Applied Curiosity to Empower a Net-Zero Carbon Society - Sustainability Report 2021 - Heliolytics

About This Report

Reporting Scope and Frameworks

This inaugural Sustainability Report presents the significant ESG issues and impacts of Heliolytics, Inc.’s operations and activities during the reporting period spanning January 1, 2021, up to and including December 31, 2021. This report encompasses all of our whollyowned operations and activities performed globally, which include the following business segments: Aerial Inspection services, Data Analysis and Reporting, and Consulting and Advisory services. Throughout this report, “Heliolytics” or “we” or “us” or “our” refers to Heliolytics, Inc.

Heliolytics has used the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework for this report. We have also prepared this report in alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Acknowledgments

Published April 18, 2022, by Heliolytics, Inc. 200 - 400 Richmond St. W. Toronto, Ontario, M5V 1Y1, Canada www.heliolytics.com

This report was prepared by Chantelle Gubert, Lauren Morante, Sarah Duquette, Mike Rudolph, and Rob Andrews.

Design and production by R&G Strategic Communications.

With special thanks for photos to Jhan Silva, Luke Boyden, Leah Klassen, Sam Brockmeyer, Deanna Amodeo, Fan Zhang, Graeme Clancy, Mike Rudolph, Sarah Duquette, and Rob Andrews.

Endnotes

The endnotes on page 35 referenced throughout this report provide links to referenced sources for additional information and context.

Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

From time to time, Heliolytics makes written and/ or oral forward-looking statements in internal and external communications, including within this report, to employees, clients, investors, the media, and others. All such statements are made in accordance with the “safe harbor” provisions under the applicable Canadian and U.S. securities legislation, including the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forwardlooking statements are based on current information and expectations and do not constitute guarantees of future performance. These forward-looking statements require Heliolytics to make assumptions and are subject to uncertainties, changes in circumstances, and inherent risks, general and specific, and involve a number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by these forward-looking statements. Heliolytics assumes no obligation to update any forwardlooking statements with respect to the information contained herein.

Ways to Reach Us

If you would like to contact Heliolytics with feedback, or to request more information, here are a few ways to reach us. Sustainability Reporting: sustainability@heliolytics.com

Business Development: sales@heliolytics.com

On Social: @heliolytics

Letter From Our CEO

As the solar energy market continues to experience rapid growth, Heliolytics understands and respects that our impact is outsized for our position in the market. As we operate in the photovoltaic (PV) health and performance space, we have a responsibility to ensure that solar development happens in a stable, scalable, and sustainable way. Without this foundation, the deployment of solar energy infrastructure risks becoming a net contributor to large-scale environmental degradation rather than a solution for countries to meet their international climate targets.

Now more than ever, our role in ensuring the industry’s sustainable growth is clear. We are seeing unprecedented growth of the international solar fleet, which brings a unique set of challenges and opportunities. As a service provider, Heliolytics partners with stakeholders of these projects to understand the long-term reliability and durability of their solar fleet. We have analyzed approximately 66% of US ground-mount solar operations, representing a significant portion of solar energy capacity worldwide. Our detailed and expert analyses of these systems must ensure that the impact we have on the industry is a beneficial one. Heliolytics knows that we, in part, are accountable for managing

and guiding the growth of the solar industry in a positive direction so that it can expand at the rate required to prevent the worst effects of climate change.

A guiding principle in our solar sustainability philosophy is that you cannot control what you do not measure. This applies to our internal processes and impacts as well. In developing this sustainability report, Heliolytics aims to set benchmarks for our company from the lenses of the planet, people, and governance. While our operations themselves do not have a large carbon footprint, we want to lead by example and optimize where we can. We strive to improve awareness of the impact we make amongst those working with us, building knowledge capital and ensuring workforce skills grow at pace with changes in the industry. Furthermore, we are eager to see the solar industry thrive, and want our company to be a healthy and inclusive place for people to do their best work in helping make that happen while strengthening the communities we work in. Finally, we want to ensure that our business practices are responsible and equitable. We recognize that all companies have a duty to benchmark and track sustainability targets, and we look forward to playing our part.

Rob Andrews, CEO of Heliolytics

Heliolytics knows that we, in part, are accountable for managing and guiding the growth of the solar industry in a positive direction so that it can expand at the rate required to prevent the worst effects of climate change.

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About Heliolytics

Vision and Mission

Applied curiosity to empower a net-zero carbon society.

Our mission is to be the most trusted source of actionable insights enabling the sustainability of our renewable energy partners. We enact our mission by:

Collecting and curating data Creating clarity from complexity Expanding the frontiers of knowledge

Heliolytics is the largest global provider of photovoltaic (PV) aerial inspections and advanced site data services to empower the next generation of solar. Our proprietary technology platform and advisory services help customers gain a deep understanding of how their solar fleet is performing throughout its life cycle. Our comprehensive solutions help ensure solar energy projects are optimized to yield expected returns in a way that maximizes power output performance and reliability of components, modules, and arrays while reducing portfolio risks and decreasing operational costs.

Founded in 2014, Heliolytics is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and provides full global coverage, ensuring consistent, highquality operations across solar portfolios. We operate our piloted-aircraft services in an expanding set of countries, and provide drone services globally. Our annual aerial inspection capacity has grown from about 500 megawatts (MW) in 2015 to just shy of 38 gigawatts (GW) as of December 31, 2021, with a path to increase to 50-60 GW in 2022. Globally, in total, we have serviced more than 100 GW of solar, making us the worldwide standard-bearer for aerial site inspection, site optimization, and advanced site data analysis. In December 2021, we announced that our company has been acquired by NovaSource Power Services (NovaSource), a portfolio company of Canadian-owned Clairvest Group Inc. (Clairvest, TSX: CVG).

However, Heliolytics will remain a standalone entity within the larger company. This merger, and our combined resources and expertise, strengthen our ability to provide the solar industry with the most comprehensive suite of lifecycle services, which are at the forefront of renewables operations and maintenance.

