling facility in Odessa, Texas, where they will be responsibly recycled and repurposed. A similar initiative was launched in El Salvador in partnership with Geocycle to transform solar panel components into new raw materials.
Get the full list of 65 examples
Social
Empowering communities – globally and locally – through social initiatives
AES is deeply rooted in local culture and customs. We invest in our communities in a way that makes the best sense for them. We learn, grow, expand and share the experiences we have in order to bring innovation from one market to another, changing the future of energy, together.
1. Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Our approximately 9,600 people bring knowledge and unique backgrounds and perspectives. In 2022, 60% of new hires in the US were from under-represented groups overall including women, racial and ethnic minorities, and 34% of new hires globally were women. In age diversity, 13% of our workforce are under 30, 59% are 30-49, and 28% are over 50 years of age.
2. Promoting gender equality in renewables
Through Mujeres Con Energia (“Women in Energy”), we prioritized the hiring of women for the construction of our Castilla Solar Park in Colombia. 111 women participated, representing 29% of the total workforce. These efforts will expand to our Jemeiwaa Kai project, Colombia’s largest wind project to date.
3. Protection of local customs and traditions
AES developed the 454 MW Chevelon Butte wind farm in Arizona – the state’s largest and first new wind farm developed in over 10 years – in a manner that ensured compatibility with the land’s century-long tradition of raising livestock. The project will operate one of the oldest working cattle ranches in the state at the Chevelon Butte Ranch in Coconino and Navajo Counties. We also engaged with local Indigenous groups, recognizing their distinct relationship to the land, and partnered with Solar Energy International (SEI) to provide solar workforce training programs to Arizona residents.
4. Rural electrification
2,500 people received electricity for the first time through an AES Panamá initiative that built 31 miles of electric lines and home installations in neighboring communities to our Changuinola hydro power plant.
5. Retraining local workforce in the just transition
In Chile, the AES Chile Training Plan for Labor Reconversion forms part of the plant retirement plans. The training program has had more than 325 participants and was designed to help employees assume new roles in the future of energy. In Hawaii, a similar renewable energy re-skilling training was offered when AES closed the last coal plant in the state, and nearly half of AES people in the state participated in the course.
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Governance
Commitment to robust governance for sustainable growth
At AES, our governance practices are foundational to our commitment to integrity, transparency, and accountability. We prioritize risk mitigation, cybersecurity, innovation, employee well-being, safety, human rights, and ethical conduct, ensuring a strong and sustainable governance framework.
1. Human Rights commitments
AES has a Human Rights Policy aligned with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. In 2022, our Human Rights Campaign score was 90. Several AES businesses are UN Global Compact signatories and members of human rights organizations. AES Colombia engages in Collective Action for Ethics in the Electricity Sector, AES Chile participates in Pride Connection to support sexual diversity, and AES Panamá collaborates with UN Women and Sumarse to address gender economic gaps and promote corporate social responsibility.
2. Trusted energy partner to government entities
AES is proud to be a trusted energy partner to various US government entities. We partnered with KIUC and the US Navy to meet the Navy's energy renewable, reliability and resiliency goals. The result was a design for a 14 MW solar plus 70 MWh battery energy storage system sited on the US Navy land which during typical operation will feed the local grid. The project also features a microgrid functionality which will immediately switch to providing the Navy base local stable renewable power in the event of a grid outage.
3. Innovation
4,550+ innovative projects have been implemented under our AES Performance Excellence (APEX) innovation program, generating over $1.2B in value to the organization. For almost two decades, our employees have trained in efficiency, problem solving, and performance improvement through methodologies such as Lean and Six Sigma. Through AES Next, our business and technology incubator, we create and further innovations and business opportunities for leading-edge greener energy solutions, including Fluence, Motor, 5B and Uplight.
4. Good management practices
Drucker Institute and Wall Street Journal recognized AES in the “Top 250 Best Managed Companies” ranking. We are proud to have multiple AES locations ranked as a “Great Place to Work” according to Great Place to Work® (GPTW) including Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, and the United States.
5. People development
We use a comprehensive 70-20-10 Learning and Development framework, to manage our talent and develop leaders to ensure our people have the right skills for today and tomorrow. The Energy4Talent program hires recent graduates for a two-year rotational program, with thousands applying each year. Through our online learning program, our people have access to over 16,000 courses to support their personal and career development.
Get the full list of 65 examples
Read our 2023 Improving Lives Report and ESG Indicators for complete information on our ESG and sustainability impact.
