Today’s 2013 TransCanada CSR Report Material Area in Focus: Ensuring our Assets are Safe and Reliable

On June 6, 2013 TransCanada Corporation officially released our 2013 Corporate Social Responsibility Report. The 2013 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report was released during Canadian Environment Week as a testament to our commitment to operating in an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable manner, while recognizing the interests of our stakeholders.

Our 2013 CSR Report is focused on 10 areas of key importance to both us and to our stakeholders. These areas of key importance were identified using TransCanada’s materiality process and our report highlights our successes and challenges in these areas. Check our TransCanada 2013 CSR Report campaign for FMRs on each of our 10 material areas of focus.

Today we are highlighting Ensuring our Assets are Safe and Reliable.

TransCanada's record for the safety and reliability of its pipeline and energy assets affects every stakeholder and directly influences our reputation for operational excellence and the level of public trust we inspire. Safety and reliability are therefore fundamental to our business, underpinning how we plan, design, build and operate our infrastructure.

TransCanada has maintained a strong safety and environmental record in Canada and the United States for more than 60 years and has consistently been a top industry performer in achieving low pipeline failure rates, including infrequency of incidents, low severity of incidents and limited volume of product released. Ranked among their peers, our power generation facilities have also consistently performed in the top decile for safety and reliability.

While we're proud of our track record, we are relentless in pursuing opportunities to further improve. Fundamentally, we believe that every incident, however minor, can be prevented. This is why our ultimate goal is zero incidents, and why we embed safety and reliability across each asset's life cycle and into each hour of the day.

We engage everyone at TransCanada, from the board of directors to our frontline men and women, in understanding and addressing these priorities.

TransCanada's approach to safety and reliability has three areas of focus: Prevention, Detection and Response. Each rests on a foundation of policies and systems that demand rigour, consistency and accountability.

Prevention

This consists of programs to identify and control risks associated with the work we do and assets we operate. It includes processes, state-of-the-art technologies and active collaboration with industry to assure the quality of our materials and workmanship.

It also includes hundreds of millions of dollars we spend each year to inspect and maintain these assets to our demanding standards. TransCanada's integrated management systems enable us to achieve our goals while also meeting and at times exceeding all regulatory expectations.

Detection

These programs allow us to continuously inspect, measure and monitor our assets' condition and performance. They enable us to detect signs of deterioration, imminent failure or abnormal operation, so we can take timely corrective action.

Response

In the unlikely event that an incident occurs, TransCanada proactively maintains detailed emergency preparedness and response programs to minimize the consequences.

Integrated management system framework

The programs we’ve developed to address each of these areas are governed by our integrated management system framework. This framework has three primary managements systems:

Capital Project Management System

 •Consists of processes and procedures, based on ISO 9001, that ensure all of TransCanada’s pipeline and facility projects meet our high standards for manufacturing and construction quality and regulatory compliance, as well as on-time and on-budget delivery

Health, Safety and Environment Management System

 •Its 11 OHSAS 18001 and ISO 14001 based elements provide the foundation for all of TransCanada’s health, safety and environmental protection programs

Asset Management System (AMS)

 •The 17 elements of the AMS, based on the Publicly Available Standard (PAS) 55 structure, provide a consistent “plan-do-check-act” cycle for ongoing pipeline and facility integrity management and planned maintenance programs for all TransCanada assets

Click here to review our work in prevention

Click here to review our work in detection