I hope this report gives you some meaningful insight into
the working assumptions and driving principles of our
company. We view sustainability and corporate responsibility
as relatively new names for the long-term perspective
that guides and informs everything we do at Dominion. That
includes the goals we set, the commitments we make and
the actions we take.
Our corporate family tree includes more than 200
different businesses reaching back to the early days of the
American Republic. Officials at one of Dominion’s oldest
ancestor companies signed a 999-year lease for water rights on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Canal in
Richmond. Talk about sustainability!
A century later, another corporate ancestor erected poles
and wires to light the streets — a revolutionary step with
far-reaching consequences. Not long after that, Richmond
became the first city in the nation to have an operating
electric streetcar system.
Dominion’s business roots run deep, and our connections
to community life are longstanding. We take pride in
creating shareholder value, delivering superior customer
service, enhancing community life and protecting natural
resources.
Like a marathon runner, we are in business for the long
haul. An energy company is not an incidental business. It
does not market products or services that appeal to disposable
income. It sells a social and commercial necessity. That unadorned fact made reliability a Dominion obsession
long ago, and it remains so today.
When the power goes out or the gas stops flowing, nothing
good happens. Leaving aside the economic consequences,
the disruptions to home life and the community
are significant. Consider just the effects upon those
places — hospitals and nursing homes, for example —
where conditions make energy requisite to life.
In other words, immediacy accompanies our work. It
informs our sense of duty. We even tried to capture our
core purpose in Dominion’s corporate logo: A burst of
energy coming from a human hand in the middle of the
Dominion "D" — our trading symbol on the New York Stock
Exchange. This symbol reinforces the vital interaction that
exists between people and energy. But that relationship only
begins to describe the full extent of how we approach the job.
Straight talk about all aspects of making, moving and
selling energy has never been more urgent. Energy suppliers
throughout the world face unprecedented public desire
for change. Accelerated economic growth, which raises the
demand for energy, lives side-by-side with heightened
scrutiny, even skepticism, about the way utilities produce
power and the effects upon the environment.
Dominion harbors a bias for things that work. For us,
real-world experience is the single best source of wisdom. |
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We have a practical mindset when it comes to promoting
the welfare of the communities that depend on us.
On the other hand, experience also tells us that ingenuity
and innovation open paths to better ways of getting things
done. On that score, we must be progressive and think
years, even decades, into the future.
Understand there is much at stake in how we produce
energy today. Generations of customers and investors have
paid for the facilities now in place. We have to make the
best of those, and we will.
But society’s aspirations must be our aspirations. In the
same way Dominion has historically responded to the
hopes, dreams and concerns of its customers, we are committed
to reconciling environmental protection with rising
energy needs.
That challenge will keep us actively involved in the communities
we serve. The complexity of the issues to be
addressed requires a broad understanding of the choices
we face together.
Dominion and its predecessor companies have been in
business for more than 200 years. We expect to be in business
for at least that many more, providing energy reliably,
safely, efficiently and responsibly.
Can a company do its work, fulfill its obligations, and
reward its investors at the same time it enriches and serves
society? We think so. It is what we plan to do.
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