The Group’s contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals

Providing at-risk customers with reliable access to energy helps fight poverty and hunger. According to the World Bank more than 1.1 billion people around the world had no access to electricity in 2012. According to the Observatoire National de la Précarité Energétique (National Energy Insecurity Monitor), 5.6 million households - 12.1 million people - in France experienced energy insecurity in 2013.

The end of energy insecurity is integral to ENGIE’s social responsibilities as an energy supplier. Its partners include the Convergences forum, the first platform for thought in Europe that builds new convergences between public, private, and solidarity-based actors, and the Observatoire National de la Précarité Energétique, which seeks to identify the causes, factors and consequences of energy insecurity in France.

ENGIE supports energy access projects through its Foundation's Energies Solidaires program, its impact investment fund, Rassembleurs d’Energies, which works closely with its social entrepreneur partners, and employee skill sharing via internal Group NGOs. As a result, the Group is able to provide technical and financial support to multiple projects worldwide.

The Group aims at providing long-term access to sustainable energy for more than 20 million beneficiaries at the bottom of the pyramid by 2020.

ENGIE's business lines, including the exploration of new energy resources, gas transportation and distribution, electricity generation, and energy services, employ some 155,000 people. Their health and safety at work, as well as that of temporary workers and external service providers, are a central concern for ENGIE. To further reduce the number of workplace accidents among its employees (down by more than 50% since 2008), the Group aims at reducing its employee accident rate per million hours worked to less than three in 2020.

Industrial safety is closely linked to workplace safety. The Group is actively committed to protecting the integrity of both people - employees, service providers and third parties - and property. Implemented by all employees and sub-contractors, “Our life-saving rules” form the cornerstone of the “zero fatal accidents” action plan launched in 2012.

• Health and safety
• Personal safety
• Facilities safety

Employee engagement is a shared Group value. Because engagement is a corporate performance and innovation factor, ENGIE has strengthened its quality of life at work policy as a vital incentive for team action. Each year, we launch a major consultation of ENGIE employees worldwide. This survey allows employees to tell us what they think of the Group, their BU and entity, and their day-to-day work. Benchmarking against other companies also enables management to adjust action plans in order to improve employee engagement rates, particularly of its managers, for whom the Group has set an 80 per cent engagement goal.

ENGIE gives priority to internal talent in order to prepare the future by developing the skills of tomorrow, fostering job mobility and improving the employability of each individual. In April 2016, ENGIE signed an ambitious European social agreement in line with its corporate plan. The agreement provides for the annual training of two thirds of employees from each Group company under training plans discussed in advance with social partners.

ENGIE’s social role far exceeds the scope of its responsibilities, and the Group is involved in numerous local and national initiatives, such as the “Entreprises et Quartiers” charter for neighborhood action, and the Fondation Agir Pour l’Emploi (FAPE ENGIE), which promotes inclusive employment and helps unemployed or excluded individuals return to the workplace by supporting inclusive employment and job creation projects. FAPE ENGIE’s action is based on the solidarity of employees, retirees, and ENGIE group companies towards job seekers and people looking to achieve economic security.

To ensure everyone is able to share their talent, ENGIE has made diversity one of its top priorities. The Group is committed to professional equality and diversity as a key team asset. Since 2008, ENGIE has implemented a policy of gender diversity underpinned by concrete actions to promote women within the Group and to support them in their career development, including the "Women in Networking” initiative, a mentoring program, the "Women in Leadership” training program, and an ambitious parenting policy.

In June 2012, the Group signed the European Agreement on Professional Gender Equality, and is committed to promote equal opportunities and equal treatment in all Group entities, to change management and labor union culture, and to develop diversity. This agreement was renewed in 2017. The Group has set itself the goal of increasing the number of women in its workforce by 2020.

ENGIE is the only company listed on the CAC40 whose CEO is a woman. Following the General Meeting of May 18, 2018, its board of directors included 8 women out of 19 directors - or 50 per cent when calculated on the basis of the AFEP-MEDEF Code - and has one of the most feminized boards of directors of all FortuneGlobal200 companies, according to a study by US agency CWDI.

The world could face a 40% shortage in water by 2030. From extraction to production, the energy sector is responsible for 10% of global water withdrawals, making it the leading industrial consumer of water. ENGIE has developed a strong water management policy, which includes assessing water-related risks, implementing local actions and measuring its water footprint.

ENGIE's actions aim at improving water resource management by reducing withdrawals, recycling treated effluents and controlling discharges into natural environments. The Group regularly communicates on its water indicators and its resource management actions through its annual reports and the CEO Water Mandate.

A committed local actor, ENGIE Brasil supports and contributes to the education of local people through its Good Water program. Based on a multi-stakeholder partnership, this project aims at protecting freshwater sources and managing surrounding areas to maintain water quality without bacteriological contamination.

The global energy landscape has changed radically in recent years with a growing need for energy transition to reduce energy-related environmental impacts and meet rising energy needs. The development of renewable energy has been an important growth lever for the Group for several years. The Group is France’s leading onshore wind and solar energy company. It has partnered with numerous local authorities to support their local and decentralized resource development projects. ENGIE has set itself the target of increasing its renewable electricity production capacity to 25% by 2020.

