Case study: How Alinta Energy creates economic value for its stakeholders
Alinta Energy supplies retail electricity and gas to over 1.07 million customers, with electricity generation, storage and transmission facilities across Australia and New Zealand, employing more than 850 people. Alinta Energy directly generates and distributes economic value, which benefits a wide range of stakeholders. Tweet This!
This case study is based on the 2020/21 Sustainability Report by Alinta Energy, prepared in accordance with the GRI Standards, that can be found at this link. Through all case studies we aim to demonstrate what CSR/ ESG/ sustainability reporting done responsibly means. Essentially, it means: a) identifying a company’s most important impacts on the environment, economy and society, and b) measuring, managing and changing.
Abstract
Alinta Energy’s sustained economic health is important to the stakeholders who receive income from its business, including employees, suppliers, owners and lenders. Its approach to creating economic value is based on efficient operations, accompanied by targeted strategic investments. In order to create economic value for its stakeholders Alinta Energy took action to:
- create economic value for employees
- create economic value for suppliers and contractors
- create economic value for the government/public
- create economic value for lenders
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With this case study you will see:
- Which are the most important impacts (material issues) Alinta Energy has identified;
- How Alinta Energy proceeded with stakeholder engagement, and
- What actions were taken by Alinta Energy to create economic value for its stakeholders
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What are the material issues the company has identified?
In its 2020/21 Sustainability Report Alinta Energy identified a range of material issues, such as energy availability and reliability, employee engagement, training and diversity, climate change and decarbonisation, community support. Among these, creating economic value for its stakeholders stands out as a key material issue for Alinta Energy.
Stakeholder engagement in accordance with the GRI Standards
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) defines the Principle of Stakeholder Inclusiveness when identifying material issues (or a company’s most important impacts) as follows:
Stakeholders must be consulted in the process of identifying a company’s most important impacts and their reasonable expectations and interests must be taken into account. This is an important cornerstone for CSR / sustainability reporting done responsibly.
Key stakeholder groups Alinta Energy engages with:
| Stakeholder Group |
| Customers |
| Employees |
| Suppliers |
| Regulators and government |
| Community groups |
| Owners |
| Business partners |
| Contractors |
| Media |
| Lenders and grant providers |
| Insurers |
| Auditors |
| Rating agencies |
| Industry associations |
| Non-government organisations |
| The general public |
How stakeholder engagement was made to identify material issues
To identify and prioritise material topics Alinta Energy engaged with its stakeholders through, among others, a stakeholder materiality survey, customer surveys, meetings and ombudsman investigations, employee engagement surveys, and meetings with customers, suppliers, owners and lenders.
What actions were taken by Alinta Energy to create economic value for its stakeholders?
In its 2020/21 Sustainability Report Alinta Energy reports that it took the following actions for creating economic value for its stakeholders:
- Creating economic value for employees
- In FY21, Alinta Energy paid $ 113 million for employee salaries, wages and benefits.
- Creating economic value for suppliers and contractors
- In FY21, Alinta Energy paid $ 2,652 million to suppliers and contractors.
- Creating economic value for the government/public
- In FY21, Alinta Energy paid $ 37 million in income tax.
- Creating economic value for lenders
- In FY21, Alinta Energy paid $ 51 million to lenders.
Which GRI Standards and corresponding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been addressed?
The GRI Standard addressed in this case is: Disclosure 201-1 Direct economic value generated and distributed
Disclosure 201-1 Direct economic value generated and distributed corresponds to:
- Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
- Targets: 8.1, 8.2
- Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
- Targets: 9.1, 9.4, 9.5
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References:
This case study is based on published information by Alinta Energy, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original please revert to the following link:
https://www.alintaenergy.com.au/nsw/about-alinta-energy/sustainability/
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