RESPONSIBILITY

Ecova's employees are conscientious, passionate people who are driven to have a strong, positive impact not only on the clients we serve but on the world around us. We recently implemented a Corporate Sustainability Program called Ecova Impact to educate, empower and motivate Ecova's employees to improve the environmental and social sustainability of our business operations.

About Ecova Impact

Ecova Impact is our formal corporate-wide sustainability program, which signals our commitment to “walk the talk,” and demonstrate to all internal and external stakeholders that we believe in corporate resource management and the positive impact it has both our company and on the world in which we live. The goal of the Ecova Impact program is to foster the health and longevity of our people, our stakeholders, our communities and our environment by promoting best-in-class sustainable business practices and embedding them in our company culture.

Environmental responsibility

Ecova is committed to measuring and managing the amount of energy, water, and materials we use, as well as the associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions linked to running our business.

To inform this process, we have completed energy and water audits for our largest offices, and are in the process of completing waste audits as well. From these audits and other analyses, we’ve identified corporate reduction goals, and a plan for capital improvement and staff engagement to get us to these goals.

Additional plans for 2012 include the implementation of submetering systems at our major offices (our offices are located in leased facilities, so data collection is complex), capital efficiency project implementation throughout the company, the implementation of a communications and employee engagement program, an interactive intranet site for all employees to use, and the completion of a comprehensive GHG inventory.

To be an environmentally responsible company, Ecova will measure, manage and reduce wherever possible the amount of energy, water, and materials we use and the greenhouse gases we emit as a company. To be socially responsible, we will continue to look at the influence we have on our communities and increase the positive impact we have on those around us.

Social responsibility

We will continue exploring the influence we have on employees and the communities in which we work and identify opportunities for building stronger and healthier networks. To begin this work, we’ve implemented a Community Service Day benefit, which gives every Ecova employee one day every year to volunteer in their communities.

Sustainability leadership team

Nearly 20 individuals, made up of Ecova staff from various offices, departments, and levels of management, lead the Ecova Impact team and have been allotted time to work on this program. The team is led by the Manager of Corporate Sustainability and Employee Value, a position tasked with managing all sustainability-related efforts for the company.

To create a sound foundation for the program, we’ve created mission and vision statements and have outlined goals for the upcoming year. We plan to publicly report our progress on an annual basis and register our greenhouse gas emissions and reduction with The Climate Registry.