Tag: sustainable

Delivering positive action in our communities

16 May 2025

Opinion

Being a Chief Sustainability Officer makes me an optimist. I have a key part to play in how Drax embeds sustainability throughout the business, across our entire value chain, and that’s what gets me up every day.

For us at Drax, sustainability isn’t about words, it’s about action. Constant, tireless action to benefit climate, nature and people. It’s not just about our biomass sourcing, or the suppliers we choose to work with, or how we operate. It’s also about the impact we’re having in the communities where we operate.

Our commitment to be a good neighbour

Community investment is central to our commitment to be a good neighbour. We’re seeking to make tangible improvements to the lives and livelihoods of the communities we operate in through social investment, collaboration, education and long-term support.

One of the ways we do this is via the Drax Foundation and our Community Fund. Over the last 12 months we have invested more than ever before in our communities, disbursing £3.6m in charitable giving – a 33% rise from the previous year. This takes total investment to £6.3m since we launched the initiatives in 2023.

The Drax Foundation provides grant funding for non-profit organisations that improve access within underserved communities to science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) education, community green spaces, and measures to address fuel poverty and energy-efficiency.

The Community Fund compliments the Foundation by investing in grassroots organisations and volunteer-led initiatives that support the unique needs and challenges of our communities.

Giving support where it’s needed the most

At Drax we have a dedicated Community Affairs team to ensure our charitable giving is focused on where it’s needed the most. Over the last 12 months our funding is projected to benefit more than 98,000 people in the regions where Drax operates This includes 13,606 children with access to STEM education and 75 adults with ‘green’ skills training programmes.

For the past two years we’ve been working with Scientists in Schools in Canada, helping them to expand their STEM programming in the regions where Drax operates in British Columbia and Alberta. With a particular focus on engaging indigenous groups, this year we’ll build on this partnership by enabling another 3,000 young learners to participate.

We’ve supported nature projects as diverse as rainforest restoration with the Argyll Countryside Trust in the Scottish Highlands (yes, rainforests in Scotland!) and protection of priority bird habitats in the Southern US with the National Audubon Society. 2024 funding is projected to provide 8,836 people with access to improved community green spaces and enable 7,406 young people to participate in nature-based learning.

Across the UK we’re helping to reduce school energy bills and support those living in fuel poverty. We’ve funded energy efficiency improvements in over 260 schools near our operations in North Yorkshire, East Midlands, Scotland and East of England, and we’ve worked with partners to support 2,800 households in ‘fuel crisis’ so that they can receive financial and advisory support to keep the lights and heating on.

The range and diversity of projects we support is vast, but what they all have in common is that they fit within our wider business objective to deliver positive outcomes for the climate, nature and people.

What’s to come

For 2025, Drax’s major focus is sustainability. Continuing to partner with and invest in our communities is a key pillar of our new sustainability approach. To build on this commitment, we have pledged a further £1.5m to support 63 projects across our communities, working to enhance nature spaces, empower children and adults with STEM, and provide energy saving support. Within this we’re also addressing the unique needs of our communities through funding, outreach and direct engagement. We’ll share more soon on the progress of these projects.

We believe the energy transition should benefit everyone, and we believe in creating opportunities. For the year ahead, I look forward to how we can keep enhancing our positive social impact, listening and contributing to communities wherever we operate. It takes collaboration, determination and willingness to learn. Let’s take positive action.

Find out more in our latest Drax Foundation Annual Review

The impact of BECCS Done Well on Drax

14 May 2025

Opinion

BECCS Done Well findings

In late 2022 a report authored by Jonathon Porritt and his High Level Panel, concerning how bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) can be implemented in ways that have a positive impact on climate, nature and people, was published. The report, entitled , ‘BECCS Done Well’, outlines 30 conditions required for BECCS to deliver positive outcomes. We published a first response to the report in July 2023, and subsequently a more detailed and final response in April 2024. During the 18 months between report publication and our final response, BECCS Done Well and its 30 conditions not only stirred many invaluable discussions within and amongst teams, it also inspired mindsets and has been embedded in decision-making processes.

