An ambitious CSR policy across the entire Group in France and Europe

European Sustainable Development Week - Thanks to its ambitious CSR policies, ENGIE and its various businesses in France and Europe are in full swing behind ESDW. The Group is set on promoting its strong commitments to its clients, its employees, its suppliers and all stakeholders.

ENGIE Solutions, a committed player in CSR

ENGIE Solutions aims to provide all its clients with the solutions for moving towards a more sustainable world. Through its offers designed to optimise the use of resources, green energy and reinvent living and working spaces, the possibilities are many. These offers and solutions make a concrete and lasting contribution to speeding up the energy transition, improving the lives of people in cities and offices and stimulating the creation of local jobs, thanks to a strong regional presence.

ENGIE Solutions’ package of offers meets the major environmental and societal challenges of its clients and thus contributes to their own CSR goals.

And ENGIE Solutions’ CSR achievements demonstrate a strong commitment to the energy transition and a more sustainable world. Some figures: 3.3 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions avoided*, 37% renewable energy in the energy mix and 76% waste recovered.

A responsible and committed company, ENGIE Solutions makes every effort to instil a culture of diversity and ethics. For ENGIE Solutions, being an inclusive company means being open to all job candidates from diverse backgrounds. This is also an essential performance factor, as is ensuring compliance with ethical rules. To achieve this, particular importance is given to diversity in the professions, maintaining the inter-generational balance, supporting people with disabilities (4.2% of the workforce), integration of apprentices and work-study trainees (2800 work-study trainees in 2019 compared with 2300 in 2018, i.e. 5.8% of the total workforce) and the integration of people from outside the job market. The increased employment of women in technical and management positions is particularly encouraged (14% women in the total workforce and 19% in management). Engaged with its social partners through company schemes and agreements, this diversity allows ENGIE Solutions to adapt, to multiply opportunities, to innovate and to be a reflection of society.

ENGIE Spain, a CSR policy at the heart of each project

ENGIE Spain is also strongly committed to CSR and is taking advantage of European Sustainable Development Week to communicate on its contribution to the SDGs through the Spanish network of the United Nations Global Compact.

Details of some of the initiatives are given here, showing how they correspond to the United Nations SDGs.

ENGIE Spain, une politique RSE au cœur de chaque projet

*Example of communication from ENGIE Spain: "Let's go for Sustainability Goals Week!" "Discover ENGIE's contribution to the SDOs" "Click here not to miss anything"

The NERTA project

The NERTA project, an economic and sustainable alternative for river waste treatment, meets SDGs 12, Responsible Consumption and Production, and 13, Climate Action.

ENGIE Spain operates 18 hydraulic facilities located mainly in the Duero and Ebro river basins. The NERTA project was born out of the need to respond to a problem common to all these facilities: each year, they extract approximately 3000 to 4000 tonnes of river waste. This residue is mostly plant debris with a high water content and it contains components such as plastics or heavy metals that make it unsuitable for composting. Rather than sending it to landfill, with high environmental and financial costs, it was decided to look for other more economical and sustainable alternatives.

The solution is to subject the plant residue to certain pressure and temperature conditions (200°C and 20 bar in the presence of water) for a short period. This results in two products: a biofuel and process water with biofertiliser properties.

An alliance for sustainable mobility

An alliance to promote sustainable mobility meets SDGs 7, Affordable and Clean Energy, and 11, Sustainable Cities and Communities.

ENGIE Spain and a large group in the automotive sector have reached an agreement to design an electric charging solution for nearly 450 dealers.

ENGIE Spain will operate these charging stations in more than half the sales outlets, with 1200 stations monitored from the ENGIE electric vehicle control centre in Spain.

Subsequently, ENGIE Spain and the automotive group will work together on solutions aimed at increasing the energy efficiency of their facilities.

The Seneca project

The Seneca project, to protect endangered species within a large-scale photovoltaic project, meets SDGs 7, Affordable and Clean Energy, 13, Climate Action, and 15, Life on Land.

Located in the city of Palma del Río in Cordoba province, the Seneca project is a photovoltaic power plant with an area of about 100 hectares that will generate approximately 100 GWh/year of renewable electricity, enough to supply around 50,000 households.

Under construction since December 2018, the Seneca project includes monitoring of protected species. The Montagu’s harrier, included on the “Red List of Threatened Species”, is a migratory bird that usually nests in this area between spring and summer.

The biodiversity factor was therefore integrated into the project design, to detect and record the presence of nests and identify actions that could affect the species. Equally, construction work was only started after the end of the bird’s nesting period.

The Procurement Department carries out a CSR assessment of the Group’s suppliers

In line with ENGIE’s ambitions, the Group Procurement Department has set four CSR goals that feed into the Group’s targets for 2030:

Decarbonisation of the main suppliers
CSR assessment of suppliers
Payment conditions that will put the Group among the 5 best payers in the CAC 40
Promotion of solidarity purchasing

For non-energy purchases, the politique Achats Groupe defines the minimum requirements in terms of human rights and responsible purchasing, occupational health and safety, ethics and the environment. Its implementation is based on a due diligence process including surveys and external assessments. It concerns the Group’s 250 preferred suppliers and also, since 2019, a panel of 1400 major suppliers to the 25 Business Units.

The CSR assessment of suppliers is carried out with the help of the specialist EcoVadis, which has developed a methodology to assess a company’s CSR commitment according to the 21 CSR criteria shown below, and analyses multiple data sources from CSR experts.

Concrete examples of the Group CSR policy and its application

EcoVadis considers that the supplier is engaged in important CSR issues, and that the risks are therefore limited, as from a score of 45/100. The supplier adopts continuous improvements in its CSR performance and should be considered for a long-term business relationship. Progress and assessment are monitored both through the EcoVadis platform and internally by the Group Procurement Department.

While Sustainable Development Week is an opportunity to highlight these commitments, ENGIE and its businesses work towards greater responsibility all year round and on all their projects. Strong and buoyant CSR ambitions for a more sustainable future!

* ENGIE Solutions' total Scope 1 greenhouse gas emissions represented 4.5 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent in 2019, compared with 4.6 in 2018. At the same time, ENGIE Solutions avoided the emission of 3.3 million tonnes of CO₂ in 2019, in particular through its innovative facilities and energy performance contracts. The target is to strive for carbon neutrality.

To establish this data, ENGIE Solutions complies with the impact study methodology developed by the sector. Through its subsidiary ENGIE Impacts, the ENGIE Group also takes part in the definition of international guidelines to establish robust indicators shared by all international players.