Sustainability at Elia

Catherine Vandenborre: Greening our activities has become an integral part of our decision-making process. Many concrete actions related to this area have been identified. Our employees are eager to implement them and their execution is being closely monitored. To make our substations more sustainable, we have (for example) introduced new building standards. Roofs will be equipped with solar panels that power the heating and cooling facilities via smart temperature control. Along with other European system operators, we are putting pressure on our suppliers to make their processes more sustainable as well. Circularity is becoming increasingly important. There is also much greater awareness about diversity. It has become an important consideration for us in terms of recruitment.

Catherine Vandenborre: Our business strategy anticipates social trends such as the growth in renewables, decentralisation, European integration and digitalisation. Therefore, the group will focus on three areas. Firstly, we need to accelerate the development of our grid infrastructure. Secondly, we are developing a new market design and new solutions for system control to integrate increasing volumes of renewables into the system. Finally, we are supporting society and industry as it addresses its immediate need to decarbonise and electrify its processes.  

Catherine Vandenborre: As part of this, we are working on three different areas: reaching carbon neutrality in our system operations; reaching carbon neutrality in our own activities; and moving towards a carbon-neutral value chain. Our biggest carbon footprint comes from our grid losses. These are an inevitable part of power transmission and depend on factors such as the distance electricity has to be transported across, its current and voltage. It is our goal to reduce the CO2 footprint of our grid losses by 28% by 2030. 

Catherine Vandenborre: In 2021, the worst floods Belgium had seen in decades hit the Walloon region. During the flooding, some of our infrastructure was damaged. To adapt in line with such events, we have added an additional objective of increasing our climate resilience. As a system operator, we have an important responsibility towards society in terms of ensuring system security. That’s why we want to increase the resilience of our assets in the face of extreme weather events like floods, heat waves and storms. As a part of this objective, we have professionalised our climate risk assessment by closely following the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures framework.  

Catherine Vandenborre: Since our sector is evolving at such a rapid pace, we are also adapting our ActNow programme in line with new realities. Our seas are set to become the power hubs of the future, meaning we will build much more offshore infrastructure that will interact with marine environments. We are now placing more emphasis on developing our projects in order to strengthen biodiversity in the North and the Baltic Seas. A nice example of our work in this area is the Belgian Energy Island. As we design and construct the island, we are going beyond just minimising the impact of our activities on the marine ecosystem. We have adopted an approach called ‘Nature Inclusive Design’. Along with a group of nature and conservation experts, we are currently working on designing the island in such a way that it will even have positive effects on flora and fauna and encourage habitats to flourish. 

Catherine Vandenborre: We have several ESG ratings. Each demonstrates that our work has been worthwhile, since they have all improved over the past few years. That’s good news for us and for society as a whole. By embedding ActNow into our business strategy, we are reducing our exposure to risk, we are becoming more resilient and we are able to grow and continue to create value for society and our shareholders.

Catherine Vandenborre: Greening our activities has become an integral part of our decision-making process. Many concrete actions related to this area have been identified. Our employees are eager to implement them and their execution is being closely monitored. To make our substations more sustainable, we have (for example) introduced new building standards. Roofs will be equipped with solar panels that power the heating and cooling facilities via smart temperature control. Along with other European system operators, we are putting pressure on our suppliers to make their processes more sustainable as well. Circularity is becoming increasingly important. There is also much greater awareness about diversity. It has become an important consideration for us in terms of recruitment.

Catherine Vandenborre: Our business strategy anticipates social trends such as the growth in renewables, decentralisation, European integration and digitalisation. Therefore, the group will focus on three areas. Firstly, we need to accelerate the development of our grid infrastructure. Secondly, we are developing a new market design and new solutions for system control to integrate increasing volumes of renewables into the system. Finally, we are supporting society and industry as it addresses its immediate need to decarbonise and electrify its processes.  

Catherine Vandenborre: As part of this, we are working on three different areas: reaching carbon neutrality in our system operations; reaching carbon neutrality in our own activities; and moving towards a carbon-neutral value chain. Our biggest carbon footprint comes from our grid losses. These are an inevitable part of power transmission and depend on factors such as the distance electricity has to be transported across, its current and voltage. It is our goal to reduce the CO2 footprint of our grid losses by 28% by 2030. 

Catherine Vandenborre: In 2021, the worst floods Belgium had seen in decades hit the Walloon region. During the flooding, some of our infrastructure was damaged. To adapt in line with such events, we have added an additional objective of increasing our climate resilience. As a system operator, we have an important responsibility towards society in terms of ensuring system security. That’s why we want to increase the resilience of our assets in the face of extreme weather events like floods, heat waves and storms. As a part of this objective, we have professionalised our climate risk assessment by closely following the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures framework.  

Catherine Vandenborre: Since our sector is evolving at such a rapid pace, we are also adapting our ActNow programme in line with new realities. Our seas are set to become the power hubs of the future, meaning we will build much more offshore infrastructure that will interact with marine environments. We are now placing more emphasis on developing our projects in order to strengthen biodiversity in the North and the Baltic Seas. A nice example of our work in this area is the Belgian Energy Island. As we design and construct the island, we are going beyond just minimising the impact of our activities on the marine ecosystem. We have adopted an approach called ‘Nature Inclusive Design’. Along with a group of nature and conservation experts, we are currently working on designing the island in such a way that it will even have positive effects on flora and fauna and encourage habitats to flourish. 

Catherine Vandenborre: We have several ESG ratings. Each demonstrates that our work has been worthwhile, since they have all improved over the past few years. That’s good news for us and for society as a whole. By embedding ActNow into our business strategy, we are reducing our exposure to risk, we are becoming more resilient and we are able to grow and continue to create value for society and our shareholders.