Heliolytics strives to be the most trusted source of actionable insights enabling the long-term sustainability of our renewable energy partners by collecting and curating data, creating clarity from complexity, and expanding the frontiers of knowledge.

Industry-Leading Approach

Heliolytics has pioneered the condition-based workflow for aerial inspections. Starting with consistent, high-quality data collection, our diagnostic reports flag the impact of direct current (DC) faults on system production before determining the appropriate level of detailed analysis required. This enables system owners and operators to make a more informed decision on the level of analysis needed after data capture.

We take this approach because we strongly believe that solar stakeholders should never have to make a compromise between cost and acquisition quality to achieve the highest level of data capability and insight on a portfolio.

Getting to Net-Zero

Roughly 70% of global power still comes from nonrenewable, carbon intensive energy resources. As a climate-friendly and cost-effective energy solution, solar has the potential to drastically reduce our global CO2 emissions, helping to meet the World’s climate obligations for a clean energy transition, but faster deployment is needed to reach net-zero.

Heliolytics’ role is in helping to ensure the industry can continue to deploy at the speed required to meet global targets for a renewable energy economy. We specifically do this by analyzing, validating, and contextualizing system failures and potential risks in solar energy projects, working closely with stakeholders across the value chain to provide depth of insight into how systems are likely to perform over time.

To date, we have helped more than 66% of North American ground-mount solar projects improve efficiency and output yield. Our optimizations have resulted in increased energy production equivalent to approximately 600,000 metric tonnes, or 130,500 car-years, of CO2 reductions. Every marginal increase in efficiency is a huge win for our team, our client partners, and the environment.

Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, all United Nations Member States adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as a blueprint for a prosperous and sustainable future. At the core of the Agenda lies 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are calls to action for all countries to address in a global partnership.

At the forefront of the sustainable energy industry, Heliolytics values its role in contributing to these goals. We have identified the SDGs that align with our business through our materiality assessment. Of the 17 goals, Heliolytics aligns strongly with goals 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy, 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth, and 13 - Climate Action. Affordable and clean energy is key to our business as a solar lifecycle partner. The work we do at Heliolytics directly supports the increase of solar

availability, reliability, and scale; and subsequently supports ensuring the costs of solar remain low through improving system efficiency. At the local scale and internationally, we’re proud to provide employment opportunities to those looking to engage in the solar energy space through our permanent full-time positions. Climate action is at the heart of everything we do at Heliolytics - it’s our “why” and purpose for being. As an organization, it is essential that we position ourselves in a supporting role to this global goal, and this intrinsically drives our vision and mission.

Climate action is at the heart of everything we do at Heliolytics

Reporting Methodology

Heliolytics 2021 Materiality Assessment Results:

The Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Guidelines have served to guide the creation of Heliolytics’ inaugural 2021 Sustainability Report. Developing this report as a GRI-referenced document has allowed us to objectively assess our performance in the areas of environmental, social, and governance sustainability. While Heliolytics does not have directly appointed executive-level staff for economic, environmental, or social topics, we do have equivalencies in human resources, finance, and senior leadership.

The contents of this report were driven by the GRI Standards and our materiality assessment, which was completed internally for our first reporting year. This process involved engaging client-facing staff and senior management to qualitatively assess which material topics were relevant to Heliolytics and its stakeholders in 2021. Our materiality assessment process will be developed further in future years to intentionally involve client feedback through targeted listening programs and internal staff surveys.

Heliolytics’ sustainability reports will continue to be expanded upon in future years as our capacity for more robust reporting grows.

As a scaling company, we utilize an adaptive and iterative approach to stakeholder engagement, constantly building and improving upon our stakeholder outreach both internally and externally. Our stakeholder engagement takes on many forms, including but not limited to casual conversations, targeted listening programs, annual meetings, performance reviews, and anonymous surveys. The stakeholders we considered in developing this report include current and future clients, as well as current and future staff members.

Planet People Governance

Increasing Solar Resilience and Reducing Energy Losses

Global commitments to decarbonize the World’s energy grids by 2050 have helped to increase the pace at which new solar energy generation and storage systems are installed and connected to the grid. This growth has been largely supported by and will continue to rely upon low-carbon energy investment from the private sector, as well as from government subsidies. Aligning financial risk and reward with low-carbon energy investment is critical for shifting the economy in the direction of lower GHG emissions. Without substantial government and private sector investment in clean energy, it will be more difficult, more costly, and more timeconsuming to address climate change on a global scale. Therefore, reducing the ROI uncertainty for asset owners, equity investors, financiers, and other investment decision-makers is critical to ensuring the long-term sustainable growth of the industry. We specifically do this by analyzing, validating, and contextualizing system failures and potential risks in solar energy projects, ensuring that systems are optimized to yield expected returns in a way that maximizes power output performance and reliability of components, modules, and arrays.

Utilizing Heliolytics’ aerial inspection services and site-specific recommendations is an active step toward mitigating these financing risks and helping to ensure the resiliency of the solar industry. Our inspection reports proactively identify anomalies and faults on site, which allows project owners and asset managers to make informed decisions about

remediation, preventing costly module replacements before the system’s expected end of life.

Heliolytics aims to create data management systems that reinforce proactive asset performance feedback cycles to ensure not only current performance but long-term reliability.

Increasing the resiliency of the solar industry is core to our business strategy. We engage with and bolster resilience in the industry through formal stakeholder feedback capturing, industry research and events, collaboration with industry associations, and the IEC TC 82 Standards. In 2021, we have added additional resources to our team to further support the development of training and learning materials for our staff, allowing us to stay at the forefront of issue identification and remediation.

We will be measuring and managing this goal through internal objectives and key results for the products and services that support it. While we are just in the beginning stages of baselining and tracking our performance within the solar resiliency ecosystem, we look forward to setting goals and measuring progress in the future.

