Delivering on our sustainability promise

Over successive annual reporting cycles, we have enriched the substance and expanded the scope of our sustainability disclosures.

Our 2025 Annual Report includes a focused compendium of initiatives and outcomes which demonstrate the progress we’re making in incorporating sustainability across our business practices and building a more sustainable future for our communities.

Environmental management

A cornerstone of our abiding commitment to sustainability is our integrated Occupational Health, Safety and Environment management system. This system provides an enterprise-wide framework for identifying and mitigating environmental risks, ensuring legal and regulatory compliance, promoting stewardship of local ecosystems and supporting operational excellence.

We are proud to maintain alignment of our system with the ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems Standard and to seek third-party auditing on an annual basis.

Greenhouse gas emissions and climate change mitigation

We recognize that cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is among the most critical environmental priorities. Hydro Ottawa Group is resolute in doing our part to minimize our own footprint, consistent with our push to achieve net-zero operations by 2030, and to support customers and stakeholders with lowering their emissions profile.

  • Certification of main administrative and operational facilities to the LEED Gold Building standard, a globally recognized benchmark of sustainability excellence.
  • Average annual energy demand offset by on-site solar generation: 25 per cent at East Campus; 80 per cent at South Campus.
  • 21 per cent fleet electrification.
  • 70 EV chargers across our work centres.

We areThe Largest municipally-owned producer of green power in Ontario.

We areSupporting the City of Ottawa's Climate Change Master Plan.

We areA leading enabler of EV infrastructure in the National Capital Region.

We areAn active partner in resilience and sustainability through district energy systems.

Climate change adaptation

Adapting to climate change means taking action to reduce vulnerability to the negative impacts of observed or expected changes in weather and climate patterns, and where possible, taking advantage of new opportunities.

  • Dedicated Distribution Resilience Program within our capital expenditure plan for the 2026-2030 period encompassing strategic undergrounding, storm hardening, feeder reconfiguration, station egress undergrounding and relocating lines.
  • Integration of climate change into asset management systems (consistent with ISO 55001 certification).
  • Satellite imaging for vegetation management.
  • Strengthening the resilience of hydroelectric assets to manage the impacts of climate change and extreme weather.

Biodiversity

We operate not only within communities but entire ecosystems. Being 
a responsible custodian of our physical assets extends to protecting and preserving the variety of life which is native to our local environment as well as the natural patterns which they form.

  • 15 acres of unused land adjacent to our Cambrian Municipal Transformer Station have been seeded as a pollinator meadow, with another four acres reforested through the planting of 2,750 trees.
  • Protection of wildlife through animal guards on distribution 
equipment in high-risk areas.
  • Protection of Ottawa River’s endangered American eel population through specialized infrastructure facilitating safe migration and support for species recovery.

Waste and hazardous materials management

  • Diverted 91 per cent of non-hazardous waste from landfill.
  • Proactive mitigation measures to replace deteriorating, at-risk oil-filled overhead and underground distribution equipment.
  • Successfully met federal requirements to complete the removal of all polychlorinated biphenyls from our electrical infrastructure by 2025.
  • Innovative, environmentally-friendly solutions for re-purposing hydroelectric station stop logs once they are no longer usable as a flow control barrier.

Sustainable financing

Hydro Ottawa Group has been a leader in incorporating sustainability practices into our financing decisions. We were the first municipally-owned energy provider to issue a Green Bond, through which funding is raised in the capital markets for investments in projects with environmental benefits.

In 2025, we refreshed our Green Bond framework and secured an additional round of financing which was four times oversubscribed. The proceeds will be allocated to investments in distribution infrastructure; energy efficiency projects (including smart grid technology and energy storage systems); biodiversity and conservation initiatives; and climate change adaptation and resilience capabilities for extreme weather and flood mitigation, monitoring systems and hardening of the distribution network.

Learn more about how Hydro Ottawa Group incorporates sustainability across our business practices and is building a more sustainable future.

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