Global Reporting Initiative
Governance, Commitments and Engagement
Degree of compliance with GRI reporting elements
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Reporting element fully covered |  |
Reporting element partially covered |  |
Reporting element not covered |
| GRI no. | Reporting elements | References and notes |
|---|---|---|
| Governance | ||
| 4.1 |
Governance structure of the organization, including committees under the highest governance body responsible for specific tasks, such as setting strategy or organizational oversight. |
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 4.2 |
Indicate whether the Chair of the highest governance body is also an executive officer (and, if so, their function within the organization's management and the reasons for this arrangement). |
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| 4.3 |
For organizations that have a unitary board structure, state the number of members of the highest governance body that are independent and/or nonexecutive members. |
Only two Board members–one of them the President and Chief Executive Officer–are not independent members.
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| 4.4 |
Mechanisms for shareholders and employees to provide recommendations or direction to the highest governance body. | Under its act of incorporation, Hydro-Québec is a mandatary (agent) of the State. The shares of the Company are part of the domain of the State, and are allotted to the Minister of Finance. |
| 4.5 |
Linkage between compensation for members of the highest governance body, senior managers, and executives (including departure arrangements), and the organization's performance (including social and environmental performance). |
Hydro-Québec applies a variable compensation policy for its executives and employees, based on the achievement of corporate or individual objectives. The objectives concern measurable results for the shareholder (financial performance), customers (service quality) and employees (health, safety and motivation).
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| 4.6 |
Processes in place for the highest governance body to ensure conflicts of interest are avoided. |
Hydro-Québec's directors, executives and controllers are governed by a code of ethics and rules of professional conduct, which set out their duties and obligations with respect to conflicts of interest.
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| 4.7 |
Process for determining the qualifications and expertise of the members of the highest governance body for guiding the organization's strategy on economic, environmental, and social topics. |
Pursuant to the Hydro-Québec Act, in July 2007, the Board of Directors approved profiles of Board member qualifications and experience. The profiles list the prerequisites for Board members. They also list the qualifications and experience needed by the Board as a whole for various sectors of activity, including energy, engineering, technology, finance, accounting, environment and human resources management.
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| 4.8 |
Internally developed statements of mission or values, codes of conduct, and principles relevant to economic, environmental, and social performance and the status of their implementation. | |
| 4.9 |
Procedures of the highest governance body for overseeing the organization's identification and management of economic, environmental, and social performance, including relevant risks and opportunities, and adherence or compliance with internationally agreed standards, codes of conduct, and principles. |
The Company's 11 policies are subject to yearly accounting to the Board of Directors. The Board, with the support of its various committees, reviews a number of reports, such as those on compliance and environmental legislation, sustainability, the Fondation Hydro-Québec pour l'environnement and the activities of standing liaison committees.
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| 4.10 |
Processes for evaluating the highest governance body's own performance, particularly with respect to economic, environmental, and social performance. |
The performance of the Board of Directors is appraised once a year. The results are submitted to the Board, which decides on an action plan to make any improvements deemed necessary.
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| Commitments to external initiatives | ||
| 4.11 |
Explanation of whether and how the precautionary approach or principle is addressed by the organization. | |
| 4.12 |
Externally developed economic, environmental, and social charters, principles, or other initiatives to which the organization subscribes or endorses. |
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| 4.13 |
Memberships in associations (such as industry associations) and/or national/international advocacy organizations in which the organization:
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| Stakeholder engagement | ||
| 4.14 |
List of stakeholder groups engaged by the organization. | |
| 4.15 |
Basis for identification and selection of stakeholders with whom to engage. |
Hydro-Québec identifies its stakeholders in terms of the main issues raised by its activities; these issues include energy efficiency, development of renewable energy sources and technological innovation. Stakeholders concerned by the company's main issues are systematically identified and consulted. |
| 4.16 |
Approaches to stakeholder engagement, including frequency of engagement by type and by stakeholder group. |
Hydro-Québec continually surveys its customers and the Quebec public, consulting more than 10,000 people each year on a number of subjects, including their satisfaction level, its corporate image and their perception of its sustainability performance. Focus groups are held every year to identify expectations among individual customer segments. Other stakeholder groups, such as local communities, Aboriginals and employees, are also included in our activities and projects. |
| 4.17 |
Key topics and concerns that have been raised through stakeholder engagement, and how the organization has responded to those key topics and concerns, including through its reporting. |
The objectives of the company strategic plan are developed in terms of customer expectations, which the company tracks through a table of customer expectations. This process ranks customer expectations and rates the degree to which they are met, which helps Hydro-Québec improve its business processes, set improvement targets and identify ways to reach such targets.
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