First Sustainability Report shows Mainstream acting on CSR values

Mainstream’s first standalone Sustainability Report has highlighted a number of key successes in our ongoing drive for corporate social responsibility.

As a private entity, the group aims to operate to the same high standards as the world’s best listed companies, constantly seeking new, improved ways of doing business.

It’s a guiding principle behind our seven core values: Safety, Respect, Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Integrity, Sustainability and Working Together.

And we put it in practice with our Global Development Standard, an in-house system by which we develop best-in-class projects globally to international benchmarks like the IFC Framework, Equator Principles and World Bank Standards on Health and Safety.

To mark our tenth year of transitioning the world to renewable energy, our CSR committee undertook a sustainability audit to give our stakeholders a new level of transparency into our performance across the four pillars of operations: the marketplace, workplace, environment and communities.

The resulting report recorded the following milestones and achievements for 2018:

• A- Leadership status awarded by CDP, the Carbon Disclosure Project, placing us among the most pioneering businesses in the world for acting on climate change.
• Avoided CO2-emissions totalling 996,447 tonnes. Innovations such as reduced carbon footprint concrete in wind turbine foundations had the equivalent effect of taking 211,560 cars off the road in one year.
• The first energy company in Chile to receive its ISO 45001 Occupational Health & Safety certification. Our operations in Chile and Ireland also received ISO 14001 accreditation for their Environmental Management Systems, recognition of sustainable project development imperatives.
• 100% of employees completed Anti-Bribery & Corruption training, 90% of employees have succession planning in place, and employees with 12+ months service underwent an average of 6.3 days of training.
• Strong international diversity in the workforce with 21 nationalities represented across the group.
• 8,906 MW projects were in active development with another 707 MW projects in construction.
• 100% of community development plans in place in Chile, with the focus on health, entrepreneurship and education as primary ways we could make a difference to local people.

Commenting on the Sustainability Report 2018 findings, Brendan Halligan, Chair of the Mainstream CSR Committee, said: “We are driven as a company to develop utility scale renewable energy power plant in a manner that is both commercially successful as well as sustainable and which brings tangible benefit to the communities and countries in which we operate.”

“We are proud of our achievements in 2018 and, we recognise this is an ongoing journey, updating and implementing further initiatives along the way.

“Our CSR Committee is fully engaged with our global team to deliver these by working closely with all our stakeholders to build upon the success of the business.”

Group Chief Executive Andy Kinsella added: “Our values, which are set out through this Report, unite all the Mainstream family and create an energy that brings life to our vision, our sense of mission, and a commitment to deliver for the business.

“Our in-house Global Development Standard encapsulates our uniqueness as a developer, and enables us to put our values into practice. It means we develop our projects to the highest global standards, even if these are above and beyond local regulation and practice.”

• Read or download the Sustainability Report 2018 pdf, or browse some of the case studies featured within it in the Related News section below.