RTE was involved in developing the "Act4Nature" initiative, enabling it to further support biodiversity in conjunction with 64 other companies. This longstanding initiative relies on constant efforts to understand and interact with all those parties who share these natural environments: forestry workers, farmers, hunters, environmental protection groups, nature reserve professionals, etc.
The fight against climate change is the other major strand of RTE’s policy. The company is taking measures to further adapt and strengthen its grid by facilitating the integration of renewables and electric vehicles. The company is fully aligned with the country’s transition towards a low-carbon economy through the use, since 2018, of an internal carbon pricing system for its grid-development decisions. RTE is also keen to reduce its own industrial footprint by tackling its main greenhouse-gas-emitting substations (SF6 gas used as an insulator within the electricity sector, power losses, workforce mobility, etc.). In total, these measures helped to reduce its emissions by 20% over the period of 2014 to 2018.
Fully aware of the complexity of these environmental challenges, RTE is extending its efforts by embarking on a challenging and integrated eco-design programme. The company is educating its workforce and is providing the tools required for the environment to be systematically considered when making decisions, as is the case with technical and economic considerations. RTE is innovating in this area with the intention of developing biomimetics in support of life; a side-step in order to provide systemic and regenerative solutions to the complexity of today’s and tomorrow’s challenges.
RTE’s commitments as a socially responsible business also apply to its employees, its suppliers and to all its partners. The company has decided to place its workers at the heart of these socially and environmentally responsible commitments by setting up a "Care" department.