Our Sustainability Approach

The corner stone of our ESG approach and strategy is centred on the energy transition, low-carbon product leadership, water management, health and safety and corporate governance.

ACWA Power’s ESG strategy

There is growing recognition in the investor community that ESG issues have a direct correlation with the economic value of an investment. Most investors are now taking meaningful steps to integrate ESG considerations into their investing criteria when evaluating the environmental and social impact of their portfolios.

This became even more crucial in 2021 when ACWA Power shares debuted on the Saudi Exchange’s main market. The Saudi Exchange is a partner exchange which supports the UN Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative. It promotes ESG awareness, initiatives and encourages sustainable investment, in collaboration with market participants such as issuers and investors.

Against this backdrop, we refined our ESG strategy in 2020 and set ESG goals for the coming years. Building on our existing ESG values, we initiated the development of a comprehensive long-term strategy to help shape our ESG priorities.

The cornerstone of our ESG approach and strategy is centred on energy transition; low-carbon product leadership; water management; health and safety; and corporate governance.

In 2021, we focused on supporting the implementation of our ESG strategy. While we continued to work towards our ESG goals, we also refined our approach and systems for improved data monitoring, including for our water use indicators.

ACWA Power’s ESG strategy is part of our business strategy – we see it as a source of long-term value creation. As such, we are responding to a changing societal context, as well as supporting the shift to a low-carbon economy, while capturing growing business opportunities in energy transition.

This strategy also enables the investment community to assess our performance against ESG-related indicators, and it demonstrates transparency and the effective management of our priorities.

For our ESG strategy to be implemented with impact, it is supported by an ESG framework which includes set targets for our most material ESG topics.

ACWA Power’s ESG framework

Our ESG strategy is shaped by our stakeholders’ priorities and, as such, we engaged with a variety of key stakeholders, including employees, off-takers, partners, shareholders and suppliers, in formulating our ESG strategy.

Last year, we conducted an extensive stakeholder survey to produce a comprehensive materiality assessment which helped us identify the most material topics and will be updated every two to three years. We supplemented our initial materiality assessment by referencing it against the GRI reporting standards, as well as industry best practices. The materiality assessment helped us to identify our core ESG focus topics and indicators, which include climate change, water, health and safety, and governance, and to develop our ESG framework accordingly.