Safety
The safety of employees, contractors, customers and the public is essential to the Company’s values and success. As part of its oversight function, the Board engages directly with management on worker and public safety topics, including wildfire safety. The Board’s Safety and Operations Committee maintains joint responsibility with the Board for safety oversight. As discussed above, the Safety and Operations Committee is responsible for oversight of the Company’s safety performance, culture, operational goals and risks, and significant safety-related incidents involving employees, contractors or members of the public, as well as wildfire safety.
The Safety and Operations Committee receives regular safety reports from management that include performance metrics, reporting on serious incidents, and actions to improve employee, contractor and public safety. The Chair of the Committee then reports to the Board at its next meeting.
As discussed in the Compensation Discussion and Analysis section, the Compensation and Executive Personnel Committee has made safety a foundational goal that can negatively impact annual incentive compensation of our executives and other employees.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
We are committed to developing a diverse, equitable and inclusive workforce that reflects the broad diversity of the customers and communities we serve. The Board’s commitment to review and guide management on our corporate culture and DEI initiatives is reflected in our Corporate Governance Guidelines. The Board reviews the Company’s DEI program semi-annually and monitors our commitments, metrics and trends related to workforce representation, pay equity, advancement opportunities and employee sentiment. Prior to the release of our annual DEI report, the Board provides guidance to management and subsequently reviews actions taken, feedback received from shareholders and other stakeholders, and progress on the Company’s initiatives to enhance transparency and accountability.
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| Board members are invited to participate in leadership and employee-led business resource group (“BRG”) programs throughout the year to support our DEI initiatives. In 2022, Mses. Beliveau-Dunn, Chang, Reed, Smith and Stuntz participated in BRG and women’s leadership programs focused on women in the workplace which allowed them to share their experiences, engage directly with leaders and other employees, and highlight gender parity among our independent directors. | |
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Political Engagement and Disclosure
Political developments can have a significant impact on the Company and our stakeholders. Therefore, the Company participates in the political process through regular engagement with public officials and policy makers, and by making contributions to candidates, parties and political action committees from across the political spectrum that support policies that help advance our business strategy, including clean energy and electrification.
The Company will only make political contributions that comply with the law, adhere to our Employee Code of Conduct, and meet the criteria set forth in our Political Engagement Policy, which includes alignment with our values, business strategy and key policy areas related to healthy democracy, pro-business approach, energy and sustainability.
All contributions are approved by the most senior officer responsible for Corporate Affairs or the President and CEO, and any contribution that exceeds $1 million must be approved by the Audit and Finance Committee. The Audit and Finance Committee annually reviews the Company’s political contribution policy and compliance program and receives semi-annual reports on the Company’s political expenditures to ensure alignment with our values, business strategy and key policy areas.
The Company is a member of certain trade associations that engage in lobbying activity and seeks to ensure these associations are aligned with our clean energy strategy through engagement with their leadership and policy committees. We review the public energy and climate positions of the trade associations where we make payments of at least $50,000 annually to ensure that these associations are generally aligned with the Company on climate policy. These trade associations are required to report the nondeductible portion of our annual payments used for lobbying activity, which are disclosed in our semi-annual political contribution reports. We prohibit our trade associations and 501(c)(4) organizations from using Company payments for electoral or political purposes.