BRUCE POWER'S
Biodiversity Policy
Biodiversity refers to all the different kinds of life in one area—the variety of animals, plants, fungi, and even microorganisms like bacteria that make up our natural world. Biodiversity is essential for a healthy ecosystem and supports all life on Earth, including humans.
The protection, conservation and restoration of biodiversity and the important functions that it provides is vital to supporting a healthy planet and human well-being. Business activities can contribute to biodiversity loss and negative pressures on ecosystems including land and freshwater use, overexploitation, pollution, climate change and the introduction of invasive, non-native species.
Bruce Power is located on the shores of Lake Huron in the Saugeen Ojibway Nation Territory and the unique Huron Fringe coastal environment on one of the world’s largest sources of fresh water. Our 930-hectare site is home to a naturally diverse environment that contains a wide variety of plant and wildlife species. Bruce Power recognizes the direct and indirect impacts and dependence on our surrounding natural environment in our daily operations and in our supply chain. It is both our responsibility as corporate citizens and essential to our business that we act as a steward of the environment, and we take action to mitigate the impacts of our operations on biodiversity and to support initiatives that protect and enhance natural habitats and ecosystems.
Bruce Power’s Biodiversity Policy is an extension of our Environment & Sustainability Policy and outlines a commitment to the protection of biodiversity on and off site through the following actions and initiatives.
You can count on Bruce Power to:
- Continue to carry out environmental monitoring on and around the site through Bruce Power’s Environmental Protection Program which ensures operational impacts are being monitored and assessed and allows for continual risk and opportunity-based decision making.
- Work across the organization to integrate the protection and restoration of biodiversity into our business strategies, operations, and processes.
- Ensure employees have resources on humane and effective management of wildlife on site.
- Provide resources to on-site projects during the design stage to provide guidance on incorporating items into project scopes related to minimizing impact on natural areas, habitats, and wildlife; optimizing soil management; and avoiding the creation of unnatural habitats.
- Maintain our internal target related to the protection of high-quality habitat on site or ensure the protection of an equivalent amount of habitat off site if further on-site development is required.
- Continue routine engagement with local Indigenous Nations and Communities, and integrating a two-eyed seeing approach to increase confidence in collective environmental decision making, as well as identify opportunities to collaborate on ecosystem monitoring, conservation, and enhancement initiatives.
- Work in collaboration with non-governmental organizations and Indigenous communities on invasive species management.
- Work in collaboration with non-governmental organizations and Indigenous communities to help protect the health of Lake Huron and the watershed our site operates within.
- Support community projects related to environmental conservation, monitoring, and stewardship through Bruce Power’s Environment & Sustainability Fund.
- Provide routine internal communications to increase awareness and education on our business’s reliance on, and impacts to, biodiversity.
James Scongack, Chief Operating Officer and EVP, Bruce Power
