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Building Hydro-Québec’s sustainable vision – ESG double materiality assessment

Hydro-Québec commissioned WSP to conduct a double materiality assessment to clarify and validate its sustainability priorities. Grounded in international best practices, including the requirements of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), the assessment combined evidence gathering, internal engagement, and largescale public consultation. By evaluating 20 sustainability topics and identifying those with the greatest impacts, risks, and opportunities, WSP laid the groundwork for a future operational strategic framework that will enable Hydro Québec to further embed sustainability in decision making and governance.

Placing sustainability at the heart of Québec’s energy transition

Québec is undergoing a pivotal energy transformation. To achieve its transition and decarbonization ambitions, Hydro-Québec needed a shared, in-depth understanding of its environmental, social, and economic impacts. The organization aimed not only to meet the growing expectations of citizens, communities, and investors, but also to place sustainability at the heart of its business decisions.

WSP responded with a rigorous, people-centred approach focused on long-term value creation. By engaging more than 4,000 voices—internal experts, employees, suppliers, citizens, and investors—we helped Hydro-Québec surface the ESG topics that are essential to its future and to Québec’s.

Location

  • Quebec, Canada

Project status

  • Completed 2025

The challenge

Hydro-Québec needed to clarify its sustainability topics in a context of rising electricity demand, increasing societal expectations, and rapidly evolving disclosure standards.

The organization sought to define a new sustainability framework that would enable it to:

  • align its teams around shared sustainability priorities,
  • strengthen the link between sustainability, governance, strategy, and risk management,
  • support its 2035 Action Plan.

 

The challenge was significant: creating a shared sustainability language within one of Québec’s largest Crown corporations.

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The WSP solution

To support this ambition, WSP delivered a robust double materiality assessment, consistent with international best practices and aligned with the European methodology set out in the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the related European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). Our methodology combined:

Document review and topic mapping

An in-depth review of internal policies, risk registers, sector benchmarks, and sustainability frameworks to build a structured inventory of impacts, risks, and opportunities.

Large-scale internal and external engagement

A comprehensive participatory approach combining three surveys (employees, citizens, suppliers, investors) totalling 4 120 responses, engagement of more than 50 Hydro‑Québec internal experts, 20 interviews with directors and senior leadership members, and three validation workshops to consolidate the results.

Assessment and prioritization of ESG topics

Each topic was assessed based on its impacts, risks, and opportunities (IRO), using a scoring methodology aligned with Hydro‑Québec’s risk management framework and engaging stakeholders around severity and likelihood criteria. This approach helped inform the risk register, support short, medium, and long-term forward-looking analysis, and produce a double materiality matrix reflecting the organization’s strategic priorities.

Executive validation and governance alignment

The results were presented to senior leadership to support integration into the ESG strategy, alignment with risk management mechanisms, and usability for disclosure processes and sustainability reporting.
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This assessment helped structure our ESG priorities and strengthen our sustainable development approach across the organization. The participatory approach fostered engagement from our internal and external stakeholders and reflects the company’s ambition to make ESG topics a strategic lever.
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Impact on the Environment, People and Society

Strengthening sustainable decision-making

The assessment provides Hydro Québec with a clear view of the most critical sustainability topics—both from an impact materiality and a financial materiality perspective. This supports better capital allocation, proactive risk management, and stronger alignment between strategy, governance, and disclosure.

Engaging stakeholders and strengthening legitimacy

By incorporating the input of more than 4,000 participants, the assessment ensures the selected priorities reflect the concerns of citizens, employees, suppliers, and investors.

Creating a shared sustainability language

Through a participatory approach, the organization now has a common foundation for discussing sustainability across business units, sustainability teams, and governance bodies.

Supporting long-term ESG coherence

The results provide a foundational structure to guide the corporate strategy, manage sustainability performance, and prepare for evolving regulatory requirements.

Responses to surveys (citizens, employees, investors)
4,120
Internal experts engaged
50+
Interviews with senior leadership members
20

Meet the Visioneer

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This project allowed us to hear an exceptional diversity of voices. By bringing together experts, employees, citizens, and investors, we were able to create a sustainability framework that is truly useful for Hydro Québec, a framework that is not only methodologically sound, but that reflects the human realities behind Québec’s energy transition. Contributing to this work means helping shape a more sustainable future for the entire province.

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