ESG Commitment

Annual State of Safety 2024

Environmental, Social and Governance Commitment

As a purpose driven organization, our environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting provides an overview of our priorities to help improve the safety system by creating a more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable future.

Using elements of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework, we regularly monitor, measure, adjust, and report on our efforts to address the most significant risks and opportunities impacting the safety system in British Columbia.

Reconciliation is consciously positioned as a lens to our ESG work out of recognition for the unique rights and standing of Indigenous Peoples in Canada. Our reconciliation work is committed to honouring the priorities of Indigenous people and communities, which cannot be appropriately captured or reflected under the ESG reporting standards currently available. These reporting standards were not developed in partnership with Indigenous Peoples or with consideration for Indigenous issues and contexts. By embedding reconciliation as a lens, we ensure that Indigenous rights and contexts are considered within our ESG commitments.

Our ESG Commitments

Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility

Climate Action and Sustainability

Indigenous Reconciliation and Partnerships

Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility

Our Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) strategy is designed to ensure that our people and programs reflect the population we serve, embracing and encouraging different perspectives, while addressing bias. We know we are made stronger by a unique combination of culture, race, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, physical or mental ability, geography, socio-economic status, and work-life situations.

Making impactful and sustainable change in IDEA initiatives requires a long-term view with ongoing progression. Last year, we updated our plan to encapsulate this recognizing that meaningful change can take time and requires short term milestones to monitor progress and adoption.

Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility Plan

1. Long-Term Goal

A workforce that reflects the population of BC, including Indigenous Peoples, enabling Technical Safety BC to better provide safety oversight for all people living in BC.

 
2024 Progress

Implemented preliminary steps to understand employee demographics to increase inclusion for all employees:

  • By gathering voluntary employee data on our diversity profile, we are measuring our progress towards being an equitable, diverse, and inclusive workplace and employer.
  • Using this data, we continue to design and implement a number of initiatives to strengthen our diversity and ensure we reflect the population of BC.

 
 

2. Long-Term Goal

Employees (and/or consultants) with expertise in IDEA and decolonial methodologies participate in product and services development assuring language inclusion and accessibility for persons with disabilities is considered.

 
2024 Progress

As part of our Accessibility Plan, we implemented priority accessibility upgrades at our Renfrew office including:

  • Automatic push-to-open doors
  • Fully accessible washroom
  • Seven accessible parking spots
  • Updated Health and Safety Emergency plans to include persons with limited mobility
  • Provided training to Floor Wardens and First Aid attendants on working with persons with disabilities in emergency situations

 
 

3. Long-Term Goal

Through knowledge of equity and with tools to remove discrimination, bias, and colonial thinking, employees enable expansion of the safety system’s reach to include underserved communities, resulting in reduced safety risk in those communities.

 
2024 Progress

Delivered IDEA training and education to Technical Safety BC employees, in alignment with our reconciliation training strategy:

  • Made Indigenous Awareness and Respect in the Workplace courses required learning for all employees.
  • Made over 16 IDEA and Reconciliation courses available and accessible to all employees in the employee Learning Centre.
  • Launched the Leadership Academy, an internal Leadership program designed to support leader growth in critical leadership and interpersonal skill areas.
  • Leaders are encouraged to start gatherings and meetings with a personalized land acknowledgement. This was modeled in leaders' meetings and Town Halls with all employees.
  • Optional Lunch & Learn trainings offered on:
    • Orange Shirt Day
    • Avoiding Job Burnout
    • Anti-Oppression
  • Incorporated cross-cultural holidays and events into our organizational celebrations including Diwali, Lunar New Year, Asian Heritage month, and Accessibility Week.
 
 

4. Long-Term Goal

The organization has made and communicated a policy on the use of inclusive language on race and ethnicity, gender, gender identity, and gender expression, sexual orientation, disability, and other dimensions.

 
2024 Progress

Updated employee onboarding to reflect IDEA best practices and to ensure new employees understand the organization’s commitment to IDEA and Indigenous reconciliation. This includes:

  • Indigenous Awareness course
  • Respect in the Workplace course
  • Climate Action course
  • Information on ESG
  • Information on accessibility

Climate Action and Sustainability

 

Through our climate action work, we seek to proactively manage safety risks by understanding how climate events like wildfires, heat waves, and extreme cold snaps affect the technical systems we regulate. We also support CleanBC’s decarbonization strategy by enabling the safe adoption of low-carbon technologies. We do this work in partnership with Indigenous communities, utilizing both Western-Eurocentric and Indigenous knowledge systems, and we seek to integrate equitable access to safety into our solutions to improve the wellbeing of everyone.

To continue this work, in 2024, we refocused our goals on climate safety and made the following progress:

 

1. Long-Term Goal

Prevent safety incidents and hazards related to climate change for the technical systems and equipment we regulate.

 
2024 Progress

Worked alongside partner organizations to share safety findings from the climate hazard inventory with the public, and used climate hazard inventory findings to inform safety oversight activities:

  • Shared climate hazard inventory findings at the New Horizons in Civil Engineering Conference and the BC Assembly of First Nations and First Nations Housing and Infrastructure Council’s Housing and Homelessness Forum.
  • Included climate safety information in our fall carbon monoxide campaign.
  • Launched campaign for air conditioner unit distributors to share safety information and recommend customers purchase a carbon monoxide detector.
  • Began work with our gas technical team to develop snow depth consideration for air intake and exhaust outlet installations in gas code.
  • Developed two new partnership opportunities to extend the reach of our safety system - one is a partnership with BC Housing, BC Hydro, and the University of Victoria, and the other is with the Fraser Basin Council.
  • Launched internal climate action learning module for all employees to support identification and management of climate risks.
 