By 2030, 57% of the reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions will come from energy efficiency solutions. As the world's leading provider of energy efficiency services, the Group is ideally placed to meet this demand. ENGIE works to improve energy efficiency by providing effective and innovative solutions in the energy production and use sectors.

• ENGIE offers companies and local authorities a complete range of energy services for equipment and facilities, from design to operation and maintenance. Committed to achieving long-term results, its experts use innovative and digital technologies to respond to new customer expectations on cost optimization and energy performance.

In an increasingly decentralized world, the Group wishes to strengthen its activities downstream of the value chain. The contribution to EBITDA of integrated customer solutions will increase by more than 50% by 2018 compared with 2015.

Adapting energy production to demand is a key energy transition lever. Using smart technologies, ENGIE develops intelligent energy management and storage solutions to best meet customer needs. Energy management and consumption control are a priority for all customers - industrial, commercial and private. Monitoring consumption, peer comparison, and identifying specific ways to optimize energy expenditure all involve the development of the Internet of Things, Big Data and artificial intelligence. Using these new tools, ENGIE develops smart grids capable of adapting to the energy needs of each customer in real time.

One of ENGIE’s social responsibility priorities is the employability of young people. France has a youth unemployment rate of nearly 25 per cent, and more than 5 million young people are unemployed in Europe as a whole. This demographic offers a pool of innovative talent, new skills, entrepreneurship and ideas to support the Group’s energy transition and technological development. Recruiting more than 6,000 young people under the age of 34 every year, ENGIE has underlined its European commitment by signing the "Pact for YOUth" and the "Alliance for Youth".

The energy transition has given rise to a new distribution of infrastructure activities between centralized infrastructure, closely supervised by the State, and decentralized infrastructure, managed by local authorities, manufacturers and even individuals, and the strengthening of downstream activities closer to the end customer, which take into account their CSR requirements and those of stakeholders. This twofold movement requires us to develop responses adapted to each territory, based on an in-depth understanding of local situations and resources. ENGIE's engagement includes listening carefully to partners across the board - customers, local authorities, employees, suppliers, civil society and shareholders - and jointly developing solutions that respond to their expectations. By 2020, the Group is committed to implementing an appropriate mechanism for dialogue and consultation with its stakeholders covering all industrial activities and new projects, based on regular meetings with NGOs and associations, and the development of long-term partnerships related to the Group's activities.

Committed to the development of innovative services and products to promote the energy transition, ENGIE takes a global approach based on investment, incubation and exchange with local ecosystems. The Group's open innovation approach aims at enabling start-ups, entrepreneurs and project leaders to put forward ideas and benefit from the support of ENGIE and its energy and digital experts. It is based on four areas of action:

• Investment in innovative projects outside the Group. ENGIE relies on the talent and ideas of young start-ups whose development it supports through its €165 million ENGIE New Ventures investment fund.
• The incubation of Group employee projects on the Open Innov by ENGIE platform.

• The implementation of structures and events to exchange ideas, promote innovation and facilitate knowledge sharing.

• Support for innovative projects, by giving entrepreneurs the opportunity to freely submit their ideas on OpenInnov or by launching one of many calls for projects on key energy themes.

Cities are powerful energy transition levers. ENGIE develops innovative, integrated and custom solutions to invent better cities today, in close partnership with local authorities. Its products and services aim at improving the well-being of residents through urban heating and cooling systems, decentralized low-carbon energy production, green mobility, smart networks, and lighting and security devices.

New projects need to take into account the multiple requirements of stakeholders, who are consulted and closely involved upstream. By 2020, the Group is committed to implementing an appropriate mechanism for dialogue and consultation with stakeholders, covering all industrial activities and new projects, based on regular meetings with NGOs and associations, and the development of long-term partnerships related to the Group's activities. Mobility plays a central role in moves towards a more sustainable energy model, especially in cities. The Group invests in green mobility including through GNVERT, an affiliate of ENGIE, which offers biomethane as an ecological fuel to companies and local authorities wishing to reduce their environmental footprint.

Consumer profiles, expectations and consequently customer relationships are undergoing radical change in all business sectors. In the energy and services sector, consumers are keen to control their future as part of a participatory approach to jointly defining, designing and managing innovative solutions. To support this transformation in customer relations, ENGIE has implemented specific actions such as digitizing and modernizing its tools, listening to customers and calling them back if they are dissatisfied, creating a service quality rating platform, conducting satisfaction surveys and so on. ENGIE has harmonized the customer satisfaction indicators used for Group satisfaction surveys with the aim of achieving a B to C customer satisfaction rate of 85%.

Rules and principles to guide buyers in their activities aim at establishing balanced relationships with suppliers selected and qualified according to several criteria, such as technical knowledge, competitiveness and regulatory compliance. In line with its commitment to sustainable growth, ENGIE has adopted a responsible purchasing strategy aimed at promoting ethical management in its relationships with suppliers and developing a "CSR" approach to supply chain management.

