VELCO Environmental Sustainability Policy
Our vision of environmental sustainability
VELCO is an environmental sustainability leader. Environmental stewardship, sustainability, and intergenerational responsibility are core company values that are driven by our employees and supported by our stakeholders. We create healthy and sustainable environments at work, in our communities, and throughout Vermont, while maintaining the highest electric transmission reliability standards. Environmental stewardship is embodied in the Company’s culture by protecting and enhancing the environment in traditional and innovative ways for all of our work, and seeking partnerships that extend these values in all of the areas we touch.
Our environmental sustainability objectives
As VELCO strives to be a Trusted Partner serving the public good, we are committed to setting and achieving measurable sustainability goals. We will:
- Advance our culture of environmental stewardship.
- Lead as environmental and sustainability stewards.
- Educate ourselves and our stakeholders about environmental stewardship and sustainability.
- Reduce waste generation, energy consumption, greenhouse gas outputs, and use of toxic substances through company and individual practices.
- Inform our decision-making with environmental sustainability criteria.
- Promote native biodiversity, natural communities, and sustainable land management.
Our environmental sustainability commitments
We lead through environmental compliance
- We comply with all applicable environmental laws and regulations.
- We actively pursue opportunities to lead environmental stewardship efforts and to promote innovative compliance approaches and best practices above and beyond minimum requirements.
We plan for environmental sustainability
- Environmental impacts and benefits receive significant weight in our operational, engineering, procurement, and construction decisions.
- Environmental stewardship and sustainability principles receive significant weight in the assessment, maintenance, and management of our lands and rights of way.
We embrace a culture of environmental advocacy
- We support and incorporate principles of sustainability into our projects and services.
- We give preference to vendors and contractors that share our environmental values.
- We actively promote and support educational opportunities for our employees and stakeholders that support our environmental vision.
- We collaborate with each other, our stakeholders, and our communities to innovate new practices and habits that continuously strengthen our environmental stewardship culture.
We hold ourselves accountable
- We monitor how we live up to our environmental commitments using recognized professional standards and assess this Policy and our commitments annually to ensure their relevance and value.
- We share our successes, misses, and lessons learned with the VELCO community, and seek input on future sustainability opportunities.
- We empower our employees to hold each of us and the company accountable to the commitments in this policy, and to promote and support our environmental stewardship efforts in our communities and beyond.