Increasing the resiliency of the solar industry is core to our business strategy.

Advocating for Solar Energy

While Heliolytics has a history of advocacy work in the solar energy space, we are now taking steps to formalize our commitments internally. In 2021, we made advocacy work core to our strategic company objectives. Moving forward, this will allow us to prioritize and obtain the resources necessary for us to place a greater focus on advocacy work.

Heliolytics aims to contribute to general advocacy initiatives for solar power. We do this through our membership contributions to organizations doing this important work, such as SolarPower Europe and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).

Heliolytics is also committed to its role as an active advocate for technical competency within the solar industry. In December 2021, we kicked off an internal initiative to develop a new online platform for solar learning and knowledge. SOAR© by Heliolytics, or Solar Open Access Resource, is a knowledge base (KB) ecosystem for solar industry professionals that will support global talent development and increase solar industry knowledge. The knowledge base will provide users with practical information on system operations and reliability through a variety of learning formats, materials, and content.

Finally, Heliolytics is involved in a number of industry advisory groups and activities including the following:

Solar Energy Industries Association

SEIA is the national trade association for the U.S. solar industry and is leading the transformation to a clean energy economy, creating the framework for solar to achieve 30% of U.S. electricity generation by 2030. SEIA works with its 1,000 member companies and other strategic partners to fight for policies that create jobs in every community and shape fair market rules that promote competition and the growth of reliable, low-cost solar power.

SolarPower Europe

SolarPower Europe is a member-led industry association operating in 38 countries around the world. They aim to provide energy market analysis, advocate for solar-based solutions to policymakers, ensure solar financing opportunities, publicly advocate for solar, and drive business opportunities for their members. Heliolytics’ involvement with SolarPower Europe includes participation in committees and collaborating on the SolarPower Europe Operation & Maintenance

Best Practice Guidelines. Additionally, Heliolytics is the only certified aerial thermography provider listed under the Solar Best Practices Company Directory The Solar Best Practices are a suite of Guidelines (handbooks), Checklists, and certification-based Marks (labels), prepared by SolarPower Europe to create more transparency in solar services and incentivize excellence.

DuraMAT Industry Advisory Board

DuraMAT is the Durable Module Materials Consortium. Their goal is to eventually levelize the cost of electricity to lower than three cents USD per kilowatt-hour by enabling innovative materials and design for PV modules. Heliolytics is an active member of DuraMAT’s Industry Advisory Board, which ensures the consortium can achieve its goal.

NREL PV Reliability Workshop Planning Committee

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) hosts an annual Photovoltaic Reliability Workshop to encourage discussion with the goal of increasing investor confidence and reducing the cost of solar electricity. Rob Andrews, CEO of Heliolytics, has participated in this workshop in 2019, 2020, and

2021 as a subject matter expert and speaker. He is also an invited speaker and panelist for the 2022 workshop.

Additionally, Heliolytics is a founding member and contributor to the NREL “Best Practices for Operations and Maintenance of Photovoltaic and Energy Storage Systems; 3rd Edition.”

NIST Workshop on Photovoltaic Materials Durability

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Engineering Laboratory promotes U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve quality of life. NIST develops the testing, measurements, and reference materials needed to ensure the quality of energy-related products and services and ensure fairness in the marketplace. Rob Andrews, CEO of Heliolytics, was invited to give a technical presentation at the 2021 Workshop on Photovoltaic Materials Durability, which was titled, “Testing Methodology, Measurement, and Observation Biases: Insights from 80GW of PV inspections.”

Climate Change

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. In their 2021 Working Group I Sixth Assessment Report, the IPCC states that the world has warmed by more than one degree Celsius or nearly two degrees Fahrenheit, and global temperatures are now higher than at any other time in human history. The repercussions of this global warming have already produced fiercer heat waves, more violent storms, and more frequent extreme weather events across the world. In the coming decades, the report warns, these extreme weather events will become commonplace, increasing in frequency and intensity.

With the increasing effects of climate change come risks to Heliolytics’ own operations. The increase in the severity and frequency of extreme weather will negatively impact our logistics and mobility. Natural disasters like severe precipitation, hurricanes, and wildfires reduce our ability to safely perform aerial inspections. As a result of increasing climate change,

Heliolytics has seen a growth in the number of sites impacted by module inefficiencies and damage caused by extreme weather events.

Our solar lifecycle support services contribute to decreasing the World’s carbon emissions. When we are able to best identify inefficiencies across a solar module’s expected lifetime, we are helping our clients to increase the amount of clean energy they contribute to the grid. As we scale our services to support larger volumes of solar energy production, we are scaling our contributions to the fight against climate change.

As we scale our services to support larger volumes of solar energy production, we are scaling our contributions to the fight against climate change.

Greenhouse Gas Emission Reporting

All reported 2021 emissions from Heliolytics’ operations are categorized as Scope 3 GHG emissions based on definitions provided by GRI Standards - GRI 305: Emissions 2016.

Scope 3 emissions are those which are a consequence of activities of the reporting company, but are not controlled by the reporting company, such as business travel.

Because our office is located in Toronto which operates on a very low carbon energy grid, we anticipate that we would have had some, but minimal, Scope 2 emissions in 2021.

While we did not quantify these emissions in 2021, we plan to in future years once we’ve developed more robust reporting frameworks.

Scope 2 emissions are those which are produced upstream from the generation of purchased electricity that is used by the reporting company.

We did not have any Scope 1 emissions to report in 2021. Scope 1 emissions are those which occur from sources that are owned or controlled by the reporting company, such as a combustion boiler.

Our total reported Scope 3 GHG emissions released during the reporting year are calculated from operations relating to data collection via aircraft, commercial flights taken by staff, car travel taken by staff while on flight trips, drone providers traveling to a site by car, and emissions associated with shipping equipment globally. Total emissions were measured using CO2 and CO2 equivalent emissions. The following figure and table illustrate CO2 and equivalent emissions for Heliolytics’ operations for 2021.

