Our approach to community investment is driven by need and outcomes, and reflects the values of the communities in which we operate. We use frameworks that provide us with a consistent focus, process and reporting system to help us evaluate the investments we make. We aim to demonstrate Enbridge’s commitment to: being a good corporate citizen; creating long-term sustainable benefits; supporting local initiatives that build relationship; mitigating project and operational impacts; responding to communities’ concerns; supporting employee engagement; and strengthening quality of life in the communities where we live and work.
We focus our community investments in three core areas:
We look for opportunities for our employees to get involved in community programs and strengthen their relationships with our stakeholders by working together to build shared value with our communities. To encourage employee volunteerism, Enbridge’s Our Community Partners and Helping Hands in Action programs support the organizations that are important to our employees and for which they volunteer.
In 2017, following the merger with Spectra Energy, we began a review of all community investment focus areas and programs to determine their fit with our new business objectives. We began harmonization of our enterprise community investment strategy and program in 2017 and we expect to complete that process in 2018.
Our community investments with both Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities occur at the corporate, project and operating level. While all community investment reported is included in this section, specific information on our project community investment is included in the Stakeholder Engagement section of this report; and for our Indigenous investments, please see the Indigenous Engagement section of this report.
Our approach to community investment is governed by our Board of Directors and by our Community Investment and Employee Engagement Policy. Our Board of Directors reviews and approves our annual community investment donation and sponsorship budgets, and all investments must comply with our Statement on Business Conduct.
We practice standardized reporting and tracking in alignment with London Benchmarking Group (LBG) Canada and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), and with our internal systems. We also use an Enterprise Community Investment Decision Making Tool that provides us with consistent evaluation criteria.
To guide our ongoing relationships with communities and organizations near our projects and operations, we have Community Investment Plans that are responsive to the changing needs of our communities. In 2017, we expanded development of detailed Community Investment plans within our Regional Engagement, Indigenous Engagement and Project Engagement plans. In 2018, we will continue rolling out Community Investment Plans to the whole company.