Opportunities
Copel is a company committed to sustainable development and the generation of shared value. The Company adopts the main market practices and compares its performance with global and national references.
In 2021, it created the Statutory Sustainable Development Committee with the purpose of assisting the Board of Directors (CAD) in proposing guidelines, policies and main topics related to people management and ASG dimensions (environmental, social and governance), besides publicly assuming important commitments with sustainability:
- Variable remuneration linked to socio-environmental goals;
- Carbon Neutrality Plan with science-based goals; and
- Adherence to TCFD – Task Force On Climate Related Disclosures.
Copel is prepared to meet the demands of an investor market that prioritizes companies committed to ESG issues and, therefore, invests in more sustainable business opportunities.
Copel, through integrated risk management, seeks to reduce negative environmental impacts and maximize positive impacts through the use of technology and prospecting for opportunities.
The Company conducts environmental studies for transmission projects, identifying the least impacting route, avoiding protected areas and using technologies such as the launching of cables by drones, which avoid the need for suppression of vegetation to open access to the forests. In the generation of energy it has been looking for new energy sources such as wind and solar.
In the distribution business, it implements compact networks so that the lines interfere as little as possible in forest cover, as well as maintaining the Urban Forests Program, which aims to harmonize networks and vegetation in cities, providing seedlings of smaller native species for the city halls carry out the afforestation of roads and squares.
In addition, it has advanced in distributed generation, which makes it possible to make better use of resources and increase operational efficiency, since it reduces energy losses and the response time of eventual disconnections.
Social Dimension
Copel, based on its public commitment to promote economic growth with sustainability, invests in an integrated and transparent management, aligning market processes and trends with the expectations and needs of its stakeholders.
The integrated risk management model adopted by Copel seeks, in addition to enhancing the positive social impacts, to reduce to the maximum, the negative social impacts, anticipating mitigating measures whenever necessary.
Several actions and programs developed by the company are demonstrations of how it turns risks into opportunities in favor of social causes, implying in quality due to the population. The Cultivar Energia Corporate Program, for example, developed in partnership with municipal governments, demonstrates the balance sought by Copel in sustainable development through an integrated management of risks and opportunities.
The Program enables the implementation of community gardens in properties under power generation and distribution lines, acting preventively in the incidence of irregular occupations and risk to the population, providing the improvement of the urban space, the encouragement of food security and the possibility generating income for the community.
Considering that the impacts of its business can change the social dynamics of a community, Copel bases its initiatives on the generation of shared value, respecting the expectations of its stakeholders and investing in new technologies to guarantee clean and accessible energy.
Governance Dimension
Copel understands that Corporate Governance is a differential applied to the company’s management, which provides more transparency, efficiency, minimizes strategic, operational and financial risks and contributes to the company’s longevity.
Aligned with the principles of governance and sustainability, Copel adopts the best market practices, being considered a prominent company. As a result, the Company recently approved a wide-ranging reform of its bylaws, with emphasis on the following improvements in governance: 50% increase in the members elected by minority shareholders in the Board of Directors (from 2 to 3), inclusion of an external member in the Committee Statutory Audit Committee.
In addition, three new statutory committees were created, as follows: a Minority Committee, responsible for analyzing matters that alter the rights of minority shareholders; a Sustainable Development Committee, responsible for advising the Board of Directors (CAD) on matters related to people management and issues related to ESG dimensions; and an Investment and Innovation Committee, with the participation of a member of the CAD elected by minority shareholders, to deal with matters related to the Company’s investment plan, as well as issues inherent to innovation.
In addition, a specific clause has been included in the Bylaws that guarantees the maintenance of the device that assigns to CAD the obligation to pass on the tariff readjustments approved by the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel), making it mandatory to call a specific meeting of preferred shareholders in case change the device in question.
As an additional opportunity, the migration to B3’s Level 2 Governance was also approved, subject to the success of a secondary public offering of shares issued by the Company and held by the controlling shareholder.
Economic Pillar
Since 2022, Copel has had a Green Financing Framework focused on power generation and transmission businesses. Revised in 2024 to expand its scope to include hydroelectric plants, the document is aligned with the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) green bond principles.
The update received a Second Party Opinion (SPO) from Exame Ltda., through its attestESG segment, which recognized the environmental benefits of the Framework.
It is worth noting that an amount equivalent to the resources raised from the contracting of green debts based on the proposal will be used exclusively to finance, refinance and/or reimburse the activities of construction, installation, retrofitting, acquisition, including granting and maintenance of wind, solar or hydraulic renewable energy projects, transmission and substations resulting from these projects.
The allocation of resources from the 8th Debenture Issue and 9th Debenture Issue of Copel GeT, which took place in 2023 and 2024, respectively, were allocated to the acquisition of the Aventura, SRMN and Jandaíra complexes (2023), as well as to the renewal of the concessions of the Foz do Areia, Segredo and Salto Caxias Plants (2024) – the three hydroelectric plants have energy efficiency coefficients (Reservoir Area in relation to Installed Generation Capacity) that meet the eligibility criteria of the Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI).
Environmental Dimension