CO2e Emission

Distribution

Carbon Offsets

We believe that it is important to track our carbon emissions to be transparent, but more importantly to be accountable. This year, we have purchased 220 metric tonnes of carbon offsets to apply towards our 2021 emissions. We have mitigated our emissions from small aircraft, car travel, commercial flights, and equipment shipping by contributing to projects that prevent the equivalent amount of emissions elsewhere. We chose to buy our offsets from Ostrom Climate Solutions, Canada’s leading carbon management solutions provider, as their projects are verified and validated by third parties to ensure that the emission reductions are real, additional, and permanent.

The offset portfolio that we support creates both environmental and social benefits to the communities surrounding the individual projects. The forest carbon projects include the Darkwoods Forest Carbon Project in Canada and The Southern Cardamom REDD+ Project in Cambodia. Supporting these projects ensures the long-term conservation and viability of forest ecosystems and wildlife. This portfolio also supports clean energy projects, including Quik’s Farm Project in Canada, a Solar Cooker Project in China, a Wind Energy Project in India, and a Solar Power Project in China. These projects reduce the need for fossil fuels by promoting renewable energy in the area, thus reducing carbon emissions.

Photo by: Steve Ogle

Environmental and Social Impacts of Solar Energy Brief

In developing this sustainability report, we considered it pertinent to address the various negative impacts of solar energy on people and the planet. The following is a brief summary of key areas for improvement within the solar industry.

IntroductionRenewable energies have high environmental and socio-economic benefits and less impact on the environment than traditional fossil-fueled energy production methods, such as coal or natural gas plants. Lifecycle assessments of the GHG emissions of various energy sources from cradle to grave of three studies indicate that the GHG emissions of solar energy are up to 10-20x lower than traditional fossil fuel-based energy production.[1] Socioeconomic benefits of solar energy include regional and national energy independence, increased work opportunities, stable energy sources, and deregulated energy markets. Developing countries are particularly aided by these benefits.[2] All renewable energy technologies have some negative environmental and/or social impacts, and solar is not without its own unique challenges.[3]

1. Resource Extraction and Manufacturing

Heliolytics does not directly impact or shape these stages of a solar module’s lifecycle, however, we felt it important to address them within this analysis.

The extraction and refining of materials required to manufacture PV cells contribute significantly to the environmental impact of the solar industry, making this a key area for improvement. The most severe of these impacts include human toxicity, marine ecotoxicity, and metal depletion. These environmental impacts are driven by the following key substances:[4]

Arsenic

Copper

Electricity consumption

Glass production

Lead Mercury

Nickel to air generated from silver paste

Silver used for silver paste production

Of these, it is the electricity used during the transformation of metallic silicon into solar silicon that has the greatest environmental impact. This is

due to an extremely energy-intensive process, and because solar modules are primarily manufactured in China where the majority of electricity is produced by burning coal.[5] The greatest opportunities for environmental impact reduction during solar module production include the selection of recycled rather than primary materials, increasing electricity and silver paste utilization efficiency, promoting the development of the solar industry, and installing solar energy systems in regions with high solar radiation intensity and fossil fuel-intensive energy grids.[4]

One of the greatest negative social impacts of this stage of the solar life cycle comes from the mining and refining of solar-grade polysilicon. Currently, about 95% of solar modules rely on solar-grade polysilicon as a primary material. Polysilicon manufacturers in the Uyghur Region produce 45% of the global solar-grade polysilicon supply. Recent investigations into government and corporate sources have exposed that coercion and

the threat of internment drive the labor that sources this polysilicon. Indigenous workers are unable to refuse or leave these jobs — equating the process to “forcible transfer of populations and enslavement.”[6] All polysilicon manufacturers in this region have admitted to participating in these internment labor transfer programs.[6] An issue that arises when looking to hold polysilicon manufacturers responsible for these abuses is that module manufacturers do not always have clear insight into their raw material supply chains. To maintain control over the materials they purchase and to ensure that the production of those materials complies with human and environmental rights, module manufacturers must take care to develop supply chain oversight and diversity. Not only will this allow them to have greater control over their supply chain, but it will give them more visibility into the origin of their raw materials and enable them to divert their purchasing decisions away from materials that are produced unethically.

2. Construction and Maintenance

At Heliolytics, assisting our clients in ensuring net positive outcomes during the operational phase of their solar assets is integral to our mission. This applies to power production, environmental resilience, and co-benefits. We are assessing potential products that can be used to support some of the goals discussed in the following section.

Building solar arrays, especially utility-scale solar energy (USSE) systems, disturbs soil through land modification that disrupts carbon, water, and vegetative cycles. Existing vegetation is removed and the surface is graded and filled.[7, 8] The soil and vegetative disturbances caused by USSE installations can release trapped carbon into the air, degrade soil, increase erosion and runoff, and increase surrounding air temperatures. While research in this area is ongoing, a useful strategy in mitigating the effects of these impacts is through revegetation with land cover crops.

