Governance and Business Ethics
At Con Edison we recognized the need for strong corporate values. Through the years, one of the most important lessons we have learned is that having a strong financial foundation and operational excellence are only part of what it takes to continue a company’s success. We firmly believe that doing business in an open, ethical, and fair manner creates business success that benefits all our stakeholders — our investors, our customers, and our employees.
Governance for EH&S
The Environment, Health, and Safety Committee of the Board of Directors governs Con Edison’s overall EH&S programs. Since its inception in 1995, this committee has met four times per year to review the status of Con Edison’s EH&S efforts. Typically, Con Edison’s chairman, utility presidents, general counsel, and EH&S vice president participate in these meetings.
The vice president of EH&S is responsible for developing programs to ensure compliance, and to work toward EH&S excellence. In addition, corporate EH&S supports the operating departments responsible for maintaining day-to-day compliance with standards. The EH&S vice president reports directly to Con Edison of New York’s president.
Throughout 2013, the EH&S vice president headed an EH&S Leadership Team to oversee and implement the company’s strategic plan. The team consists of EH&S managers from operating departments, and representatives from the Law Department, Purchasing, Occupational Health, Human Resources, Auditing, and Corporate EH&S. This team contributes to development of strategic and annual goals that help drive Con Edison of New York and Orange and Rockland toward EH&S excellence.
The EH&S vice president and appropriate EH&S leaders meet monthly with Con Edison’s chairman and the president of Con Edison of New York to review the status of major EH&S projects and issues.
As a part of senior management’s commitment to EH&S excellence, the following strategic independent oversight functions have been established.
- Office of the Corporate Ombudsman – provides employees with an independent office to which they can confidentially refer suspected violations of Con Edison’s Code of Conduct, including EH&S requirements, or ethical and legal concerns. The ombudsman and the deputy ombudsman have the authority to either investigate these matters or refer them to appropriate authorities within the company.
- Environment and Safety Review Board– consists of outside consultants who are independent attorneys. The board reports to the chairman on components of EH&S programs and the status of efforts to attain EH&S excellence.
- Equal Employment Opportunity Affairs (EEOA) - The Company's EEO Policy is to provide equal employment opportunity without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, gender, age, national origin, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, citizenship, eligible veteran status, disability, or any other status protected by law. Employment decisions must be non-discriminatory, and working environments must be free of discrimination or harassment. The Company is committed to promote diversity in the workplace and maintain a culture of respect, dignity, and inclusiveness. In order to ensure implementation of this EEO Policy, the Company maintains an Equal Employment Opportunity Affairs (EEOA) office that accepts and investigates, through the Director of EEOA and his or her staff, complaints of violations of the EEO Policy and implement appropriate actions for violations.
Business Ethics
Strong business ethics are a core value for Con Edison. Company departments are responsible for conducting ethics training for weekly personnel. Our corporate Code of Conduct is based on our corporate values: service, honesty, concern, courtesy, excellence, and teamwork. We have developed six principles for managing our work and maintaining our corporate values. Known as “The Way We Work” these principles include:
- Plan the Work and Work the Plan – We plan all activities, track progress, monitor results, and implement lessons learned. Continuous improvement is the goal, helping us maintain high standards for productivity, quality, environmental protection, and safety.
- Seek and Accept Responsibility – Our personnel are not afraid to take initiative, to suggest and implement improvements. Our corporate culture empowers us to admit and learn from mistakes, focusing on solving problems rather than laying blame.
- Communicate Openly – Our culture is open. We have regular meetings with management and union staff. We share information among our operating areas and with our shareholders and customers freely.
- Work in Teams – Con Edison fosters teamwork by respecting the skills, knowledge, and experience of all our employees. We value a strong management-union relationship. We encourage diversity.
- Improve Continuously – We strive to increase our efficiency and effectiveness every day. All employees are free to ask questions, to look for ways to improve our work. Just as we maintain and upgrade our hard assets, we offer training to our workforce over the entire length of their careers to ensure that our employees have the knowledge and experience to do their jobs.
- Celebrate Success – We believe that success breeds success. We provide quick and positive feedback to all employees, recognizing individual milestones and achievements.
However, the company had been shaken by the criminal actions of employees in the past. In 2009, 14 construction employees were indicted for accepting kickbacks. During 2010, a former purchasing manager pleaded guilty to receiving more than $800,000 in bribes, and a section manager in was arrested for receiving $4 million in kickbacks from a contractor.
The company worked diligently to establish whether these incidents were isolated or whether they were systemic and suggestive of both a breakdown of the company’s controls and an erosion of its culture of ethical conduct. It retained compliance consultants to exhaustively review all aspects of this issue. Even a single incident of this kind tarnishes every employee in the company, and such conduct must be purged from the work place.
In 2012, Con Edison appointed a vice president to serve as Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer at the head of a Business Ethics and Compliance group. Beginning with the fourth quarter of 2012, and every quarter since, the group has mounted a focused communications campaign with quarterly themes keyed to real-world ethics issues that may affect employees. In addition, the group distributed an up-to-date hard-copy edition of Con Edison’s Standards of Business Conduct to all employees. All employees are also required to complete an online Ethics Training curriculum at regular intervals.
The Business Ethics and Compliance group maintains an intranet site that provides a central reference resource on ethics and the company’s standards of business conduct. The group also provides individual guidance on matters of ethics and integrity for any employee requesting help.
Adherence to our Code of Conduct is a condition of employment for all of our employees. We do not tolerate violations of law or corporate policy. We encourage our employees to discuss any and all issues with their supervisors, and provide several ways for employees to confidentially report serious concerns.
For more information on the company’s commitment to ethical behavior with suppliers, please see our Standards of Business Conduct and Avoiding Collusion section of this report.