At Drax, our mission is to help meet the world’s increasing demand for secure energy, sustainably. Our strategic ambitions to be the UK leader in dispatchable, renewable generation and to become a global leader in both carbon removals and sustainable biomass pellets have rightly placed focus on the sustainability of the Group’s operations. Sustainability is the cornerstone of long-term success and fundamental to the transformation of our business. By ensuring that we source sustainable biomass, and that we embed sustainable practices into every facet of our operations, we can build lasting value for our business and the communities we serve.
Commitments
Our Sustainability Framework establishes that while delivering positive economic returns, the way we conduct business should provide positive outcomes for climate, nature, and people. It sets out 26 time-bound targets, grouped into three pillars, and is our roadmap to ensure we’re getting to meaningful milestones, whilst demonstrating transparency in our plans, processes and operations.
Underpinning the Sustainability Framework, is our commitment to source sustainable biomass and our responsible sourcing policy is designed to ensure the biomass we use for generation at Drax Power Station is sustainable and compliant with relevant legislation. Woody biomass supplier compliance is evidenced by external certification schemes, alongside our internal assurance system and third-party audits commissioned by Drax.
Our Biomass Sourcing Policy and Supplier Code of Conduct outline our requirements for how Drax sources biomass.
Implementation
The Group Sustainability policy functions as an umbrella policy under which all specific sustainability –related policies, standards and implementation plans are developed and maintained. This includes the following policies:
The following policies are outside the scope of the Group Sustainability policy, but remain integral to our core business operations. Modern Slavery Statement, Code of Conduct, Human Rights, Safety, Health and Wellbeing Policy.
Governance
The Board has ultimate accountability for the Group’s sustainability performance. It approves the Group’s purpose and strategic aims, which are underpinned by a commitment to sustainability that informs business operations and activities. The CEO has overall responsibility for the implementation of that strategy in realising our purpose. The Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO), heads the Sustainability and Corporate Affairs functions, leading Group implementation of the sustainability framework.
The Sustainability Council provides governance and oversight of all sustainability activity across the Group, with delegated authority from the Board, ensuring alignment with the Group’s strategy. The Council reviews and approves sustainability related Group policies, reviews and challenges the management of sustainability data and sustainability risks (including the Climate Change Principal Risk), as well as assessing and approving Sustainability-driven investments and improvements, as part of the Group-wide capital allocation process.
The Independent Advisory Board (IAB) was established in 2019 to provide independent scientific challenge, insight and advice on our biomass sustainability. The IAB focuses on the science around biomass, such that that our sourcing is consistent with the three pillars of our Sustainability Framework – Climate, Nature and People positive.
Reporting
Accurate and transparent Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting is critical to Drax’s purpose to enable a zero carbon, lower cost energy future, as well as supporting stakeholder confidence in the credibility of the entire energy transition.
We report annually our progress against ESG criteria within our annual report and present updated ESG data and metrics in our ESG Performance Report. To ensure accuracy and transparency to our investors and stakeholders on our performance we undergo verification and external auditing
Sustainability Governance Structure
The Sustainability Council provides governance and oversight of all Sustainability activity across the business, with delegated authority from the Executive Committee, ensuing alignment with the Group’s strategy. The Council reviews and approves sustainability related Group policies, reviews and challenges the management of sustainability data and sustainability risks, as well as assessing and approving Sustainability driven investments and improvements, as part of the Group-wide capital allocation process.