Carbon-sequestering vegetation varies in growth behavior across climate regions, so an approach that is tailored to the local ecosystem and climate is required to ensure appropriate crop selection. It is likely that revegetation alone is not enough to completely restore the soil health to its previous state, even after several years. Therefore, additional measures should be taken during the construction process to minimize soil disturbances and removal.[7]

Coordinated planning and regulation of solar installations and land management below the solar panels are critical to maintaining local carbon cycles.[9] Following local, regional, and national environmental regulations, as well as prioritizing local risks and opportunities, can all help mitigate the risk of significantly harmful land-use change for USSE.[10]

USSE projects may cause habitat fragmentation leading to negative ecological impacts, particularly when they are in close proximity to sensitive or protected ecological areas.[10] Negative impacts on biodiversity that arise as a result of solar energy projects include avian mortalities, insect disorientation, the creation of microclimates, and habitat fragmentation.[3] It is worth noting, however, that USSE-related avian mortality rates are similar to those estimated for wind energy, and both comprise

a very small portion of causal factors of avian mortality in the United States. The causal factors of the avian mortality rates as a result of USSEs are not fully understood, and standardized data collection and research into the cause of these fatalities needs to be explored to best mitigate these adverse outcomes.[1]

Land-use change is also a potential threat to pollinator populations. While large-scale, pesticidedriven monocultures can be detrimental to pollinators, more than 70% of agriculture worldwide relies on bee pollinators alone. The revegetation of USSEs, if planned and managed correctly as biodiverse and regenerative spaces, can offer further potential opportunities for supporting other ecosystem services including pollination and agricultural production.[7] In these instances, USSE construction can even be of net benefit to pollinator communities through providing restored habitat, supporting conservation efforts, and strengthening ecological networks.[11]

Incorporating agrivoltaic practices, such as sheep grazing, can work symbiotically with revegetation strategies. Agrivoltaics work to limit or eliminate the need for vegetation removal and maintenance while supporting food production.[8]

Collectively and individually, these negative impacts must be considered in energy policy in tandem with potential positive impacts to drive the most effective outcomes for both energy production and habitat protection.[3] Co-benefits of making these improvements include reducing the impact on areas of cultural or ecological significance, assisting in garnering public acceptance of solar installations,[2] and driving support and demand for more projects in the future.

3. Decommissioning and Recycling

Heliolytics does not currently operate within this stage of the solar life cycle, though we are looking into ways we can support the industry in making better decisions when it comes to decommissioning and recycling.

Two of the most impactful ways to reduce the life cycle impact of solar cell production is to reduce the number of new solar panels that need to be manufactured and the number of resources required to make them. Reuse is a much more desirable outcome from an environmental and cost perspective. Additionally, this decreases the resources needed to bring more solar online. Takeback programs are helpful options to ensure that modules are being refurbished or recycled.[12] One study suggests that the total impact of solar cells on the environment could be reduced by up to 58% by using recycled silicon materials, effectively making their impact two times lower than those made of entirely primary materials.[13]

Different scales of solar installations have different challenges regarding disposal. While utility-scale solar may be able to find efficiencies due to the scale of the sites they are decommissioning, this can be more of a challenge for residential or commercial projects where far fewer modules are spread out over a larger area.[12] As it becomes increasingly costeffective to make solar modules, another challenge is that the amount of valuable materials in them is also declining, increasing the economic challenge of recycling.[13]

Government policy can be a good mechanism for ensuring that solar modules are being disposed of responsibly at their end of life.[12] Currently, better policy is certainly required in North America.[14] While some states in the U.S. have passed bills that aim to enforce best practices for module disposal during decommissioning, the country overall is lagging when compared to the E.U.[12] The E.U. Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive requires module manufacturers to build in the cost of collecting and recycling decommissioned modules, ensuring that doing so is economically viable.[14]

The issue of decommissioning and recycling poses such a risk for the long-term viability of the industry that, if not addressed and a solution quickly found, it could erode public trust in solar as an environmentally sound choice for building out energy capacity moving forward.[13] The bottom line is that until this loop is closed, the solar industry cannot be truly sustainable.[12] PV waste is perhaps our industry’s greatest challenge right now, but can also be a rewarding economic opportunity if the industry can find the right path forward.[14] At Heliolytics, we see it as imperative that the industry will adopt circularity into project design and operations to ensure that solar energy maintains positive environmental outcomes and a broad social license to operate.

4. Racial Inequities

Within the U.S. solar market, the racial disparity of solar jobs and ownership is one of the most pressing social issues. While Black workers represent 13% of the U.S. labor force, they account for only 7.7% of the solar industry’s workforce. Additionally, neighborhoods with majority Black or Hispanic populations are much less likely to have solar rooftop installations than majority White neighborhoods, even after disparities in income and homeownership rates have been accounted for.[15] Black communities suffer from a lack of initial deployment, leading to to reduced installation in the long term, which is thought to be connected to the lack of racial diversity in the industry. This drives wealth inequalities even further as the installation of home solar can provide economic benefits to the owners through reduced

electricity costs, tax credits, feed-in tariffs, and rebates.[16]

This echoes the larger issue of environmental racism that is present in the U.S. For example, majority Black neighborhoods have higher levels of air pollution, and now, benefits from solar are primarily accruing in neighborhoods outside their own. This disparity negatively affects those communities directly, but also impacts the viability of the solar industry overall due to resentment or potential loss of public support.[15]

There is a clear gap that exists and must be closed to ensure that the benefits of renewable energyenvironmental, economic, and social - are being

distributed equitably.[15] There needs to be a better understanding of what drives these disparities in the industry to determine pathways to equity.[16]

Companies that are operating within the solar lifecycle should look to external support to identify ways that they can support their racialized employees and the racialized communities they work in as a way to address this issue. Heliolytics is working to close this gap through its participation with Diversio to produce its first diversity survey and action plan.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

At Heliolytics, we recognize that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) have a significant impact on the success of our company. Studies show that organizations with DE&I embedded throughout their workplace and culture foster greater innovation and creativity, widen the talent pool, increase employee satisfaction, and perform better financially.[17, 18]

Diversity of Governance Bodies and Employees

Recent events, including the COVID-19 pandemic and social unrest, have affected our employees, clients, and communities. For Heliolytics, the impacts of these events have heightened our focus on our DE&I strategic priorities, and we have achieved great progress in advancing DE&I across our organization and culture over the past year. In 2021, we added gender, racial, and multicultural diversity into our team with the hiring of 27 new employees. We also partnered with Diversio to conduct our first internal DE&I survey, and plan to include the forthcoming results in an inclusion index to provide a baseline for future surveys and reporting.

