To coincide with the launch of its first ESG-focused report since 2013, Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp decided to hold its first ever sustainability day in November 2019 at its Oakville headquarters in Ontario, Canada.
In the spirit of sustainability, the energy company encouraged attendees to arrive by public transport, as well as partnering with Tesla to provide shuttle services to and from the event and the nearby Oakville GO Transit station. Algonquin also had Milla Craig from Millani, a capital markets ESG integration partner, help plan the event sessions as well as moderate the day to ensure sessions would address the topics most relevant to the ESG-focused analysts and investors attending.
The plan was to hold a day focused only on the company’s ESG story, George Trisic, Algonquin’s chief governance officer, told IR Magazine ahead of the awards last year: ‘We didn’t talk about how we’re doing well financially or earnings per share or any of those things. We talked about the three pillars of sustainability: E, S and G.’
In fact, that year the company focused very heavily on ESG, Trisic explained. ‘The strategy we had [in 2019] was to just tell the story of the things we’re doing anyway, but in the context of those three pillars, and also take the opportunity to showcase executive involvement in those three pillars,’ he said.
The ‘very focused event’ was set up as a fireside chat, Trisic added, allowing the 50 or so investors and analysts in attendance to get a good idea of what the CEO’s involvement was in sustainability, as well as ‘what the focuses of [management] are and how they’re contributing to the nine ESG goals we set for our organization through to 2023.’
The company wanted to go further than just talking about the environmental elements of ESG, however. ‘We didn’t just focus on the E part: we actually spent an equal amount of time talking about social initiatives – things of interest to our other stakeholders, our customers, our communities and our employees – as well as the governance aspects around ESG,’ Trisic said.
Watch the video below. You can jump to 6.00 to go straight to Trisic talking about Algonquin’s 2019 investor day.
Click here to watch all the winners’ videos from the virtual IR Magazine Awards – Canada 2020
