AMEA Power has played a significant in this year’s IJGlobal ESG Awards, but this trophy is to recognise the developer for its activity in developing market, with one judge saying: “AMEA has extended its responsibility beyond an IPP and has really done great work for the community.”

Having already been recognised for its stellar achievements with Amunet Wind Farm and Abydos Solar PV Plant in Egypt, AMEA is being recognised with this ESG award for its broader corporate achievements.

AMEA Power has an ESG policy in place across a number of pillars, key among these being its approach to the environment.

The developer states: “Preservation of and respect for the environment are the basic pillars of sustainable development including climate change mitigation, and as such are evident in the company’s compliance with ISO14001:2015 and best environmental practices in all its activities.”

On the social sustainability front, it states: “We seek to align social collaboration with our business activities, through sustainable medium and long-term projects where it is present, reinforcing the trust between the company and the societies in which it operates and increasing its positive contributions to respect human rights and freedoms recognised by the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights as underpinned by the SDGs, UNCG, and the ILO.”

And on the staffing front: “Our goal is to build an organisational culture around our core values – passion, respect, integrity and professionalism – and inject them into our business and conduct our operations to international best practice standards.”

As a result of the projects AMEA has implemented in low-to-middle income markets in Africa and the Middle East, it has achieved change:

• gender equality – 30% increase in female employees in 2022 compared to 2021
• HSSE – almost 500,000 working hours with no fatalities or lost-time injuries (LTI) during 2022
• climate – 246,000 tonnes of annual GHG emissions avoided in 2022
• corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement – 50 initiatives across projects conducted in 2022
• stakeholder engagement – more than 55% increase in stakeholder activities in 2022 compared to 2021

The submission states: “AMEA Power recognises that the protection of labour rights and the respect to human rights are basic to societal progress. As a such, AMEA Power operates by ensuring fair and transparent working practices and promoting ethical and responsible behaviour within the organisation and beyond.

“One of the principles of our People Policy is training and development. We provide training and development for employees to meet the needs and objectives of the team and the company through induction, role-based performance, career development, personal development, and growth opportunities.

“This Policy is critical to ensure that our employees have the correct skills and knowledge to implement our ESG strategies.

“During the year 2022, we partnered with IFC to build the capacity of our social employees, spread across the different projects on stakeholder engagement and strategic community investment.

“The training has been managed and executed by the IFC Infrastructure and Natural Resources Department’s Sustainable Infrastructure Advisory (SIA) unit, drawing on decades of IFC experience working with top tier companies around the globe.

“The training leveraged on both theory and practical tools to help the company enhance its internal capacity and improve its on-the-ground practice.”

The AMEA way

AMEA Power has been particularly active in recent years and one of these achievements that does not appear in the IJGlobal ESG Awards suite for this year is the Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Power Plant in Togo that was developed from inception to operation in 18 months.

The 50MW solar PV IPP project is the first utility-scale renewable project in Togo and AMEA Technical Services – a subsidiary of AMEA Power – acted as EPC and is currently responsible for the O&M of the facility.

The third phase of the project is currently under construction and will expand the plant’s capacity to 70MW with 4MWh of energy storage.

AMEA formed a partnership with the local community and put in place several social activities, developed in consultation with the community near its Blitta PV Plant to implement ESG programmes:

• construction of 3 primary schools (Blitta, Tomegbe and Kokonade) and renovate 4 primary schools (Blitta Centre, Carrefour, Finade and Tchangaide), providing furniture and educational equipment
• construction of a maternity clinic and provision of medical equipment
• free electrification of 7 primary schools via solar power
• reforestation initiative with more than 5,000 trees planted at the time of submission
• distributed essential food and hygiene products to 2,200 families, as a response to the Covid-19 restrictions and lockdown in Togo
• borehole drilling for water and installation of water pump at local primary school
• internship programme for 36 students from Lomé Technical University

According to the AMEA Power submission: “We attribute the success of AMEA Power to the passion and commitment of its people, who work tirelessly to deliver the vision of the company.

“AMEA Power has gained an advantage over other players in the market by being knowledgeable about how to operate in difficult environments and challenging geographies, critical to the green transition, including dealing with environmental, financial, legal, and safety issues.

“Our core competence is to manage all these issues together, finding new investment opportunities, and making sure renewable energy projects can be built and financed.

“What sets us apart from other players is our commitment to partnerships; whereby we partner with policymakers, communities, financial institutions, and suppliers, as well as with utilities which enables us to successfully execute our ESG policies.

“Our strong commitment to develop and operate all of our assets in line with IFC Performance Standards and the Equator Principles is embedded in the key pillars of our strategy.

“We develop an environmental and social impact assessment and action plan for each project, which is carefully monitored by us and our partners.

“We have been a member of the UN Global Compact since 2021, which reinforces our global commitment to responsible business conduct in four areas: labour conditions, human rights, the environment, and anti-corruption.”