Guide to this report
Guide to this report
Gasunie plays an important role in facilitating the energy transition. Alongside natural gas, in the coming years we will be handling the transmission and transport of hydrogen, green gas, CO2 and heat. In this transformation from transmission system operator to energy infrastructure company, we need to carefully consider how we can strike the right balance between social returns, environmental returns and financial returns. And, in this way, contribute to creating broad prosperity for the Netherlands.
This integrated approach is also increasingly reflected in our annual reporting. We provide insight into our financial results while also increasingly calling attention to our non-financial results. We are supported in this by the new reporting requirements in the form of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and by our stakeholders who, in addition to the recurring topics, have identified a number of new material topics. This year we are taking an extra step and publishing, for the first time, an impact report.
Material topics
Material topics are the topics that our stakeholders feel we should report on in our annual report. From 2024, reporting on the material topics will be a CSRD requirement. Gasunie carries out a materiality assessment every other year (in the odd-numbered years). For the 2023 annual report, we identified our material topics using the double materiality principle, as prescribed by the CSRD. This means that we considered the relevance of our sustainability topics from two perspectives:
- Impact Materiality: the impact that Gasunie has on people and the environment (the inside-out perspective)
- Financial Materiality: the risks and opportunities that various developments and events (ESG and other factors) create for Gasunie (the outside-in perspective)
Results of the materiality assessment
| Topic | Definition |
|---|---|
| Energy transition | Accelerating the transition to a sustainable energy supply. With our infrastructure and knowledge, we want to enable our users to make the switch to zero-emission energy. |
| Security of energy supply | Ensuring a reliable supply of energy by managing physical and IT risks in order to protect our infrastructure. |
| Emissions | Limiting the environmental impact of our processes, products and services by reducing GHG emissions (Scope 1 and 2, and upstream Scope 3) and nitrogen deposition. |
| Circular economy | Limiting the environmental impact of our processes, products and services by applying circular economy principles. Our primary focus is on steel, which is the main source of both input and waste in our company. |
| Employee wellbeing | Promoting employee wellbeing by ensuring long-term health and fitness and a good work-life balance. |
| Relationship with local communities | Protecting the economic and social interests of local communities by minimising our negative impacts and creating positive impacts. |
| Biodiversity | Limiting the impact of our facilities and infrastructure on biodiversity by protecting, restoring and promoting life on land and below water while carrying out our activities. |
| Employee health and safety | Creating a safe and healthy working environment for employees, contractors, subcontractors and direct suppliers. |
| Training and development | Promoting training and development and advancing equal opportunities to participate. |
| Diversity, inclusion and equality | Creating a safe working culture and ensuring equal opportunities for our employees, subcontractors and direct suppliers, regardless of age, sex, gender identity, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, nationality or any other characteristic. |
| Responsible business conduct | Promoting responsible business practices through transparent, fair and responsible business operations and by adhering to ethical and sustainable practices. |
The six material topics that scored highest in the stakeholder materiality assessment are each given a dedicated section in this annual report, while the other five topics are covered in a combined section and in the Governance section. An explanation of the materiality assessment is provided in the appendix to this annual report.
Impact report
Gasunie has a broad influence on society. Ensuring safe, reliable, sustainable and affordable gas infrastructure has a major positive impact on society, providing prosperity and wellbeing. There are, however, also negative impacts: we ‘extract value’ in terms of making use of people and resources (who or that could possibly have been used for other purposes), for example, and we contribute to global warming. We have a responsibility to reduce our negative impact and increase our positive impact, a responsibility we gladly accept.
To do this, we need to have a good understanding of the influence Gasunie has, of the impact we make. We do this through impact measurement. Measuring our impact* enables us to place a monetary value on this, gain better insight into our impact and help us focus on this. Measuring and managing impacts is a learning process. Gasunie has been working on compiling an impact report since 2022. In the meantime, we have drawn up a framework for this and measured various impacts, and this year we will be publishing results in an impact report for the first time. In the coming years, we want to measure and report on an increasing number of impacts so that we will be increasingly better able to compare our impact report with those of other TSOs/companies.