The charts on the following pages depict the insights derived from the diversity initiative and survey conducted with Heliolytics’ governance bodies and employees, launched in partnership with Diversio. Overall, slightly more men than women make up our Heliolytics workforce and 51.4% of employees identify as belonging to a racial or ethnic minority group. Areas of improvement we identified include: increasing the number of racial and ethnic minorities in leadership positions, increasing the number of people identifying as other than male in leadership positions; and diversifying the age profile of our people.

At the time of publication, our partnership with Diversio is at an early stage as it relates to taking action on these insights. We anticipate that we will have more information on the gaps we need to focus on and what those next steps look like in Q3 2022, and look forward to including our learnings and progress in future reporting years.

We have achieved great progress in advancing DE&I across our organization Executive

Gender Statistics

Race and Ethnicity Statistics

Age Statistics

Talent Attraction, Development, and Retention

Attracting a Diverse and Inclusive Workforce

At Heliolytics, we believe that our success depends on attracting, developing, and retaining a diverse workforce. We are committed to providing our people with a safe and inclusive environment within which they feel empowered to do meaningful and fulfilling work that aligns with their values. We have a team dedicated to sourcing, attracting, and recruiting diverse talent in alignment with our Talent Acquisition Strategy.

Heliolytics invests in talent development and skillbuilding to help our employees build the skills they need to learn and grow as they transition into new roles within our company and the evolving solar industry. We also work to attract and develop the next generation of talent by offering paid internships, and by partnering with local university programs, such as University of Waterloo, to engage in guest speaking opportunities for our leadership team to engage with graduate students in relevant fields of study.

Our Culture

At Heliolytics, we believe to effect real global change takes an entire team united behind something big. Together, we work hard, we brainstorm and innovate with intention, we put people first, we solve lofty problems, and we have fun along the way. We are a mosaic of talented people with various interests, goals, and perspectives united by our mission to help build a sustainable transition to clean energy for all.

Our Vision, Mission, and Culture foster behaviors that support sustainable growth first and foremost (for our clients, for the solar industry, and for our people), applied curiosity and a pragmatic approach to experimentation, building trust through clarity and transparency with everyone we work with, and

empowered collaboration between individuals, teams, and our client partners.

As a remote-first organization, we strive to optimize all of our systems and processes to operate remotely whenever possible. We value employee life outside of work and provide many ways to accommodate and support our staff in achieving both their personal goals and career goals.

Our Vision, Mission, and Culture foster behaviors that support sustainable growth

Heliolytics invests in talent development and skill-building to help our employees build the skills they need to learn and grow

Engaging Our Employees

Heliolytics’ staff organize a variety of engaging workplace events and activities for our employees throughout the year. In 2021, our employees participated in:

Random Coffee Chats

Earth Day Challenge Book Club

Intramural Ultimate Frisbee

Monthly Cooking Challenge Pumpkin Carving Contest

Virtual Work Socials

Local Community Involvement

While we consider our internal community diverse and collaborative, we recognize that there is room to grow our local community interactions and engagement. The COVID-19 Pandemic made in-person volunteering and community building challenging these past two years, however, we are eager to expand on our community outreach in future years. This report highlights this gap, and we look forward to the opportunity to build upon these areas in 2022 and beyond.

Random Coffee Chats

In the absence of break room coffee chats and friendly conversation over lunchtime sandwiches, Heliolytics has organized a monthly Random Coffee Chat program that randomly matches two people across different teams for a virtual coffee. These optional, 30-minute calls have helped to connect staff across teams while working remotely, and are an excellent way for new team members to meet their colleagues. In 2021, more than 150 connections were made through this initiative! Thanks to the excellent turnout and feedback from employees, Heliolytics plans to continue this initiative in 2022.

Earth Day Challenge

To celebrate this worldwide event, Heliolytics challenged its employees to complete as many of the following environment-related activities during Earth Week (April 18 - 22, 2021). Every employee who participated received an entry into our internal Earth Day Challenge Contest for the chance to win a prize.

Clean up some litter around your home/ neighborhood

Repair something that can now be reused

Write to your representative (MP, MPP, city councilor, etc.) to advocate for an environmental initiative

Read/listen to a book/podcast on an environmental topic

Plant something (indoors or outdoors!)

Go for a walk/bike/ride/run/ or other outdoor activity

Prizes:

Watch a documentary on an environmentalism or sustainability topic

Wildcard (any creative action — either personal, advocacy, industry, etc. — related to environmental issues or sustainability)

2 X CAD$25 donation in your name to an environmental initiative

2 X CAD$25 to a zero-waste store/re-fill store or similar

Compensation and Benefits

Heliolytics provides fair compensation and competitive benefits. We track and review pay equity based on gender and compare the average pay of men and women by pay grade, annual salary increase, and bonus. This is reviewed by Human Resources and the Executive Team on an annual basis.

All permanent Heliolytics employees who work more than 20 hours per week, have satisfied their 3-month waiting period, and are residents of Canada insured by a Government Health Plan are entitled to our insurance and benefits program. Our benefits program is complimentary to all eligible employees, and provides the following coverage:

Training

We are proud to foster an environment of continual learning and growth amongst our team. We have a robust training program for new hires across all business units, facilitate company-wide training semi-annually, and provide financial assistance to employees seeking to further their training in the field. An area of improvement for Heliolytics is to increase access to management training for managers and leaders in the organization.

In addition to our internal training programs, all employees with more than three months’ tenure have access to the Heliolytics Training Budget.

The goal of the Heliolytics Training Budget is to help provide access (financial and other resources) to training for employees that both enhances the employee’s skills and contributes to the business needs of Heliolytics. Heliolytics employees may access this Budget through a standard application, which is reviewed monthly.

We also complete regular performance and career development reviews. All new employees receive a formal review within 6 and 12 months of hiring, and then every 12 months thereafter.

