07 Our internal social value creation

We are Gasunie, a leading European gas transmission operator that has been serving the public interest since the 1960s. In performing our social duties, we want our business operations to have a minimal negative impact on the environment and a maximum positive impact on the people who work for us and with us. We want to be an attractive employer, which is why we attach great importance to offering a good employment package and a working environment that is geared to increasing focus, performance, meaningful work, job satisfaction and safety. The following section is devoted to this pursuit of long-term internal social value creation.

Related material topics:
No. 6 Environmental impact of our own organisation, products and services
No. 11 Wellbeing, training and development
No. 12 Diversity and inclusion
No. 13 Employee health and safety

Related SDGs:
5

Relevant stakeholders:
Employees
Local residents
Suppliers

In 2021, some of the internal social value we created included:

• CSR/ESG strategy: we set measurable targets and achieved the first results  
• Safe working environment: 1.8 injuries per million hours worked (required: no more than 2.7)
• Gender balance: 25% women in senior management positions
• Healthy working environment: 4.0% sickness absence (required: less than 4.1%)
• Training budget per employee (individual and group): € 1,660
• Demonstrably circular material resource purchases: 2.75%
• 18% of our large sites contribute to ecological diversity
• 3.2% cut in CO₂ emissions in our natural gas transmission*

By making major strategic investments in new energy infrastructures over this decade, we will eventually be able to create significant external social value. However, we as Gasunie can help future-proof the world through our day-to-day business operations too. This we call ‘internal social value creation’.

In 2020, we identified nine different areas in which we can make our day-to-day operations greener and more social, in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In 2021, we set concrete targets (KPIs) for these nine ‘Gasunie Green Deals’.

All Gasunie Green Deals run until 2030 and will have, except for one, at least one interim assessment. From 2021 we will report on the progress we are making on our website. In the coming years, we will regularly evaluate whether the Gasunie Green Deals and the KPIs are feasible and sufficiently ambitious. We present the Gasunie Green Deals and their KPIs below.

SDG 7-9-13

• Ambition for 2023: award 10% of our construction project budget to contractors with verifiable emission reduction measures
• Ambition for 2030: award 50% of our construction project budget to contractors with verifiable emission reduction measures

SDG 13-8-12  

• Ambition for 2023: 20% (by weight) of material resources purchased is demonstrably circular
• Ambition for 2030: 50% (by weight) of material resources purchased is demonstrably circular

SDG 7-9-13    

• Ambition for 2023: decision taken for the construction of 22% of the hydrogen backbone
• Ambition for 2030: hydrogen backbone fully completed, with 83% reuse of existing pipelines

SDG 17-8-12  

• Ambition for 2023: 50% of our suppliers are OECD/UNGP compliant
• Ambition for 2030: 80% of our suppliers are OECD/UNGP compliant
• Ambition for 2023: CSR risk scan on all procurement contracts; taking mitigating measures in response to signals in the supply chain; being affiliated with three independent monitoring organisations
• Ambition for 2023: 40 people with poor job prospects working for Gasunie
• Ambition for 2030: 60 people with poor job prospects working for Gasunie

SDG 5-8 

• Ambition for 2023: at least 30% of people in our senior management are women.
• Ambition for 2030: at least 30% of people in our senior management are women.

SDG 15

• Ambition for 2023: 30% of our large sites contribute to biodiversity
• Ambition for 2030: 100% of our large sites contribute to biodiversity

SDG 7-9-13

• Ambition for 2023: 2.4% energy reduction compared to base year 2020
• Ambition for 2030: 8.0% energy reduction compared to base year 2020

SDG 7-13        

• Ambition for 2023: 20% of our electricity purchases come from North Sea wind farms, the rest via wind energy GOs
• Ambition for 2024: 40% of our electricity purchases come from North Sea wind farms, the rest via wind energy GOs
• Ambition for 2027: 75% of our electricity purchases come from North Sea wind farms, the rest via wind energy GOs

SDG 7-9-13-17-11      

• Ambition for 2030: 49% lower CH₄ emissions compared to 2020
• Ambition for 2030: 30% lower CO₂ emissions compared to 2020*

Gasunie employs approximately 2,000 people (FTEs), including temporary staff. They are the driving force behind the economic and social value we create. We recognise the importance of being a good employer and make every effort to be an attractive employer.

Our vision on Human Resources

Gasunie’s progressive sickness absence rate is now 3.79, higher than last year, but lower than in the years before COVID-19. Sickness absence at Gasunie is low compared to figures recorded by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) for peer organisations. In the Netherlands, we are responsible for paying employees’ wages and for supporting them during the first two years of illness. In Germany, this period is six weeks. Our Gasunie goal is a sick leave rate that does not exceed 4.1%.

Our goal in terms of Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) is to make sure that everyone working on our infrastructure and in our offices can do their work safely and without being exposed to risks that could impact their long-term health. In this same context, it is equally important that people and animals can continue to live safely near our infrastructure and that the environment is protected.

Gasunie strives for a safety culture characterised by a high degree of social safety, a proactive culture in which employees can raise potential risks and discuss these openly. This is the only way to prevent incidents before they occur. Such a culture also means that people feel safe in sharing information about dangerous situations and incidents; this allows us to learn together and prevent similar instances from reoccurring.

Moreover, when accidents, incidents and dangerous situations are reported, we determine which measures need to be taken to prevent such incidents from happening in the future. We foster learning by distributing and discussing Learning Incident bulletins and events at peer companies. This helps to enhance awareness and support for implementing improvement measures.

