Sustainability in Action

Hydro One is helping Ontarians live a better and brighter future.

Through our network of businesses, we are growing and evolving to meet the expectations of shareholders, our regulator, Indigenous Peoples, communities and the customers we serve. Here are just a few stories of our success.

Spotlight: Possibilities for Tomorrow

Building Safe Communities

Communities power Ontario, and we are grateful to play a part in making them safe. Hydro One’s signature community investment program is Building Safe Communities where we partner with organizations across Ontario that support community safety. Since inception, we provided training to over 200,000 youth across Ontario to teach them lifesaving skills and how to play safe. As we continue to expand our program, here are just some of the safety initiatives our Building Safe Communities program supports:

Promoting Mental Health

The stress and isolation associated with the pandemic has led to a surge in calls and texts to Kids Help Phone. Hydro One partnered with Jack.org to bring free virtual mental health resources to young people across Ontario. The partnership brings live-streamed Jack Talks, Jack.org’s globally-recognized mental health education program, to communities across the province.

Through its partnership with Hydro One, the organization will host 200 live-streamed and recorded virtual Jack Talks in Ontario in 2021.

Supporting Indigenous Communities

Hydro One supported First Nations and Métis communities by providing critical aid during the COVID-19 pandemic. We delivered over 13,500 kits made up of food and safety supplies to First Nations communities with our partner GlobalMedic. These kits include staple food items, reusable face masks and soap.

We also supported the Métis Nation of Ontario’s (MNO). These kits include staple food items, reusable face masks and soap.

Head Safe

Hydro One and Scouts Canada partnered in 2019 to launch Head Safe – a new hands on program aimed at educating families on the impacts of head injuries, the importance of prevention and safe return to play. With concussions representing more than one in five student injuries treated in Ontario, this program looks to educate parents and kids on head safety awareness and increase head injury prevention.

Head Safe provides youth, volunteers and families in over 25,000 households with essential educational tools, including a head injury first aid kit, and safety measures to protect against head injuries.

A Safer Future for Communities

With 80% of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occurring at home or in public places, research shows that early CPR combined with early defibrillation can increase the chance of survival by up to 75%. Since 2000, Hydro One has supported the Advanced Coronary Treatment (ACT) Foundation to successfully train more than two million high school students in CPR.

Hydro One’s support provides training to students on how to save a life and helps the ACT Foundation bring their programming to more rural and First Nations schools across the province.

More Case Studies

Protecting Ecosystems in Hamilton

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Diverse People, Inclusive Workforce

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Protecting Ecosystems in Hamilton

Cootes Paradise in the Hamilton region was once home to the largest population of snapping turtles in Canada. Now, due to natural predation and increasing human impacts, all eight species of native turtles in Ontario have been designated as 'species at risk,’ including those in Hamilton. According to the Royal Botanical Gardens, snapping turtle populations in the region have declined by approximately 75 per cent since the mid-1980s.

Hydro One collaborated with the City of Hamilton, Dundas Turtle Watch and the Royal Botanical Gardens to install nearly 800 feet of turtle barrier fencing near Cootes Paradise to protect turtle populations. The fencing acts as a barrier preventing turtles from crossing the nearby busy road and protecting the vulnerable species.

Since a portion of the fencing was installed in 2019, the barriers have reduced the risk of turtle deaths from road crossing by approximately 74 per cent. In addition, Hydro One also installed turtle nesting beds to provide safe places for turtles to lay their eggs. This collaborative effort allowed Hydro One to directly protect and preserve turtle populations and help build a better and brighter future.

Diverse People, Inclusive Workforce

Our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) have been instrumental in pushing Hydro One to be more diverse, more inclusive and more equitable. Group members raise important issues, advocate for employees and challenge Hydro One to be a better employer.

At Hydro One, eight ERGs have now been established, each with an executive sponsor and chaired by employees. Collectively, the ERGs have approximately 1,200 members and have the support of Hydro One’s President and CEO and Executive Leadership Team. In recognition of our ERGs, Hydro One recently won the Workplace Diversity and Inclusion Award from Electricity Human Resources Canada.

Here are some of our ERGs:

Women in Trades, Technology and Engineering (WTTE) promotes and advocates for women in trades, technology and engineering at Hydro One. WTTE’s vision is to create a workplace that includes, empowers and inspires more women to participate at all levels of the organization.

Indigenous Network Circle (INC) creates awareness around Indigenous relations and culture, and advocates for change through a learning environment. INC’s objective is to develop and foster leaders through knowledge, understanding and respect.

Mosaic is a multicultural network that fosters awareness, appreciation and collaboration through a richer understanding of our employees’ cultural heritage and identity differences. Mosaic aims to be an action-oriented, global and diverse force that eliminates barriers, adventurously collaborates and unites differences by building a strong foundation that generates forward-thinking leaders. Their vision is to drive innovation through our differences.

PrideOne is Hydro One’s first LGBTQ2S+ ERG. PrideOne supports a diverse and inclusive corporate culture for Hydro One’s LGBTQ2S+ employees, including allies, so that all employees can be their authentic selves at work.

More details can be found here.

Promoting Arbour Week and spreading the word about conservation

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Showcasing Sustainable Energy Practices

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Promoting Arbour Week and spreading the word about conservation

Did you know that trees cause approximately one third of power outages in Ontario?

With over 90 years of experience, our Forestry Service team regularly conducts vegetation maintenance along transmission lines to make sure there is a safe distance between power lines and hazardous trees and branches. When removing or trimming hazardous trees, Hydro One always develops a plan that balances the needs of a safe and reliable system while balancing impacts to the local environment.

To promote tree conservation and encourage tree planting across the province, Hydro One’s Forestry Service team leads educational events for Arbour Week. In 2019, nearly 200 Hydro One forestry technicians and staff visited 47 schools across Ontario and spoke to thousands of students about the importance of trees.

We recognize the important role forests and trees play in absorbing carbon and reducing our global carbon output. Through education, we hope to teach young Ontarians the vital role trees play in a healthy ecosystem.

Showcasing Sustainable Energy Practices

Hydro One is actively exploring building automation technologies to help reduce our overall energy consumption. These technologies could ultimately make our facilities’ energy use carbon neutral, extend the life of our assets and reduce our costs.

In 2019, our Real Estate team began piloting new sustainable energy management solutions for potential deployment across our facilities. Hydro One’s Connected Buildings Pilot is testing a new web portal at four Hydro One sites – Perth, Sudbury, Markham and Barrie – that uses enhanced web-enabled thermostats, sensors and controllers to allow for real-time monitoring of electricity consumption and performance at these buildings. This remote-control command system generates automatic alerts should there be excessive energy consumption in building heating and cooling systems, baseboards, lighting panels or main building service.

In 2020, the pilot is running in Perth and Sudbury and initial results indicate the system is generating savings and insights on GHG emission reductions. The pilots in Markham and Barrie are in process but delayed due to COVID-19.