Washington Business Winter 2018 | Washington Business | Page 22

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How has the Hydro One partnership
ensured Avista’s continued commitment
to its employees and the communities it
serves?
The things we absolutely had to have in any deal
were: We wanted to make sure that corporate
headquarters remained in Spokane because we
know that is absolutely critical to our community.
We needed to make sure we didn’t lose one job. The
jobs that we have here in Spokane are precious,
and we have some of the best and brightest people
that work at our company. They give a tremendous
amount of their time and talent back to the
community as well as working at the utility. And,
we wanted to make sure that we continued to focus
on economic development and innovations, like
Urbanova. We had to find a partner that valued all
these things and, in fact, wanted to strengthen and
encourage them. We wanted to find a partner that
understood how important our donations and our
community involvement are and would not only
want to support that, but as the only corporation
east of the Cascades that’s on the list of top 25
most philanthropic companies in Washington
state, grow that presence. Not only did Hydro One
say these things are important to them, but they
almost doubled the amount of donations we give
to the community. Finally, we wanted to create a
governance model that kept our independence.
Hydro One was willing to set up a separate,
independent board of directors from Hydro One
that will oversee our company, which is made up
primarily of people from the Pacific Northwest. By
being proactive and being able to keep our values
the way we want them, this partnership will help
Avista keep its culture for another 128 years.
“We at Avista, and I, have a deep appreciation
for the fact that Avista — then Washington
Water Power Company — was started when
Washington state was still a territory. It’s one of
the very few corporations that is still in existence
where this is the case. It has been an important
part of the Inland Northwest for 128 years.”
22 association of washington business
Avista has been an innovator in environmental
stewardship through initiatives like the vanadium flow
battery storage project to effectively store solar and
wind energy and its recent Urbanova efforts. Why is
sustainability so important to your company?
A big piece of who we are is our environmental stewardship.
We’re one of the first utilities in the United States that hired a
biologist to oversee our water quality and fish restoration and
what our hydro operations mean to those important issues. And,
that was back in the 1950s. That history has stayed with us. Not
only do we stay committed to environmental stewardship in how
we have relicensed our hydro facilities on the Spokane River, we
take great care to protect fish, wildlife, air quality and all our
natural resources, including habitat restoration. We’ve spent tens
of millions of dollars making sure we’re a great corporate citizen
and being good stewards of our environment in our service
territory. We also have one of the greenest energy portfolios of
any utility in North America. We have hydro, but we also have
wind and we were the first commercial utility to have a biomass
plant, in Kettle Falls. No other utility had used wood waste for
electric generation on a utility scale — we were the first to do
that in the ‘80s. In fact, in our next integrated resource plan,
we’re actually reducing our carbon footprint over the next 20
years. Our portfolio is extremely green and it’s very intentional
on our part to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. That’s who
we are and that’s our legacy.
What is Avista’s philosophy on the changing nature of
the energy grid as it blends more with technology?
With a lot of distributive energy, whether it’s solar or battery
storage of renewables, the evolution of this effort is going to
continue in the industry. And, what we’ve learned with the
technological change that has happened over time is that the
companies that survive and thrive are the ones that lean in to
change. What we’ve embraced, whether it’s through Urbanova,
battery storage and all-of-the-above, is that if we learn, partner,
pilot and practice, it will help us be relevant and strong for the
next century. So, while change can sometimes be uncomfortable,
it also brings a lot of opportunities. We know our electric grid is
going to be here for a long time, but we also know that if there is
going to be new technology coming, the real winners are going
to be the ones asking, “how do we integrate this technology and
this wonderful grid to create value for the customer and the
company?” And, we can’t be afraid to fail. We have some of the
most remarkable people working for us. All these great ideas
and innovations came from our team, our incredible people with
incredible ideas, and they’re making all this happen. And, it’s a
joy to be able to work with them.