Canadian Solar Publishes 2021 Corporate Sustainability Report

GUELPH, ON, July 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Canadian Solar Inc. ("Canadian Solar" or "the Company") (NASDAQ: CSIQ) announced today the release of its 2021 Sustainability Report, which highlights the Company's progress in advancing its sustainability strategy from an environmental, social, and governance (ESG) perspective.

The sustainability disclosures in this report are aligned with global standards, namely those set by the TCFD (Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures), SASB (Sustainability Accounting Standards Board), and GRI (Global Reporting Initiative). The full Sustainability Report is available here. 

Highlights

Environmental

• In 2021, Canadian Solar achieved reductions in its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, energy intensity, water intensity, and waste intensity of 17%, 18%, 53%, and 36%, respectively, from its 2017 baselines.
• Canadian Solar updated its 5-year rolling targets, aiming to achieve GHG emission, energy intensity, water intensity, and waste intensity reductions of 30%, 33%, 44% and 33%, respectively, from 2021 levels by 2026.
• Canadian Solar remains on track to powering all its global operations with 100% renewable energy before 2030.

Social

• Canadian Solar updated its 5-year diversity goals. By 2026, Canadian Solar aims to increase female employees' representation in its global workforce from 36% to 40%, their representation in middle management from 25% to 30%, and their representation in senior management from 8% to 10%. It also plans to increase the share of its employees with special needs to 1-2% (from 0.8% in 2021).
• Certified under ISO14001 environmental and ISO45001 occupational health and safety management systems, Canadian Solar's recordable injury rate in 2021 was 0.68 case per million working hours, its lowest rate in the past 5 years.
• Canadian Solar University launched new courses covering key business functions. This career training program aims to help employees gain a broader understanding of the Company and the solar industry, drive innovation, and more effective collaboration.
• Committing to a responsible supply chain, Canadian Solar integrates ESG into its supply chain management strategy by requiring all suppliers to sign the Supplier Code of Conduct and conducting Supplier ESG audits. The Company further affirmed its commitment by establishing an interdepartmental Anti-Modern Slavery Task Force aiming to ensure that modern slavery does not take place anywhere in its business, including its supply chain.

Governance

• Canadian Solar's Board of Directors ("the Board") continuously makes efforts to improve the diversity of the Board. The Company's Corporate Governance Guidelines and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee Charter were modified in 2021 to incorporate the Board's commitments to diversity.
• The Board passed a resolution in May 2022 mandating a third-party assessment, at reasonable cost, on the extent to which Canadian Solar's policies and procedures effectively protect against forced labor in its operations, supply chains, and business relationships.

Ms. Hanbing Zhang, Chief Sustainability Officer, said, "We are proud of the progress made towards our sustainability goals over the past few years. In 2021, we applied more stringent and more holistic standards to our environmental metrics; we made efforts to further enhance equity, diversity and inclusion of the Company and took initiatives to manage a responsible supply chain. We recognize that continued success requires continued vigilance and look forward to further engaging with our stakeholders and making further improvements."

Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and CEO, commented, "We are pleased to publish our 2021 Sustainability Report. As part of the green energy revolution, Canadian Solar is committed to contributing to global decarbonization goals by delivering clean, affordable, and reliable solar energy while reducing the environmental impact from our operations. Our commitments to environmental sustainability, human rights, and positive social impacts represent both our efforts to safeguard our shared future and our dedication to building long-term value for all our stakeholders."

About Canadian Solar Inc.
Canadian Solar was founded in 2001 in Canada and is one of the world's largest solar technology and renewable energy companies. It is a leading manufacturer of solar photovoltaic modules, provider of solar energy and battery storage solutions, and developer of utility-scale solar power and battery storage projects with a geographically diversified pipeline in various stages of development. Over the past 20 years, Canadian Solar has successfully delivered around 71 GW of premium-quality, solar photovoltaic modules to customers across the world. Likewise, since entering the project development business in 2010, Canadian Solar has developed, built and connected over 6.6 GWp in over 20 countries across the world. Currently, the Company has around 800 MWp of solar projects in operation, 5.3 GWp of projects under construction or in backlog (late-stage), and an additional 18.5 GWp of projects in pipeline (mid- to early-stage). Canadian Solar is one of the most bankable companies in the solar and renewable energy industry, having been publicly listed on the NASDAQ since 2006. For additional information about the Company, follow Canadian Solar on LinkedIn or visit www.canadiansolar.com.

Safe Harbor/Forward-Looking Statements 
Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. These statements are made under the "Safe Harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by such terms as "believes," "expects," "anticipates," "intends," "estimates," the negative of these terms, or other comparable terminology. Factors that could cause actual results to differ include general business, regulatory and economic conditions and the state of the solar and battery storage market and industry; geopolitical tensions and conflicts, including impasses, sanctions and export controls; volatility, uncertainty, delays and disruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic; supply chain disruptions; governmental support for the deployment of solar power; future available supplies of high-purity silicon; demand for end-use products by consumers and inventory levels of such products in the supply chain; changes in demand from significant customers; changes in demand from major markets, such as Japan, the U.S., China, Brazil and India; changes in effective tax rates; changes in customer order patterns; changes in product mix; changes in corporate responsibility, especially environmental, social and governance ("ESG") requirements; capacity utilization; level of competition; pricing pressure and declines in or failure to timely adjust average selling prices; delays in new product introduction; delays in utility-scale project approval process; delays in utility-scale project construction; delays in the completion of project sales; continued success in technological innovations and delivery of products with the features that customers demand; shortage in supply of materials or capacity requirements; availability of financing; exchange and inflation rate fluctuations; uncertainties related to the CSI Solar carve-out listing; litigation and other risks as described in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its annual report on Form 20-F filed on April 28, 2022. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee future results, level of activity, performance, or achievements. Investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. All information provided in this press release is as of today's date, unless otherwise stated, and Canadian Solar undertakes no duty to update such information, except as required under applicable law.

Canadian Solar Inc. Investor Relations Contacts
Isabel Zhang
Investor Relations
Canadian Solar Inc.
investor@canadiansolar.com

David Pasquale
Global IR Partners
Tel: +1-914-337-8801
csiq@globalirpartners.com

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/canadian-solar-publishes-2021-corporate-sustainability-report-301588059.html

SOURCE Canadian Solar Inc.