The Report has been prepared in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative ("GRI") and Sustainability Accounting Standards Board ("SASB") Sustainability Reporting Standards.
En+ Group (LSE: ENPL; MOEX: ENPL), the world's leading independent producer of hydropower and low-carbon aluminium, today published its Sustainability Report for the year 2021. The Report is available on the Company's website at https://enplusgroup.com/en/sustainability/sustainability-report/.
The Report highlights the following Group’s 2021 milestones:
- The Group invested USD 154.9 million in environmental protection in regions of operation.
- 2021 saw 12% increase in electricity generation at the hydropower plants (“HPPs”) of the Group’s Power segment (amounting to 78.2 TWh, including Onda HPP). A record 98.77% of the electricity used by Metals segment’s smelters, were generated by HPPs.
- The Group achieved a 6% reduction in total air emissions (excluding GHG and CO) compared to 2019), including a 12.3% reduction in SOx emissions and a 20% reduction in volatile organic compound emissions (compared to 2019).
- Over USD 55 million was allocated for social investments and charitable projects, including infrastructure development, volunteering, healthcare, education, and provision of assistance to vulnerable groups.
- On 18 January 2021, the Group announced its intention to achieve industry-leading targets - net zero greenhouse gas («GHG») emissions by 2050 and a reduction of GHG emissions by at least 35% by 2030. In September 2021, the Group presented a detailed plan for achieving those targets.
The Report also highlights the progress on implementation of the Group’s social projects as well as the launch of several new initiatives. Thus, 80 employees bought apartments under our preferential mortgage programme. In addition, En+ Group raised salaries for its employees in Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Nizhny Novgorod, and other regions gradually throughout the year. Company aims to ensure that wages at its enterprises are at least 15% higher than the regional average.
En+ Group invested in innovation competencies of employees and the young generation. The Company strives to maintain a high level of engagement among employees. In 2021, it was provided 14,715 proposals for business system development and incremental improvement of technologies used.
The Company continued educational programmes, aimed at training engineers and technicians who meet the needs of the Company, industry, and regions of operation. Such programmes include scholarship programme, internships, “Energy in Every Drop” project for schoolchildren, as well as an “IT Academy”.
Despite the challenging conditions of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Group continued its large-scale modernisation programmes. The New Energy HPP modernisation programme enables the Group to achieve industry-leading efficiency metrics at its hydropower stations contributing to our emissions reduction. Through the ongoing CHP modernisation programme, the Group will improve the reliability and safety of 1,445 MW of its combined heat and power (“CHP”) capacity (33.7% of total CHP capacity).
The Group completed the construction of the world’s most advanced low-carbon aluminium production plant, the Taishet Aluminium Smelter in Siberia, with USD 400 million of construction investment.
The Group also announced aluminium production with inert anode technology. Compared with industry average emissions, aluminium produced with inert anodes has an 85% lower carbon footprint. Also, using this technology oxygen is created as a by-product rather than CO2, resulting in direct emissions that are effectively zero.
In 2021, the Group’s Board approved a Supplier Standards and Quality Policy to further ingrain ESG principles into the business. To check supplier’s compliance with regulatory requirements and with the principles of the Group in matters of ethics, corruption, labour protection, industrial safety, and environmental protection, the Group introduced an automated supplier rating assessment. In 2021, the Group began collecting health & safety data of contractors, which was included in the Report. Furthermore, zero fatalities among contractors is included in the key performance indicators (KPIs) of CEO’s.
The Hon Christopher Bancroft Burnham, Chairman of En+ Group, said:
"These achievements attest to our deep commitment to be the very best steward of the environment. As we gave unwavering support to our communities throughout the tribulations of the past two years. We also remained steadfast in our commitment to lead our industry into the low-carbon economy."
Vladimir Kiriukhin, CEO of En+ Group, said:
"We live in challenging time, but we have a strong team to meet and accept them. In 2021, our employees demonstrated that solid financial and operating performance can indeed be achieved simultaneously with strong sustainability performance. I am confident in the determination of our team, which leaves no doubt, everything that is planned will be done with the achievement of the best performance."