* Many of the major infrastructure companies in the Netherlands are working on measuring, reporting on and managing their impacts. Gasunie recognises the importance of working on this as a sector and is, therefore, a member of the Verbond voor Brede Welvaart (alliance for broad prosperity) and the Sectorsamenwerking Brede Welvaart (industry partnership to promote broad prosperity). We have also carried out an initial impact measurement on biodiversity in collaboration with infrastructure companies.
Our impact report comprises six sections: in addition to financial capital, there is a section each for manufactured, intellectual, natural, social & relationship and human capital. To gain a better understanding of the relative materiality of the impacts, we express the value in euros. We use the Handboek Impactmeting Infrabedrijven (guide to measuring impact for infrastructure companies) as a basis for this assessment. We distinguish between positive and negative impacts.
We have put some of these impacts (where these fit in with Gasunie’s strategy) into quantitative terms. We ultimately chose the positive impact of the value of energy, the positive and negative impacts on climate change, and the negative impact on employees arising from accidents and work-related long-term sick leave. For the other, non-quantified impacts we state whether they are positive or negative. Guiding Gasunie towards achieving positive impact on the various capitals also contributes to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Connectivity
In the annual report we report extensively on the material topics. The connectivity between the material topics, our CRS strategy topics, the Gasunie Green Deals and the 2023 targets and results are shown in the connectivity table.
Reporting policy
The financial, operational and social information included in this annual report has been prepared on the basis of the:
- International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), as adopted by the European Union
- Dutch Corporate Governance Code 2022
- GRI Standards reporting guidelines (2021)
- EU Taxonomy Regulation and delegated acts
- EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) 2023
- Relevant provisions of the Dutch Civil Code
CSRD
The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive was adopted by the European Commission at the end of 2022. From the 2024 financial year, Gasunie will report on the impact of our activities on people and the environment. This report will also be part of the external auditor’s audit engagement. We started preparing for the implementation of CSRD reporting in 2023 so that we would be ready to report on the 2024 financial year in accordance with the CSRD.
Consolidation
In this report we report on the results of Gasunie and its subsidiaries over the 2023 financial year, which ended on 31 December 2023. Note 62 ‘List of group companies and participating interests’ contains a list of all the group companies included in the consolidation. In both financial and impact reporting, in the case of acquisitions and disposals we take into account the date of acquisition or divestment. For more information regarding consolidation, we refer the reader to the ‘Consolidation principles’ included in the financial statements.
Due to differences in laws and regulations, the Netherlands and Germany do not always record information on matters like safety, health, the environment and employment conditions in the same way. Whenever possible, information from the Netherlands and Germany has been combined; where this is not reasonably possible, this is presented separately. We also do this where we feel displaying this information separately allows a better understanding.
Verification and publication
The annual report is prepared by the Executive Board and the financial statements it contains are audited by an external auditor. After taking note of the external auditor’s opinion and the advice from the Audit Committee, the Supervisory Board advises the General Meeting of Shareholders to adopt the financial statements without amendment. This annual report was published on 1 March 2024.
The external auditor also assesses the sustainability information included in the annual report. We have this sustainability information assessed because it is important to us that the user of this report be provided with at least ‘limited assurance’ regarding this information. In general, the sustainability information included in sections 1 to 10 and in Additional Information (with the exception of the following sub-sections of Additional information: Governance, Composition of the Executive Board, Composition of the Supervisory Board, EU Taxonomy, and Risk management in general) is in scope in the external auditor’s review engagement.
The independent auditor’s Audit Opinion and Assurance Report is provided in the ‘Other information’ section of the annual report.
Core & more concept
When drawing up the annual report we applied the core & more concept: the management report has been kept as concise as possible (‘core’) and where possible we have moved the more detailed information to the Additional information (‘more’) section.
The following sections of this annual report comprise the management report: sections 1 to 11; section 12 Governance, with the exception of the Report from the Supervisory Board and the Remuneration Report; and Additional Information, with the exception of the Report of the Works Council and the Composition of the Supervisory Board.