Biodiversity and Ecosystems

Alpiq owns and operates production facilities that have a significant footprint on the territory in natural environments worthy of protection. Therefore, Alpiq has put measures in place to create, preserve or revitalise essential habitats for animals and plants, including financial support for many environmental revitalisation and improvement programmes. The company ensures the quality, reproducibility and sustainability of its processes in this regard by adhering to the standards issued by the International Organisation for Standardisation, including ISO 14001 (environmental management system).

Furthermore, Alpiq conducted a materiality assessment of potential impacts using the ENCORE (Exploring Natural Capital Opportunities, Risk and Exposure) framework to identify the company’s dependencies and pressures on nature. The assessment confirms that the generation of electricity via Alpiq’s production portfolio notably has very strong interdependencies with climate regulation, water resources and use, terrestrial / freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity as well as having the potential to provide flood and storm protection. These considerations are being integrated in Alpiq’s Group-level biodiversity policy, which is currently under development to harmonise principles and objectives.

Ultimately, (EIAs), including the impact on biodiversity, are a key part of all Alpiq projects and play an important role in driving strategic choices.

In order to identify material IROs, Alpiq conducted a DMA as described under ESRS 2 SBM-3 48.

For the assessment of biodiversity and ecosystems-related IROs, internal experts reviewed business activities in Alpiq’s own operations as well as in the upstream and downstream value chain and came up with a qualitative assessment of the (potential) impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems.

The DMA identified a material positive impact on biodiversity. By contributing to electrification, negative impacts on bio­diversity and nature can be reduced in different sectors.

Furthermore, the DMA identified several material negative impacts on biodiversity. Alpiq builds, owns and operates production facilities whose location is strongly influenced by the natural resources used. The location of these facilities, particularly those using renewable energy, leads to construction in areas occupied by natural environments worthy of protection. In some cases, hydropower plants and wind turbines are located in areas with significant biodiversity value. Also, the building of new power plants or production facilities has a negative impact on the environment, e.g. the territorial footprint of the construction, resulting in soil loss and thus a loss of surface area usable by flora and fauna, as well as changes to the soil of this surface area. In addition, energy production and transportation facilities, as well as construction work, generate negative emissions, including air pollutants, noise, light and electromagnetic fields, which have various effects on fauna.

Further details are available in the DMA tables in the chapter Material Sustainability Matters.

Alpiq manages the construction and operation of production sites proactively in order to minimise their impact and promote the existing biodiversity. This includes the collaboration with different interest groups and the implementation of remediation, renaturation and compensation measures for Alpiq’s deve­lopment projects and for the watercourses on which the company operates. Environmental expertise is also developed internally to improve the overall environmental quality of projects. An environmental assessment, including nature and biodiversity, is a key par of all Alpiq projects and plays an important role in driving the company’s strategic choices, event at an early stage.

For hydropower plants, the impacts of water withdrawals vary from case to case. In the case of Switzerland, the impact on watercourses has been assessed in accordance with the Federal Water Protection Act. For all the facilities managed by Alpiq, remediation measures are identified and implemented. The remediation measures include the construction of specific measures to allow fish migration (fish ladder, bypass channel), sediment evacuation and management, residual flow management and re-naturalisation. Finding a good balance between energy production and nature protection is a complex process, managed in close collaboration with all stakeholders

In addition, Alpiq has been involved in the following initiatives to promote biodiversity:

• The Alpiq Eco Fund, financed through the energy produced and sold by the Alpiq Ruppoldingen hydropower plant, has been supporting environmental projects since 2010.
• The realisation of various projects to develop sustainable tourism in the region of the nature park “Vallée du Trient”, where it operates various hydropower plants.
• Cooperation with Swiss universities and universities of applied sciences to ensure a science-based approach that takes political and social aspects into account and leads to successful measures in the long run.
• Engagement with the public to promote the preservation of delicate ecosystems. The aim is to foster a harmonic interplay between human activities and ecosystems and ensure the sustainability of environmental compensation measures.

To give some concrete examples, in June 2024, Alpiq conducted an event during which primary school pupils uprooted invasive pants, with the aim of raising awareness among the younger generation of the importance of preserving local biodiversity and playing an active part in protecting the environment. The 17 pupils from Salvan primary school who participated in the event were accom­panied by a biologist and learnt about local invasive plants and the dangers they pose to biodiversity. The collaboration with Salvan primary school started in 2022 as a compensation measure for the Nant de Drance power plant. This is just one of the 14 environmental measures implemented as compensation for the construction of Nant de Drance. The total investment for these compensation measures amounts to CHF 22 million.

Another measure that has been particularly successful is the renaturation of the Canal de la Lantze in Vernayaz in the canton of Valais. It has created favourable conditions for seasonal spawning by fish, and different plant species characteristic of temporarily flooded environments have recolonised the newly created riverbanks. The new habitats have also attracted some wildlife, including a family of castors (a protected species in Switzerland).