Why we value ESG
At Sunrock we believe that we can make impact through business. Over the past decade we’ve shown our customers and partners that choosing clean energy goes hand in hand with making impact.
With our services, we are making buildings more resilient for the future, protecting our clients’ energy bills from volatile energy prices with low cost solar, lowering their dependencies on fossil fuels and decreasing their carbon footprint at the same time. In 2022, with skyrocketing energy prices, the value that solar brings has never been more obvious either.
We believe the same holds true for all our ESG efforts. There is value in stepping up our efforts to make our supply chain more transparent and efficient. Value in proactively seeking more sustainably sourced components and value in reporting our own activities and emissions in full transparency. Many of our customers have set and published binding ESG goals. By staying at the forefront of ESG in our own business we are uniquely positioned to aid them in achieving those goals.
The value of our ESG efforts does not stop there. Being real about our ESG efforts and pushing not just for compliance but for what is possible, keeps our people fully driven and engaged. Embedding our ESG efforts in our business and our culture enables us to attract the scarce and valuable new talent we need to scale up further.
Sunrock’s vision on ESG
“We strive to progressively and evidently grow in how we embed human rights and environmental considerations in our daily operations and across the whole company. We aim to lead by example and inspire other renewable energy companies to make the energy transition a truly just one”
Our ESG Approach
Vision
Our ESG vision is to provide clean energy solutions to our clients while minimizing negative impact on people and the environment. Sunrock adheres to internationally recognized norms and principles for socially responsible, planet-friendly, and ethical business practices. We believe that integrating ESG considerations into everything we do is critical to our long-term performance and sustainability. By operating in this manner, we can create more value for all stakeholders.
Walk the talk
To put these values into action, we encourage, inspire and support all our employees to be people and planet conscious in everything they do. We expect our leadership to lead by example, and we consider it a privilege to inspire other companies in the solar industry to invest in ESG principles. For us, making ESG part of Sunrock's DNA involves taking actions and using resources to:
Improve employees' understanding of ESG topics that are relevant to our operations and provide them with the necessary skills and knowledge to incorporate our ambitions into their daily work.
Involve employees in setting ESG improvement targets and hold leadership accountable for achieving them.
Actively engage with suppliers and other stakeholders to reduce negative impact outside of Sunrock’s direct span of control
Report on our ESG performance and remain transparent about the challenges we face.
ESG topics material for Sunrock include greenhouse gas emissions, circularity, supply chain transparency and accountability, health and safety, employee well-being, ESG disclosure, and stakeholder engagement. Sunrock dedicates resources towards improving our performance in these areas in line with internationally recognized ESG frameworks.
ESG methodology
Build strong inhouse expertise on the subject
Build trust with customers and partners on the topic
Engage closely with stakeholders in developing strategies and implementing improvements
Share our learnings and be receptive to suggestions for improvement.
Adopted key principles
We go beyond compliance to implement internationally recognised ESG principles;
We actively seek to prevent (potential) harm to people and correct these where they occur;
We reduce our carbon footprint through energy efficiency measures as well as eco-friendly travel procurement policies;
We expect our suppliers to commit to ethical labor practices;
We are transparent about our progress and challenges.
2021: Working groups
In the fall of 2021, Sunrock invited employees for 4 newly established ESG workstreams, aiming to determine, drive, and implement policies and actions. Over 30 Sunrockers volunteered to participate, approximately a third of the employees. All dedicated to help Sunrock internalize material ESG themes and actively influence the company's ESG efforts.
2022: ESG and QHSE Manager
Soon after the establishment of the working groups, the need for a specialist steering ESG became evident. Spring 2022, Sunrock welcomed a dedicated ESG Manager, and in the summer of 2022, a dedicated Quality, Health, Safety, and Environment Manager was appointed as well. Together, the ESG Manager and the QHSE Manager are responsible for developing, coordinating, and implementing the company's strategy to improve the impact of its operations on people and the environment.
Organizing ESG at Sunrock
Employee-driven ESG approach
Sunrock’s work on ESG is spearheaded by employees from different departments across the company. Each ESG working group consist of 7-12 participants. The members of the working groups set annual targets for their ESG pillar, shape goals and put them into action. They also act as ESG ambassadors within Sunrock.
Consists of the CEO, COO, Director of Strategy, Technical Lead M&A and Supply Chains Manager. The Steering Committee secures company-wide commitment to ESG targets, monitors progress and resolves issues that impede actions.
Driving ESG for a Just Transition
To establish a robust foundation for Sunrock’s material ESG topics in order to achieve the long-term goal of becoming an exemplary sustainability leader in the solar energy sector
Competence = the ability to do something successfully
Sunrock is successful in ESG when every employee knows and understands the impact of their professional actions on the well-being of their colleagues, natural environment and stakeholders. Ideally, this leads to behavior that has a positive impact on everyone.
Whether our ESG approach is successful is also measured by the extent to which individuals and stakeholders who are negatively impacted by our activities are able to inform Sunrock of those impacts, are then adequately heard, and receive appropriate redress for any harm suffered.
In 2022, we achieved our goal to create a robust framework that enables every Sunrocker to understand Sunrock's material impacts on people and the planet, Sunrock's vision in addressing those impacts, its role in implementing Sunrock's ESG strategy, and how to engage other stakeholders in this process.