2021 Training

Occupational Health and Safety

Health and Safety Policies and Training

Total Recordable Injury Frequency rate (TRIF)

Heliolytics has robust occupational health and safety training and policies in place. We are both proud and grateful to be able to say that, thanks to the hard work of Heliolytics employees and their dedication to a safe work environment, we maintain a 0 Total Recordable Injury Frequency rate (TRIF).

All new employees are trained by a member of the management staff prior to starting work. Trainers (managers, safety directors) and onboarding employees are required to complete a “New Employee Safety Orientation Checklist,” which is given to the project manager or home office and kept in the employee’s personnel file. All employees are also required to review Heliolytics’ Workplace Health and Safety Training document.

Additionally, all new employees are required to complete Ontario government-mandated training in Occupational Health and Safety.

Heliolytics’ Health and Safety Plan outlines the roles and responsibilities of Corporate Management, Safety Directors, Inspection Coordinators, and Employees in upholding and adhering to the health and safety of all employees within our organization. Heliolytics is compliant with all local regulatory health and safety requirements including OSHA and WHMIS. All employees receive mandatory health and safety training during their onboarding to the organization.

Identifying Hazards in the Workplace

Aviation safety is left to the flight providers’ and pilots’ discretion. We require proof of insurance and licensing for all pilots and providers, and they must adhere to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rules and regulations set under Title 14 CFR part 61, part 9, and part 119. Compliance is ensured by the FAA Enforcement office following their enforcement policies.

While in the plane, Heliolytics staff are required to dress appropriately for the conditions (extreme heat or cold), tie long hair back, remove any accessories or jewelry that can get caught in windows/doors, and wear closed-toe shoes. Most of the equipment we use is heavy and staff are encouraged to use proper lifting techniques and use a dolly/cart when transporting equipment over distances.

Heliolytics closely monitors COVID-19 updates in areas where our staff are traveling to/working and adheres to all government guidelines for operating safely in these areas.

Workplace Harassment Prevention Program

Heliolytics is committed to providing a work environment in which all employees are treated with respect and dignity. Workplace harassment is not tolerated by any person in the workplace (including customers, clients, other employers, supervisors, employees, or members of the public, as applicable).

The Workplace Harassment Prevention Program applies to all employees, managers, supervisors, temporary employees, students, and subcontractors.

Employees can report incidents or complaints of workplace harassment verbally or in writing. Heliolytics ensures that an investigation appropriate to the circumstance is conducted when the employer, human resources, a manager, or supervisor becomes aware of an incident of workplace harassment or receives a complaint of workplace harassment.

Promotion of Worker Health

In addition to our insurance and benefits packages, Heliolytics also provides an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) through LifeWorks. This program provides free, on-demand, short-term counseling, and an account with Inkblot that gives employees access to online video counseling at a discounted rate.

Heliolytics’ Flight Operations Team is responsible for some of the in-field data capture we conduct via aircraft. In an effort to counter the mental and physical fatigue associated with this important work, we have established specific policies to ensure sufficient decompression days for our staff working overtime, whether outside of standard working hours or traveling as a result of their responsibilities. Separate from, and in addition to, paid vacation time, decompression days are calculated based on time spent in the field and are typically taken immediately upon return from a flight trip.

Ethical Behavior and Compliance

As a wholly-owned company of NovaSource Power Services, Heliolytics upholds itself to the Code of Ethics of NovaSource Power Services. This Code of Ethics is based on the following guiding behaviors:

Always tell the truth

Understand and comply with applicable law and Company policies;

Use good judgment and avoid even the appearance of improper conduct;

Seek guidance when questions arise about the right course of action to take;

Intervene to prevent others from acting if you become aware that they are contemplating violating the law or the Code; and

Raise concerns and report possible violations of the law or the Code to your supervisor, the Human Resources Department, or through one of the other reporting channels

And covers the following topics:

Accurate Records and Reports

Anti-Corruption Laws

Business Expenses

Business Opportunities

Environmental Stewardship Communications Entertainment

GRI Reporting Index

The following table highlights GRI were of the

GRI Disclosures

About Heliolytics; Sustainable Development Goals; Reporting Methodology; Increasing Solar Resilience Reducing Energy Losses; Advocating for Solar Energy; Greenhouse Gas Emission Reporting; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Talent Attraction, Development, and Retention; Occupational Health and Safety

About Heliolytics, Reporting Methodology

Reporting Methodology

Greenhouse Gas Emission Reporting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Occupational Health and Safety

Talent Attraction, Development, and Retention Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Occupational Health and Safety; Ethical Behavior and Compliance Section

Appendix 1

GHG Accounting Assumptions

Calculating Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The majority of Heliolytics’ greenhouse gas emissions result from our data collection operations. All of our emission types fit within the categories of scope 2 and scope 3 emissions when using definitions of emission scopes outlined by the Global Reporting Initiative Disclosure 305.

However, quantifying scope 2 and some scope 3 emissions for 2021 was challenging because Heliolytics implemented a remote-first policy that resulted in employees working from home for the majority of the year. Quantifying scope 3 emissions pertinent to regular working activities in a workfrom-home setting is incredibly challenging for any organization to complete, and it was decided that these measures would be omitted for the 2021 reporting cycle. It is our intention that these emissions will be included in the 2022 reporting cycle.

Scope 3 emissions at Heliolytics result from:

Fixed-wing aircraft trips

Commercial flights taken by staff traveling for data collection, or to attend conferences

Car trips taken while aircraft teams are deployed in the field

Car trips taken by drone providers traveling to site

Shipping equipment

Emissions from fixed-wing aircraft and car trips were calculated using fuel consumption of the various trips, multiplied by the appropriate emission factors for carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O).[19] Methane and nitrous oxide emissions were multiplied by their CO2 equivalencies. All emissions were calculated as CO2 or equivalents to derive total CO2 equivalent emissions for 2021.

