Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance

EnerCap was founded to invest in environmentally and socially responsible energy projects, minimising our impact on climate change through emissions reduction and energy efficiency. We recognise that the impacts and influences of our business activities are wide-ranging and these in turn can affect a wide range of stakeholders. EnerCap is a signatory of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI) and we therefore aim to follow the principles of Responsible Investment and to integrate Environmental, Socio-Economic and Governance (ESG) good practice into our projects and companies. These principles provide a voluntary framework by which all investors can incorporate ESG issues into their decision-making and ownership practices and so better align their objectives with those of society at large. These principles and guidelines serve as valuable platforms for formalizing and focusing our responsible investment efforts, raising internal awareness, and providing a common language and set of expectations for our investment partners, our portfolio company management teams, and other stakeholders.

At EnerCap we are committed to working alongside our stakeholders and partners to ensure the environmental, social and governance considerations of our project companies are integrated within their development, construction and operations. Management of these principals should not be an ad hoc consideration, but integrated into business as usual and key to delivering long-term, responsible, sustainable projects and companies. All our projects adhere to a number of external standards including “Equator Principles” for financing and “IFC Guidelines for Wind” where relevant.

EnerCap has adopted a four pillar approach to inform our own decision making processes, and provide an ESG framework for our portfolio companies to ensure that projects are developed, commissioned and operate in a responsible manner.

• Environment – minimising and managing environmental impacts
• Community – community engagement at all times
• Business Ethics – adopt and operate only at the highest ethical standards
• Governance – operate at the highest standards of corporate governance

These pillars form the basis of our expectations of our portfolio companies; however they are likely to vary in relevance across our sectors and the markets in which they operate. We therefore apply these on a case-by-case basis to ensure we are managing key material ESG risks and opportunities.

Environment – managing and minimising environmental impacts

Good environmental management is fundamental to our business, important to all our stakeholders and investors, and is core to acting as a responsible investor/developer/operator. Managing and minimising environmental impacts is central to our approach and we challenge ourselves to minimise environmental impacts at all stages of to developing, constructing and operate.

We actively promote environmental stewardship with our suppliers and contractors. Compliance with the appropriate regulatory framework is an essential requirement and we ensure all our portfolio companies/projects have the appropriate monitoring systems in place to meet all current regulatory requirements.

Above these compliance requirements, we believe there are many opportunities to deliver additional value through ongoing improvements to environmental management, especially focusing on energy management and resource efficiency.

Community - community engagement at all times

Our projects and portfolio companies rely on the positive support from the communities within which they operate. Affirmative community engagement is often essential to success and ongoing engagement brings a range of business benefits including recruitment, enhanced reputation and security.

Early in any project development we will engage with the local community seeking to minimise any direct community impacts of the projects. In addition many of our projects or portfolio companies sponsor wider community initiatives.

Wherever possible we will work with our suppliers and contractors to ensure the minimum impacts on the local community, and wherever practicable, provide commercial opportunities to local companies.

Many of our portfolio companies maintain on-going community engagement providing, for example, educational tours for school children, or charitable donations to local institutions.

Business Ethics – adopt and operate only at the highest ethical standards

We expect honest and transparent business dealings. We expect our portfolio companies, suppliers and contractors to:

• Ensure and maintain high standards of business integrity at all times;
• Have clear anti-corruption and anti-bribery policies, supported by appropriate levels of compliance monitoring; and
• Monitor risks associated with suppliers’ work and labour practices (i.e. no use of child labour, working conditions, wages and discrimination). At the very least we would expect portfolio companies to meet industry practice in people management and ensure the health and safety of all employees.

Governance – operate at the highest standards of corporate governance

Good governance is crucial and is central to the performance of our projects and portfolio companies. We assure that companies have regular, well-managed board meetings. That they undertake regular strategic planning, and target operational improvements that will drive increased revenues, minimise waste and enhance shareholder value.

We expect our portfolio companies to ensure that responsibility for ESG related matters is designated to an individual with suitable authority and that ESG matters are considered at board level on a regular basis