Here are some of the commitments we’ve made and how we’re meeting those

We committed to compiling an Evidence Hub sharing scientific evidence underpinning BECCS scale up, to be consistently updated with the latest scientific findings. In the last month we’ve published our new Evidence Hub on the Drax website, including four papers, and with more to come.

Climate Positive

  • Only sourcing from catchments where our activity, alongside others in the area, collectively has a neutral or positive effect on carbon stocks at a timescale appropriate to the ecosystem and its current condition.
    • We’re actively developing a forest carbon appraisal methodology and will have this completed by end of year as we committed in the Sustainability Framework.
  • Avoiding Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR).
    • We remain committed to not capturing carbon for EOR by screening out EOR only projects in our new-build BECCS selection process and ensuring that this commitment is reflected in the selected BECCS carbon crediting methodology. We’ve also commissioned a study on the use of mass balance for shared transportation infrastructure. Where our CO2 will be transported in shared infrastructure (e.g. pipelines serving multiple emitters, geological stores and EOR projects) a mass balance accounting approach ensures that for every ton of CO2 we put into the system a ton goes to permanent geological storage.

People Positive

  • Developing Community Advisory Panels in some areas local to our North American operations.
    • Community Advisory Panels, starting in Gloster, USA, have been launched by the Community team, with more locations to come. A new First Nations Advisory Council is now also up and running in Canada, and we’ve developed an Indigenous Peoples Policy to codify best practice in our activities.
  • Seeking to establish resolution (grievance) mechanisms for our operational sites.
    • A new grievance mechanism is under development by the Community team.

Nature Positive

  • Identifying baselines for biodiversity and ecosystem functioning for the land we own, manage and/or buy from, and use this information to support biodiversity across our sites and in our value chain.
    • We’ve been working with NatureServe, a leading authority on biodiversity, to establish a biodiversity baseline for our sourcing areas in the US South East.
  • Establishing processes for studying and mitigating impact on nature.
    • We’ve progressed our review of nature related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities aligned to the Taskforce for Nature Related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) at our operations.
    • We’ve published our first Nature Positive Action Plan for Drax Power Station internally, with corresponding plans for other locations coming soon.

The above examples are only a handful of the actions we’re taking to follow through on these commitments we made with a lot of work being done behind the scenes.

What we’ve learned

The response process to the BECCS Done Well report enabled sustainability focused discussions across the business, and brought multiple functions together to discuss how we can achieve positive outcomes through our operations. Our internal and external conversations set us up well to discuss and develop the Sustainability Framework targets, helping us advance towards an action plan keeping us accountable.

We’ve codified the BECCS Done Well commitments, and more, through the new Sustainability Framework and the updated Biomass Sourcing Policy. As we move forward, we’ll continue to work together to make positive action and hold ourselves accountable to our commitments.

Leading the way with transparency and action

11 March 2025

Opinion

  • Voluntary reporting for Drax’s EU Taxonomy alignment shows why we must keep leading on sustainable finance
  • Our upgraded CDP scores further underline our credentials for best practice in both strategy and action

Sustainability shapes how we operate at Drax. It provides our stakeholders with the trust they need as we demonstrate how we strive to provide secure, renewable energy to millions of homes and businesses, in a responsible way.

That is why we are pleased to hit another significant milestone in our ongoing sustainability journey, with the release of our first ever EU Taxonomy Report.

The report reflects our deep commitment to sustainability and highlights our continued work towards aligning ourselves with the European Union’s sustainability goals. In terms of results, the report shows that 71% of Drax’s revenue qualifies as eligible and aligned with the Taxonomy, with 99% of that aligned revenue meeting sustainability principles.

But what is it? EU Taxonomy is a classification system that was created by the European Commission, to define which economic activities contribute to environmental sustainability. It serves as a core part of the EU’s sustainable finance framework, guiding investment flows towards activities that align with the EU’s Green Deal and its broader climate goals.

