CEZ Group 2021 Sustainability Report
CEZ reduced emissions, water consumption and waste production last year.
CEZ Group continues in the trend of building a more sustainable energy sector: the company has reduced the volume of emissions, water consumption in production, energy intensity of its operations, and waste production. It has also made significant progress in the construction of charging stations for e-mobility and the supply of modern energy solutions for households and businesses. CEZ Group 2021 Sustainability Report maps in detail over 200 indicators in various areas. For the first time, it includes the classification of activities according to the EU taxonomy and selected activities have been audited.
The Sustainability Report of CEZ Group, issued today, gives a detailed overview of the steps taken and the resulting figures in the areas of environmental protection, social and employee issues, respect for human rights and the fight against corruption. In three main chapters - Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) - it covers over 200 different indicators according to international metrics from recognised global institutions such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) or the World Economic Forum (WEF). At the same time, the report shows their development over time, which allows us to monitor the progress of CEZ in meeting its goals from the Vision 2030 - Clean Energy of Tomorrow strategy.
"The Sustainability Report is a key basis for rating agencies to assess our progress in ESG areas, so we have given it the utmost attention and care. We have a clear vision of what we want to achieve by 2030 and we want to be transparent about how we are progressing. That is why we decided to have selected parameters verified by an external company this year," says Kateřina Bohuslavová, Chief Sustainability Officer of CEZ Group.
The published data for 2021 show that CEZ is successfully continuing in its decarbonization trend: it has reduced green-house gas emissions in all three categories defined by the GHG Protocol standards: CEZ reduced Scope 1 emissions by 19 % year-on-year, Scope 2 emissions by 57 % and Scope 3 emissions by more than 6 million tonnes. The total emission intensity per unit of electricity and heat produced dropped by 13 %.
Significant reductions have also been achieved in other monitored emissions: SOx (-45 %), NOx (-26 %) and particulate matter (-37 %). CEZ also succeeded in reducing waste production, water consumption and energy consumption. In addition to the implementation of several investment and innovation measures, the development was positively influenced by the optimisation of the production portfolio. Furthermore, the company has also made progress in the areas Social (e. g. in reduction of the number of workplace accidents) and Governance (e. g. meeting international standards for information and cyber security, obtaining the international Anti-Corruption Management System certificate).
Thanks to these steps CEZ Group has managed to achieve significant success in the ESG area over the past year: In the rating of the global analytical and investment company MSCI, it rose by two levels to AA, reaching the top one-third of the 137 energy companies rated by the agency. CEZ has also improved in the US financial company S&P Global rating, which generates ESG scores for 8,000 companies worldwide, moving up to the top 30 % of companies in the energy sector. And thirdly, CEZ was the first Czech company to obtain official validation for its climate targets from the expert organization SBTi.
This year's report also classifies CEZ Group's activities according to the EU taxonomy for the first time. For now, it focuses on two of the six environmental objectives of the taxonomy, namely climate change mitigation and adaptation. The company has also launched a new website dedicated to the topic of sustainability in English, where the CEZ Group 2021 Sustainability Report can be downloaded and where all the necessary data, documents and news can be found in one place.