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The adoption of PGE Group’s strategy until 2030 with an outlook to 2050, which defines the directions of the energy transition, decarbonisation of generation and the path towards climate neutrality, was the first step to implement a systematic management of the ESG area in the Group (E – environment, S – social, G – governance).
PGE Group is fully aware that reporting on ESG factors is the first step in managing the area of sustainable development in the company. The next step is to define ESG goals and implement them effectively. This is a current challenge for PGE Group. Incorporating ESG issues into the framework of the organisation’s operations requires remodelling the management system. To this end, on December 21, 2021, the Management Board of PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna S.A., by way of a resolution, appointed the Management Board’s proxy for ESG, as well as the Sustainable Development Committee – headed by Wojciech Dąbrowski, President, and Lechosław Rojewski, Vice-President for Finance.
Sustainable Development Committee
The Committee’s task is to ensure the integrity of the area of sustainable development at PGE Group by supervising the implementation of processes in the ESG area. The wide range of tasks to be implemented in the Group requires the involvement of many organisational structures, which is reflected in the composition of the Committee, the members of which are directors of organisational units of key importance to the ESG area. The challenges faced by the Group, stakeholder expectations, good market practices as well as on-going and planned ESG initiatives are discussed at these meetings.
The ESG process is operationally coordinated by the investor relations and sustainability team, which is also responsible for ESG communications, stakeholder dialogue and non-financial reporting.
The development of PGE Group’s ESG system is based on the continuous identification of key expectations of stakeholders and ongoing implementation of regulatory requirements in the area. This encompasses setting short-term and long-term goals consistent with the Group’s strategy. To ensure the achievement of objectives for the entire Group, in the case of new expectations it is necessary to develop detailed management rules, primarily encompassing cooperation between Group companies.
We believe that a sustainable company is one that not only complies with standards itself, but also deliberately chooses its suppliers - entities that operate ethically and monitor their carbon footprint. We view dialogue with institutions as communication with partners who can support us in our business. Our objective is not only a transparent information policy on ESG factors but also an organisational transformation that implements sustainability.
The basis for development of PGE Group’s ESG area is experience in communication with stakeholders through reporting of non-financial information. In this field, PGE Group already has nearly 10 years of experience and meets the growing expectations of stakeholders on an ongoing basis. PGE Group’s first social report was developed for the years 2013-2014 and was based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) international reporting standard at the CORE level. The following year, PGE began publishing cyclical integrated reports, also keeping in mind the expectations of investors and other financial institutions. Since 2016, i.e. one year before the Non-financial Reporting Directive (NFRD) came into force, PGE Group has published information in accordance with its requirements. Continuously since 2011, PGE has been present first in the „Respect Index” and then in the WIG-ESG index, which consists of companies with mature ESG management practices. Participation in the Responsible Companies Ranking earned PGE the title of industry leader in responsible business for three years in a row.
Our actions are underscored by transparency. Responding to the call of our shareholders in 2021, we decided to participate for the first time in surveys of the renowned environmental reporting standard, Disclosure Insight Action, in two areas: “Climate change” and “Water Security.”
The first survey allowed us to identify our limitations in the disclosure of greenhouse gas- and water-related data. We also gained a better understanding of stakeholder expectations. This experience will make it possible for us to align our management and reporting systems with these expectations and contribute to further reducing the environmental impact of our organisation. We believe that streamlining processes will allow us to systematically improve our ratings.
Due to the complexity of these issues, we formed a team with representatives from the areas of investor relations, CSR, controlling, strategy, international relations, risk, operations and corporate governance. We also directly involved our subsidiaries.
We took part in both surveys again in 2022, and the results will be announced at the end of the year, following analysis by CDP.