Company outlines progress against goals and plans for continuous improvement in areas of ESG

Enbridge Inc. (Enbridge or the Company) (TSX: ENB) (NYSE: ENB) today published its 21^st annual Sustainability Report (Report), offering stakeholders information about the Company’s continuous improvement in areas of environment, social, and governance (ESG) performance.

“In many ways, when Enbridge announced the company’s ESG goals in 2020, it galvanized our organization’s progression as a company,” said Pete Sheffield, Enbridge Vice-President and Chief Sustainability Officer. “The 2021 Sustainability Report shows the tangible progress we’re making on the ESG goals we set for ourselves. We knew they were ambitious but we are up to the challenge and our early progress demonstrates our commitment.”

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Enbridge has long considered environmental and social factors, along with strong governance and accountability to be foundational to its success and 2021 was pivotal in this regard. Enbridge was the first midstream company in Canada to commit to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050 and to help achieve this goal, the Company set the interim target of reducing its emissions intensity 35% by 2030. To hold itself accountable, Enbridge has linked achievement of the goals to executive and employee compensation and issued $3 billion in sustainability-linked bonds that tie borrowing costs to delivering on emission reduction targets.

This year’s Report is online, user-friendly and interactive. It reports progress against the ESG goals Enbridge announced in late 2020, including plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase diversity within the workforce.

The Report also provides for the first time, in accordance with the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosure, a net-zero scenario analysis to test the resiliency of Enbridge’s business against holding global warming to 1.5C above preindustrial levels. This important evaluation validates Enbridge’s diversified energy mix, early entry into lower-emission investments, and financial strength, which create strategic optionality that positions Enbridge to be resilient under any scenario.

Enbridge leads its sector in tracking and reporting Scope 3 emissions, including metrics that track the emission intensity of the energy it delivers and the impact low-carbon investments have had on global emissions. Enbridge is committed to continuing to work with third-parties to improve frameworks for reporting these kinds of emissions.

Report highlights:

Emissions

• Goal: Reduce GHG emissions intensity 35 per cent by 2030: Progress: Reduced emissions intensity by 27 per cent from a 2018 baseline, including a two per cent reduction in 2021.
• Goal: Net-zero GHG emissions by 2050. Progress: 20 per cent reduction in absolute greenhouse gas emissions through 2021 from a 2018 baseline.

Workforce and Board of Director diversity and inclusion by 2025

• Goal: 28 per cent racial and ethnic minority groups across the Enbridge workforce by 2025. Progress: 23 per cent through 2021.
• Goal: 3.5 per cent Indigenous representation within the workforce by 2025. Progress: 2.2 per cent through 2021.
• Goal: 40 per cent women representation on the Board of Directors and 20 per cent racial and ethnic group representation on the Board of Directors by 2025. Progress: 33 per cent women on the Board of Directors and 33 per cent racial and ethnic groups.
• Goal: Greater awareness of the need for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Progress: Unconscious bias and anti-racism training completed for all employees in 2021; 100 per cent of employees to receive Indigenous cultural awareness training by the end of 2022.

Click here to see the full Enbridge 2021 Sustainability Report.

Enbridge Forward-Looking Information

Forward-looking information, or forward-looking statements, have been included in this news release to provide information about Enbridge Inc. (“Enbridge” or the “Company”) and its subsidiaries and affiliates, including management’s assessment of Enbridge and its subsidiaries’ future plans and operations. This information may not be appropriate for other purposes. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as ”anticipate”, ”expect”, ”project”, ”estimate”, ”forecast”, ”plan”, ”intend”, ”target”, ”believe”, “likely” and similar words suggesting future outcomes or statements regarding an outlook. Forward-looking information or statements in this news release include statements with respect to energy transition, including Enbridge’s approach thereto; environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals and targets, including those related to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction, and diversity, equity and inclusion; our plans to achieve our ESG goals and targets and to monitor and report our progress thereon; expected resiliency of our assets and growth opportunities under climate change scenarios; and our plans to continue to work with third-parties regarding Scope 3 emissions.

Although Enbridge believes these forward-looking statements are reasonable based on the information available on the date such statements are made and processes used to prepare the information, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and readers are cautioned against placing undue reliance on forward-looking statements. By their nature, these statements involve a variety of assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors, which may cause actual results, levels of activity and achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Material assumptions include assumptions about the following: energy transition including the drivers and pace thereof; the expected supply of, demand for, and prices of crude oil, natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGL), liquefied natural gas (LNG) and renewable energy; anticipated utilization of our existing assets; exchange rates; inflation; interest rates; operational reliability and performance; customer, regulatory and stakeholder support and approvals; changes in legislation, regulations or government policy applicable to our businesses; weather; litigation; impact of capital project execution on the Company’s future cash flows; credit ratings; capital project funding; hedging program; financial strength and flexibility; debt and equity market conditions, including the ability to access capital markets on favorable terms or at all; cost of debt and equity capital; economic and competitive conditions; changes in tax laws and tax rates; the development and performance of technology and new energy efficient products, services and programs; long-term energy future scenarios; and successful collaboration with partners and others to advance ESG goals. Assumptions regarding the expected supply of and demand for crude oil, natural gas, NGL and renewable energy, and the prices of these commodities, are material to and underlie all forward-looking statements, as they may impact current and future levels of demand for the Company’s services. Similarly, energy transition, including the drivers and pace thereof, exchange rates, inflation and interest rates impact the economies and business environments in which the Company operates and may impact levels of demand for the Company’s services and cost of inputs, and are therefore inherent in all forward-looking statements. Due to the interdependencies and correlation of these macroeconomic factors, the impact of any one assumption on a forward-looking statement cannot be determined with certainty.

Enbridge’s forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to those risks and uncertainties discussed in this news release and in the Company’s other filings with Canadian and United States securities regulators. The impact of any one risk, uncertainty or factor on a particular forward-looking statement is not determinable with certainty as these are interdependent and Enbridge’s future course of action depends on management’s assessment of all information available at the relevant time. Except to the extent required by applicable law, Enbridge assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements made in this news release or otherwise, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. All subsequent forward-looking statements, whether written or oral, attributable to Enbridge or persons acting on the Company’s behalf, are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements.

Source: PRNewswire