For aircraft missions, fuel consumption/hour of the specific aircraft model[20, 21] was multiplied by logged flight hours per trip to determine fuel consumption. Fuel consumption for car trips taken by drone and aircraft teams was calculated using the distance traveled divided by fuel consumption in km/L as listed by the EPA.[22] These were totaled to give the total CO2 emission of each aircraft or car trip. CO2 emissions from commercial flights were logged using an online calculator[23] that accounted for distance traveled, the class traveled in, layovers, and the number of passengers. Shipping emissions were calculated using the weight of the package shipped, distance traveled by transportation mode (i.e. by truck or air), and multiplied by the CO2 emission factor for the respective shipping method.[24] Packages that utilized multiple shipping methods would sum the emissions from each transport type for the total CO2 emission for that trip.

Endnotes

1. Mahmud, M. A., & Farjana, S. H. Comparative Life Cycle Environmental Impact Assessment of Renewable Electricity Generation Systems: A Practical Approach Towards Europe, North America and Oceania. Shahjadi Hisan, Comparative Life Cycle Environmental Impact Assessment of Renewable Electricity Generation Systems: A Practical Approach Towards Europe, North America and Oceania.

2. Suuronen, A. (2017). Ecological and social impacts of photovoltaic solar power plants and optimization of their locations in northern Chile. Jyväskylä studies in biological and environmental science, (338).

3. Gasparatos, A., Doll, C. N., Esteban, M., Ahmed, A., & Olang, T. A. (2017). Renewable energy and biodiversity: Implications for transitioning to a Green Economy. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 70, 161-184.

4. Chen, W., Hong, J., Yuan, X., & Liu, J. (2016). Environmental impact assessment of monocrystalline silicon solar photovoltaic cell production: a case study in China. Journal of Cleaner Production, 112, 1025-1032.

5. Fu, Y., Liu, X., & Yuan, Z. (2015). Life-cycle assessment of multi-crystalline photovoltaic (PV) systems in China. Journal of Cleaner Production, 86, 180-190.

6. Murphy, L., & Elimä, N. (2021). In broad daylight: Uyghur forced labour in global solar supply chains.

7. Choi, C. S., Cagle, A. E., Macknick, J., Bloom, D. E., Caplan, J., & Ravi, S. (2020). Effects of revegetation on soil physical and chemical properties in solar photovoltaic infrastructure. Open Access Publishing Fund.

8. Hernandez, R. R., Easter, S. B., Murphy-Mariscal, M. L., Maestre, F. T., Tavassoli, M., Allen, E. B., ... & Allen, M. F. (2014). Environmental impacts of utility-scale solar energy. Renewable and sustainable energy reviews, 29, 766-779.

9. Van de Ven, D. J., Capellan-Peréz, I., Arto, I., Cazcarro, I., de Castro, C., Patel, P., & GonzalezEguino, M. (2021). The potential land requirements and related land use change emissions of solar energy. Scientific reports, 11(1), 1-12.

10. Hernandez RR, Hoffacker MK, Murphy-Mariscal ML, Wu GC, Allen MF. Solar energy development impacts on land cover change and protected areas [published correction appears in Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016 Mar 22;113(12):E1768]. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015;112(44):1357913584. doi:10.1073/pnas.1517656112

11. Semeraro, T., Pomes, A., Del Giudice, C., Negro, D., & Aretano, R. (2018). Planning ground based utility scale solar energy as green infrastructure to enhance ecosystem services. Energy Policy, 117, 218-227.

12. End of Life Re-Incarnation. SPI 2020.

13. Klugmann-Radziemska, E., & Kuczyńska-Łażewska, A. (2020). The use of recycled semiconductor material in crystalline silicon photovoltaic modules production-A life cycle assessment of environmental impacts. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 205, 110259.

14. Weckend, S., Wade, A., & Heath, G. A. (2016). End of life management: solar photovoltaic panels (No. NREL/TP-6A20-73852). National Renewable Energy Lab.(NREL), Golden, CO (United States).

15. Inside Clean Energy: The Racial Inequity in Clean Energy and How to Fight It. 92020.) Inside Climate News. https://insideclimatenews.org/news/11062020/inside-clean-energy-racialinequity-solar/

16. Sunter, D.A., Castellanos, S. & Kammen, D.M. Disparities in rooftop photovoltaics deployment in the United States by race and ethnicity. Nat Sustain 2, 71–76 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/ s41893-018-0204-z

17. Hunt, V., Yee, L., Prince, S., & Dixon-Fyle, S. (2021, March 1). Delivering through diversity. McKinsey & Company. Retrieved March 11, 2022, from https://www.mckinsey.com/businessfunctions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/delivering-through-diversity

18. Holger, D. (2019, October 26). The business case for more diversity. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 11, 2022, from https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-business-case-for-morediversity-11572091200

19. Queen’s Printer for Ontario. (2016). Guide: Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reporting. A guide for Greenhouse Gas Emissions reporting on Section 4(1) of Ontario Regulation 452/09. Ontario. https://www.ontario.ca/page/guide-greenhouse-gas-emissions-reporting

20. AOPA. (n.d.) Cessna 172S. Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. https://www.aopa.org/go-fly/ aircraft-and-ownership/aircraft-guide/aircraft/cessna-172

21. AOPA. (n.d.) Cessna 210. Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.https://www.aopa.org/go-fly/ aircraft-and-ownership/aircraft-fact-sheets/cessna-210

22. EPA. (2021). Highlights of the Automotive Trends Report. Environmental Protection Agency. https://www.epa.gov/automotive-trends/highlights-automotive-trends-report

23. My Climate (n.d.) Offset your flight emissions! My Climate. https://co2.myclimate.org/en/flight_ calculators/new

24. Tree-nation. (March, 2020). What are the CO2 emissions of a package or parcel? Tree-nation. https://tree-nation.com/projects/inside-tree-nation/article/6884-the-carbon-emissions-of-apackageparcel