An energy producer, ENGIE has to take into account key environmental challenges: climate change, the quality and availability of natural resources (air, water, soil and energy), and the protection of biodiversity and ecosystems. Though the Group's businesses can help to improve environmental quality, they also have negative impacts through water, air and soil pollution on environments and natural resources. The Group is committed to measuring, publishing and, above all, reducing these impacts through the responsible environmental management of its activities.

ENGIE aims at reducing its production of waste and increasing its recovery rate. To achieve this, the Group is taking a virtuous approach by working towards the circular economy.

To keep global warming under 2°C, global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions must be reduced by 40% to 70% by 2050 compared to 2010, according to the IPCC. The 21st century will mark the end of the fossil energy cycle, and the gradual emergence of carbon-free renewable energy. This represents a major challenge for ENGIE, which has anticipated these developments and is considering measures to ensure that its business model is aligned with a 2-degree trajectory.

ENGIE’s 2016-2018 transformation plan accelerates this strategic shift as part of its energy transition. The first aim of this plan is to overhaul the Group’s power generation portfolio by divesting from coal-fired generation and investing in renewable generation. ENGIE has set itself the target of increasing its renewable electricity production capacity to 25% by 2020, and reducing its CO2 emissions per kWh by 20% between 2012 and 2020 - a target that includes its energy production infrastructure.

Under its ambitious plans to expand its renewable energy and energy efficiency activities, ENGIE is actively involved in sustainable finance and the issuing of Green Bonds to fund the implementation of renewable energy and energy efficiency development projects.

At an international level, ENGIE is working to promote ambitious global climate action, green finance and the general adoption of carbon-pricing regulations for energy investment projects.

To address the impact of climate change, ENGIE will increase the resilience of its infrastructure to extreme events, which could become more frequent or severe in the future; it will also anticipate gradual changes linked to increases in temperature, such as lower heating energy consumption in winter and higher demand for air conditioning in summer. Water is essential to ENGIE's hydraulic and thermal processes. Significant changes in precipitation or droughts can cause major fluctuations in electricity generation. Each year the Group carries out a water risk assessment and produces action plans for energy facilities. ENGIE is expanding its efforts to improve the management of water resources, including by reducing withdrawals.

ENGIE develops multiple innovations that enable customers to adapt to global warming while reducing their energy consumption.

District cooling is one of the most innovative ways to meet the challenges of urban concentration and the formation of heat islands in large cities.

Energy efficiency gains and energy savings can also be achieved through home energy retrofits.

ENGIE works to improve water resource management by recycling treated effluents and controlling the impact of discharges into marine environments. To achieve this, the Group uses a set of measures to reduce the volume of water used and to maintain water quality for industrial processes and for subsequent release into the natural environment.

To reduce its environmental impact, the Group ensures that sites targeted for their environmental impact benefit from an integrated environmental management plan developed in consultation with stakeholders. Committed to protecting biodiversity, the Group was recognized as a player in France’s National Biodiversity Strategy (SNB) in 2012 and again in 2016. The project is now international in scope.

ENGIE Group business lines are in constant interaction with biodiversity. To help combat the global erosion of biodiversity, mitigate its impact as part of an "avoid, reduce and compensate” approach and continue benefiting from ecosystem services, the Group is committed to integrating biodiversity into its strategy and business activities.

For several years, the Group has measured its impact, particularly through atmospheric emissions and water or biomass consumption, which are set out each year in its environmental reporting. ENGIE is also committed to providing each of its priority sites with an action plan to meet the challenges posed by safeguarding biodiversity. The actions performed as part of these plans highlight the wealth and diversity of the initiatives that the Group is able to implement in order to protect or even improve the local environment and biodiversity: late mowing and differentiated management of green spaces, introduction of nesting boxes and wildlife refuges, limiting the use of herbicides by using sheep to control vegetation, anchorless drilling methods to protect corals, the introduction of ultrasound techniques to prevent fish being caught in the cooling water inlet filters of conventional power generating plants, passages to allow fish to cross dams, stopping or reducing wind power generation during migratory periods, and so on.

Committed to protecting biodiversity, the Group was recognized as a player in France’s National Biodiversity Strategy (SNB) in 2012 and again in 2016. Since 2018, these activities have been international in scope.

The Group’s long-term industrial vision is grounded in ethical principles. These principles are summarized in four key messages: act in conformity with laws and regulations, establish a culture of integrity, demonstrate loyalty and honesty, and respect others. ENGIE's ethical ambition is to act, everywhere and under all circumstances, in accordance with the Group’s values and commitments, and in line with the principle of zero tolerance of fraud and corruption.

All parties involved in Group investment projects are expected to comply with an integrated due diligence procedure (effective from April 1, 2015). This policy requires parties to (i) formalize the analysis of a project’s ethical risk, particularly in terms of corruption and respect for human rights, and (ii) consistent with this analysis, exercise due diligence based on the checking of open source information or in-depth diligence, which also includes information gathered in the field.