Activities to increase ESG competence ranged from:
Thematic internal presentations on specific ESG topics, e.g. Biodiversity;
Presentations by external experts on diversity and inclusion and on conducting effective human rights due diligence in high-risk supply chains;
Meetings between the ESG manager and individual Sunrockers on their role in ESG implementation;
Regular discussions with management and board members about their role in promoting behavior that is consistent with Sunrock's ESG principles;
Discussions with departments about the link between their business objectives and Sunrock's ESG agenda.
Results
Sunrockers expressed that these activities increased their awareness of what ESG means in practice and Sunrock's responsibility to invest in this area. In addition, we observed that business units are taking more ownership with regard to ESG topics.
Objective #1:
Build competence
Building ESG competence
12 Company wide presentations-on specific ESG topics (Check-ins)
>30 Individual ESG conversations with all department heads and Sunrock board members
Session with Diversity at Work on Diversity and Inclusion
9 sessions with individual Sunrock client teams and departments on ESG
>20 ESG Working group meetings
Session with C&A, a fellow subsidiary of COFRA Holding,
on Supply Chains Due Diligence in high risk countries
Knowledge building within Sunrock in 2022 to improve understanding of specific ESG-topics
Objective #2: Adopt ESG policies
Objective #4: Identify our impact
Why
The solar industry is committed to a healthy climate. Sunrock believes a clean energy future should never come at the expense of, for example, biodiversity, workplace health and safety, collective worker rights, and the legitimate interests of communities. In 2022, Sunrock worked to identify and understand its significant impacts on people and the environment.
How
The identification of actual as well as potential material impact was done in consultation with various stakeholders, including employees, our shareholders, financial partners, customers, and our key suppliers. Based on the information received from the various stakeholders, supplemented by intensive secondary research into the key issues in the solar supply chain, Sunrock selected a number of themes to focus on in 2022.
What
Sunrock has prioritized a number of social and environmental issues on which the company has developed a strategy for conducting comprehensive human rights and environmental due diligence. The goal of this due diligence is to determine whether and how Sunrock is actually associated with these risks and impacts in our business operations and, if so, to take corrective actions to address any negative impacts identified.
Who
The ESG working groups within Sunrock take the lead on human rights and environmental due diligence with the active support of the dedicated ESG and QHSE managers.
Sources of risk information
Dialogue and exchange within ESG working groups
Employee engagement survey
Diversity and Inclusion survey
External research reports and News Articles
Internal high level human rights risk assessment research
Life cycle assessment of greenhouse gases emissions
Conversations with customers
Conversations with financers
Conversations with suppliers
Reports of news outlets
United Nations and International Labour Organization reports
Externally organized expert sessions and webinars
2022 ESG Highlights
ESG Policies and Awareness raising campaigns across Sunrock
Signing the Dutch Diversity Charter
Appointing dedicated ESG and QHSE managers
Boosted the functioning of the cross-department ESG working groups
Extensive desk research about supply chain people and planet risks
Conversations with suppliers, experts and stakeholders
Employee surveys
Sunrocks supplier code of conduct signed by 80% of our suppliers (in terms of spend)
Establishment of Sunrock’s Works Council
Greenhouse emissions data collection using SBTi framework
Employee Engagement and Diversity and Inclusion surveys
Going through B Corp Certification process
Publishing first ESG Report
ESG Web pages on Sunrock websites
Confidential counselors
Whistleblowers policy and system
Actions taken in 2022 to realize ESG approach
We endeavor to make a positive contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals through our responsible business operations
SDG Indicator
7.2 Substantially increase the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix by 2030.
8.7 Take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms
8.8 Protect labour rights and promote safe and secure working environments for all workers, including migrant workers, in particular female migrants, and those in precarious employment
13.2 Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning
How Sunrock contributes to this goal
Sunrock solar parks produced 387,903 MWh of clean energy (As of December 2022)
Sunrock’s employee code of conduct and supplier code of conduct condemns and prohibits the use of forced or child labour. Sunrock suppliers are required to take action against these phenomena in their operations and supply chains. As of December 2022, a majority of our suppliers (appr. 80% of our investments) had signed the code of conduct.
In 2022, Sunrock installed a diverse works council that represents the interests of employees in management decision-making processes. Having zero major incidents is one of the KPIs of the company as a whole, and this ambition has been fulfilled in 2022.
Sunrock makes the ambition of our clients to use renewable energy a reality, thereby preventing appr. 132,194 t CO2e of greenhouse gas emissions generated by fossil based energy systems.
Employee-driven approach to ESG
Words from an ESG working group contributor
“I view ESG topics as "doing the right thing". While of course I strive to do this by default in my day-to-day life, being part of the ESG working groups has helped me develop a more quantifiable view on the impact we have, as well as given me more insight into important ESG topics that I was not previously aware of. I believe ESG topics are important to everyone. I think in some way or other everyone who works at Sunrock is doing so because they want to do the right thing, but why stop with just solar? We can all benefit from making the world a better place and focusing on ESG is a strong way for us to do that. I would personally like to see more diversity for Sunrock in 2023, as well as a strong end of life plan for our projects!”
Elliot Morgan
Asset Manager and member of Sunrock ESG working groups on Good Governance and Environment