Environmental Management Systems

We manage our environmental risks through an Environmental Management System (EMS) that meets the ISO 14001 international standard. An EMS is a set of tools and processes that allows a company to better manage environmental aspects of its business and improve performance. It’s an important way for a company to identify its environmental impacts, set goals to manage them, and plan how to meet and improve upon their goals.

Contractor Program & Audit

We expect external contractors who work with our company understand our environmental practices and risks and environmental policy sets the environmental expectations and the framework for our operations.

Contractor Program

We expect external contractors who work with our company understand our environmental practices and risks and environmental policy sets the environmental expectations and the framework for our operations.

As part of our Environmental Management System (EMS), we expect external contractors who work with our company understand our environmental practices and risks.

It’s vital that contractors and suppliers understand our commitment to the environment and to adhere to our standards - it’s what our customers and our stakeholders expect. Contractors and suppliers are required to comply with applicable environmental laws and regulations and to adhere to best management practices wherever appropriate.

We encourage, but don’t require, that contractors or suppliers explore opportunities to develop ISO 14001 equivalency with their environmental management systems.

When contractors work with our company, we communicate the environmental requirements and expectations that are specific to the project they are working on and provide a Contractor Environmental Requirements Handbook.

Any environmental incidents involving contractors are tracked in our database just as we track incidents involving our employees.
Audit Program
NSPI Environmental Policy
Under our EMS, we have a formal environmental audit program that reviews how well we comply with the criteria set out in our EMS as well as with our regulatory requirements. As part of the audit process, all operating areas within our company are visited on a regular cycle every three years and our Environmental Management Systems within our Power Delivery and Power Generation divisions are reviewed yearly.

The results of our Environmental Management System audits are reported to our Senior Leadership Team and Board of Directors, and acted upon appropriately. Auditors who complete this work on behalf of Nova Scotia Power are certified by the Canadian Environmental Certification Approvals Board (CECAB).

Although not formally part of the audit program, our employees regularly inspect facilities and infrastructure to identify potential issues and take appropriate action.

Our environmental policy sets the environmental expectations and the framework for our operations. 

INCIDENT TRACKING

We record any incidents occurring in our daily business that could have an impact on the environment in our incident tracking and ranking system. We also use this system to track safety-related issues.

We place incidents into four categories, designating it as either minor, moderate, or significant depending on what takes place. The fourth category deals with close calls, where an incident may have not had an actual impact on the environment but still warrants review. We track incidents to identify risks, gaps or weakness in our Environmental Management System, to learn from problems and to adjust our actions to prevent any recurrences. Even incidents that may not be serious on their own can represent trends that we can address before any problems arise.

The top two levels of incidents are reported to our Leadership Team and Board of Directors every quarter and all incidents are reported on an annual basis.

These top two levels of incidents are also reported to government and action is taken to clean up, when required, and prevent a recurrence. All incidents that do occur are rectified and action is taken to prevent the same thing from happening again.

Air Emissions Reporting

View the past several years of air emissions from our power plants.

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