A Discussion with
Pat Daniel, President and CEO
This is Enbridge's second Corporate Social Responsibility Report. What does this report mean to you?
 Our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report is one of the most
important and transparent ways our company has of communicating
how we live our core CSR values in our daily business activities and
how we demonstrate our commitment to these values through our
growth plans. These core values include integrity, accountability,
innovation and flexibility, value creation and social responsibility, and
are values our company has developed over time. Our company and
staff believe in these values. And I believe this commitment is reflected
in our performance and in this report.
From this report, our stakeholders will see we are serious about CSR. It is central to how
we do business. We are straightforward and open about our CSR performance. This is in direct
response to the growing expectations of our stakeholders.
How does the company's CSR approach fit with your business plans? In one sense, the different elements of CSR have always been part
of our risk management processes for new and existing businesses.
We may not have referred to these as CSR but the environment,
landowners and local communities have always been important
considerations for our company. But by formalizing our CSR policies
and practices, as we've done over the last few years, we're taking an
integrated approach to CSR. This approach helps to ensure that
issues like the environment, safety, governance and human rights are
addressed upfront in our business plans and practices.
The net result is we're improving the viability of our business. Our CSR approach makes us
a desired partner with industry, regulators and the communities in which we operate. It helps to
ease the burden of regulatory review and approval for our projects. It makes it a lot easier for us to
work with landowners and our other stakeholders, wherever we operate. And when we speak out
on policy issues, our commitment to CSR helps to put weight behind our words.
How do you feel about Enbridge's CSR performance in 2004? Certainly 2004 was a very good year on almost all fronts. On the
environmental side, we continued to lower our greenhouse gas
impacts. Last year, for example, the greenhouse emission intensity of
our Canadian operations (our emissions per unit of throughput on
our systems) improved by about 23% compared to our performance in
1990. That's significant, especially when you consider that during the
same period we delivered about 28% more product on our Canadian
energy transportation and distribution systems.
In our operations, our health and safety numbers show that we continued to do an excellent
job of protecting the health and safety of our employees and the public. And we were recognized
by Corporate Knights Magazine as one of Canada's 50 best corporate citizens for the second
year in a row.
Finally, we are especially proud that Enbridge has been named one of the world's 100 most
sustainable organizations. This is according to a new global business ranking unveiled earlier this
year at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. That was a great accomplishment for
our company and a testimony to the dedication of our employees who are helping Enbridge to
lead the way on CSR.
What areas left room for improvement? I think the first area is the improvement of safety, where we did not
reach our goal of zero safety incidents. We managed to reduce our
overall employee safety incidents from 2003 to 2004, but there is still
room for improvement, especially on vehicle safety, where we've seen
an increase in incidents over the last several years.
Another area where we need to strive for constant improvements
is pipeline integrity. Despite the large volume of crude oil and liquids
that is delivered on our system, leaks are relatively rare. But even
though we have a very strong record on pipeline safety, we have to continue to improve our performance.
Because a zero per cent failure rate is our objective. Last year, we created a new system
integrity department in Liquids Pipelines and intensified efforts in other parts of the company to
increase our overall focus on pipeline integrity and safety.
What are Enbridge's challenges to carrying out CSR? Our greatest challenge will continue to be sustaining and improving
our track record on CSR. Being an industry leader isn't just measured
by what we've done. It's also measured by demonstrating constant
improvements in CSR performance year after year. This is particularly
important when it comes to safety. If we take our eyes off the ball with
regard to safety and the imperative to continually improve, our safety
record will suffer. And we can't allow that. We must avoid complacency
at all levels of our organization.
Next, we need to continue to stay ahead of changing stakeholder expectations for environmental
and social performance. The standards that society is judging us by are going up and up. The
challenge is to consistently evaluate and monitor what is important to stakeholders and how their
issues and concerns affect our business operations and goals. This will be especially important as
we carry out effective stakeholder consultation programs to support our growth plans in northern
Canada and the southern United States.
What do you see as your role in promoting CSR at Enbridge? The culture of a company is really a reflection to a large extent of
senior management and the Board of Directors and what we do and
say. As a senior executive, I try to emphasize our CSR approach in
the way our corporate leadership team sets corporate objectives and
strategies, reviews projects or ensures the company participates in
public activities. I also regularly share my vision of CSR and how it
ties to our business, whenever I can, through internal newsletters,
employee annual meetings and local "face-to-face sessions" with
employees. I also believe it's very important to set a personal example by getting involved in
the community as a volunteer.
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