It’s essentially a roadmap for companies and investors to understand what qualifies as environmentally sustainable. For businesses like Drax, aligning with the EU Taxonomy is essential, as it reinforces our ambition to help tackle climate change while maintaining strong financial performance.

So, why is the EU Taxonomy so important in the context of Drax’s sustainability journey? It’s because the system establishes clear guidelines and benchmarks aimed at ensuring that investment is directed towards activities that contribute meaningfully to environmental sustainability.

It plays a crucial role in accelerating the transition to a green economy and helps companies like Drax with their ambitions to meet their global sustainability targets. By aiming to align what we do with the EU Taxonomy, we aim to ensure that our operations, revenue generation, and financial models support these crucial climate objectives.

The results of our first EU Taxonomy Report demonstrate how far we’ve come in our sustainability efforts. The headline figure that 99% of our eligible revenue meets the sustainability criteria is a source of pride. This is a strong affirmation of our long-term dedication to environmental stewardship and is a significant achievement.

Compared to the broader business landscape, our results are an extraordinary achievement. A 2024 report from EY, that used a sample of 307 European companies non-financial disclosures, showed that the average EU Taxonomy alignment for turnover was 10% across all sectors, with the energy and power sector rising to 37%. For Drax, this rises even further to 71%, positioning us as a leader in taxonomy-aligned sustainability principles.

The reason for this alignment is simple: Drax has made intentional and strategic decisions over the years to transition our business towards renewable energy, with the most notable being the transition from coal to biomass at Drax Power Station.

However, achieving alignment with the EU Taxonomy goes beyond just ticking the necessary boxes. We’re focused on aiming to exceed the minimum standards set out by the taxonomy. The fact that 71% of our revenue is fully aligned with the EU Taxonomy speaks to the forward-thinking strategies that we have put in place.

One of the key pillars of sustainability at Drax is our focus on forestry, specifically how we manage and source biomass. Forests are a crucial component of the global carbon cycle. As part of our commitment to achieve net zero by the end of 2040 across our value chain, we endeavour to source our biomass from sustainably managed forests and must be mindful of the impact our activities have on biodiversity, carbon sequestration, communities, and forest health.

This is where the importance of our CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) scores come in and these act like a snapshot of a company’s performance on environmental action. Their annual reports provide valuable insights into a company’s efforts to reduce emissions and manage natural resources responsibly, using voluntarily disclosed data to provide a score based upon three main critical areas: greenhouse gas emissions, water management, and deforestation.

We have worked hard on these areas, to demonstrate our dedication and progress towards climate action to our investors and other stakeholders. We have maintained our A- CDP climate score and alongside this our CDP Forests score was upgraded to A-. For the first time this positions Drax in the highest ‘leadership’ banding of CDP scores, recognising best practice for both strategy and action, and ranking Drax in the leading group of FTSE businesses.

The upgraded CDP score for forestry reflects our ongoing efforts to aim to ensure that our biomass sourcing practices do not contribute to deforestation or degradation of ecosystems. By sourcing from responsibly managed forests, we aim to ensure that our biomass is part of a sustainable, circular process where forest health is maintained and enhanced.

We recognise that both environmental sustainability as measured by the EU Taxonomy and our evolving CDP scores will require consistent work to maintain and improve. Alongside this we have developed a new sustainability framework, in consultation with a variety of different groups including representatives from the scientific community, academics, employees, investors and environmental NGOs.

But this holistic approach must be seen as the starting point of a journey. With the climate crisis becoming an even bigger threat to our planet, we must redouble our efforts. That means open and frank conversations with internal and external stakeholders where possible and concerted efforts to decarbonise our supply chain. It also means continuing to prioritise the rigorous standards of best practice measured by mechanisms such as EU taxonomy and CDP ratings. These pillars will be the key to proving that Drax can keep the lights on for millions of people using sustainable biomass generation, responsibly.