 

2. Long-Term Goal

Prevent disproportionate technical risks and negative impacts of climate change on Indigenous communities and other underserved communities and groups and add value by connecting these groups to the safety system.

 
2024 Progress

Continued our collaborative Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions-funded project and explored potential to identify current reach of safety oversight to build resiliency in remote, rural, and Indigenous communities:

  • Developed and shared a Fire Resilience Guidebook for communities.
  • Supported research on carbon monoxide risk treatment in remote communities.
  • Engaged with First Nations and learned that communities want specific safety information for low-carbon and resilient technologies, relationship building with youth and elders, and clear and specific recommendations for safety.
  • Limited progress made on identifying current reach of safety oversight in rural, remote, and Indigenous communities.
 
 

3. Long-Term Goal

Contribute to Provincial greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction strategy through enabling safe adoption of low-carbon technologies.

 
2024 Progress

Continued to increase understanding of safety risks from low carbon technologies and improve management of these risks through education and partnerships.

In 2024, our total GHG emissions increased slightly, primarily due to fleet-related activities. As operations expanded, our fleet usage increased, leading to higher emissions despite ongoing efforts to enhance fuel efficiency and transition our fleet to low emission vehicles.

Due to ongoing efficiency improvements and space optimization efforts over the past five years, GHG emissions from our facilities continued to trend downward.

By streamlining building operations and leveraging efficient energy management strategies, we have increased the percentage of renewable energy use.


2019 (Baseline) -tCO2e

2023 - tCO2e

2024 - tCO2e

Fleet

768

589

640

Facilities

76

62

47

Total

844

651

687

Facilities %
Renewable 1

79%

73%

79%

Overall %
Renewable 2

7%

7%

5%

1 The percentage of renewables for facilities represents the proportion of facility energy consumption sourced from renewable sources, such as hydroelectricity.
2 The overall percentage of renewables accounts for both fleet and facility energy usage.

Indigenous Reconciliation and Partnerships

We strive to coordinate our Environmental, Social, and Governance commitment with our reconciliation approach as we co-develop meaningful and respectful relationship-built programs and initiatives in partnership with Indigenous people, organizations, and Nations.

In 2024, we continued to take action towards meaningful reconciliation by focusing on:

  • increasing our organization’s internal and external accountability to reconciliation;
  • deepening our understanding of safety equity by looking at the connections between our safety system and Indigenous people and communities; and
  • increasing internal awareness of reconciliation and Indigenous cultures and issues.

...there are several opportunities every year for employees and leaders to look at their own work through the lens of reconciliation, to create goals and development plans that align with our reconciliation approach...

Increasing Accountability

To take meaningful action toward reconciliation, we need to make significant changes to who we are as an organization both internally and in the way we interact with Indigenous people and communities. In 2024, we introduced specific reconciliation-focused competencies within our internal performance evaluation process. These competencies outline what it looks like to contribute meaningfully to reconciliation for all employees and leaders across the organization. This means that there are several opportunities every year for employees and leaders to look at their own work through the lens of reconciliation, to create goals and development plans that align with our reconciliation approach, and for employees and leaders to be evaluated on their ability to understand and drive reconciliation in their areas.

We also collaborated with teams across the organization to successfully advocate for the consideration of safety equity and our commitment to reconciliation in the business plan for 2025. Five Indigenous post-secondary students were awarded Technical Safety BC-funded bursaries in 2024. Three students received $4,000 each through our partnership with the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology, and two students received $2,000 each through our partnership with the New Relationship Trust.

Understanding Safety Equity

In 2024, we examined our role in safety equity by working internally and with partners to better understand the connections between our safety system and Indigenous Nations. Through the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions-funded collaborative project, we learned first-hand about the safety needs and priorities of some First Nations, particularly in the context of a changing climate. We also embarked on a data visualization project to help us glean insights from our internal data about the technical safety-related issues experienced by Indigenous communities and those communities’ relationships to Technical Safety BC. These projects continue in 2025 and will inform our organization’s path as we work towards increasing access to safety equity across the province.

...we learned first-hand about the safety needs and priorities of some First Nations, particularly in the context of a changing climate.

Increasing Cultural Safety

The Indigenous Relations Employee Resource Group (ERG) is responsible for creating, planning, and implementing communications and events to increase employees’ awareness and understanding of reconciliation and Indigenous cultures.

In 2024, the ERG organized 11 well-attended in-person and virtual events, including guest speakers, film screenings, and employee participation in the Tears to Hope relay, which brings awareness to the ongoing national crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. The ERG also organized a very well-received and impactful initiative for Red Dress Day, where red dresses and accompanying information were displayed for two weeks at seven of our regional offices.

Call to Action 92 calls on the corporate sector to, amongst other things, provide education for management and staff on the history of Indigenous Peoples and issues experienced by Indigenous people and communities. In alignment with this Call to Action, we continued to require all new employees to complete a baseline Indigenous Awareness training course, and offered several other learning opportunities throughout the year, including two sessions to senior leadership.

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