At Gasunie we do not accept any form of inappropriate behaviour, whether this concerns sexual harassment, bullying, discrimination, ignoring a person, verbal abuse or physical violence. Responsibility for inappropriate behaviour lies with the person who crosses the boundary of appropriate behaviour and not with the person who is a victim of that behaviour. This means that each individual employee is responsible for ensuring they never act inappropriately in their interactions with the people they work with.

We want to perform our duties and activities as well as possible in order to create as much positive economic and social value as possible. There are, however, dilemmas that affect how we want to work. In the following, we have detailed some of these dilemmas. 

Our dilemma: Virtually all networks that Gasunie currently operates, whether regulated or not, are open for use by all market parties on equal terms. This is called open, non-discriminatory access. So we give equal treatment to all customers and customer groups while keeping the barrier to entry to our infrastructure as low as possible. In the coming years, we will build a new infrastructure for the transmission and storage of hydrogen in the Netherlands, and perhaps also in northern Germany. These networks may soon be managed by subsidiaries of Gasunie. The question is, however, will they also be providing access in an open and non-discriminatory manner?

This question is relevant because the Dutch government has given us a grant of € 750 million to develop our hydrogen backbone in the Netherlands. The reason the government is making this commitment is because it views the backbone as a driver of the energy transition. The green and blue hydrogen that will soon be flowing through the pipelines will provide customers with a low-emission or even zero-emission alternative to natural gas. But what does this mean for producers and consumers of grey hydrogen?

Our response: Once the hydrogen backbone is ready, there will likely not be sufficient green hydrogen being produced to meet the full demand for hydrogen, meaning blue and grey hydrogen will be needed in the initial phase. The question is, however, once a sufficient supply of sustainably produced hydrogen is available, is it fair to allow hydrogen that has not been produced sustainably to be used under the same conditions in a network that is intended to facilitate the energy transition? Given this situation, in a future role as hydrogen network operator, Gasunie will have to be cautious when it comes to accommodating grey hydrogen in the grid. This is contrary to our principle of open, non-discriminatory access, and our existing customers may not be happy about this either. Together with the government, the regulatory authority and industry, we will have to devise a good framework for providing access for different ‘colours’ of hydrogen to the grid, both initially before the grid is regulated, and afterwards when it is.  

Our dilemma: Gasunie Transport Services ensures that its pipelines are in compliance with the legal and regulatory provisions at all times, including the Dutch External Safety of Pipelines Decree [Besluit externe veiligheid Transportleidingen, BevB]. From the 1960s, when we started laying our gas pipelines, we agreed with the municipality (often acting in a dual role as landowner and owner of the municipal gas company) that our pipelines would be buried at least 85cm underground on their lands. When laying pipes in agricultural land, we gave an undertaking to the owners, promising that our pipes would always be buried at least 60cm deep. We did this so that the risk of damaging the pipeline would be kept to a minimum and farmers could continue to work their land without any problems. Thanks to the ‘KLIC’ reporting system of the Dutch Cables and Pipelines Information Centre and other measures, there is less chance of damage to pipelines than in the past. We adhere strictly to the External Safety of Pipelines Decree; this ensures that the risk posed to the local community by gas pipelines remains within the legal limits. At the same time, we note that we do not in all cases meet the standards of 85cm and 60cm set in the 1960s. Correcting these ‘soil cover shortfalls’ costs approximately € 350 million, costs that we should be passing on in full to GTS’s customers and so indirectly to the end users. 

Our response: In 2021 we established a new policy for these situations. In places where we are not compliant with the private-law agreements, we enter into discussions with the landowners. In some cases, we agree with the landowner that they will not farm the plot, possibly just temporarily, in exchange for compensation. We also proactively approach excavation contractors who submit a KLIC report for a plot with a soil cover shortage to make agreements about the planned excavation work. If necessary because of the risk, we take extra measures, such as installing protective plates at ditch crossings. With this approach, we continue to keep the risks of excavation damage and transport interruptions within the accepted bandwidths, we remain compliant with the law (External Safety of Pipelines Decree), and the costs GTS has to pass on in the tariffs are considerably lower. Owners of land with a soil cover shortfall can oblige GTS to bury the pipes to the required depth, but we only expect this to happen sporadically. We estimate the costs of the new policy will be € 4 million in 2022 and 2023 and € 0.6 million annually thereafter.

Our dilemma: Between now and 2030, Gasunie will exert itself to its fullest to reduce the carbon emissions we cause through our own operations. In the coming years, for example, we will replace our gas-driven compressors with electric compressors and we will tighten up our measures to prevent methane leaks. At the same time, we expect our own carbon emissions to increase in the coming years. Because natural gas is replacing coal in the generation of electricity, we are continuing to transport a lot of gas. Furthermore, we are converting ever increasing volumes of high-calorific gas into low-calorific gas, a process in which our installations in Wieringerwerf (from 2019) and Zuidbroek (from 2022) add nitrogen to the natural gas. The production and blending of nitrogen causes carbon emissions. 

Our response: The addition of nitrogen is necessary to ensure that sufficient quantities of low-calorific gas, i.e. natural gas of Groningen quality, are available for Dutch end users. If Gasunie were not to do this, either the Groningen field could not be closed or else all end users would have to have their gas installations converted, a measure that Groningen gas customers in Belgium and Germany are being forced to take. In the Netherlands, the government and the energy sector have decided that, due to the large numbers of customers, society will continue to be offered low-calorific gas until the energy transition is complete. The fact that Gasunie’s own emissions will be higher as a result is something that we as a company must accept in the public interest and must continue to explain clearly to our stakeholders.