ISO New England prioritizes environmental, social, and governance (ESG) matters. We are committed to following practices that minimize the environmental impact of our facilities. We embrace diversity within our workforce and support our employees’ wellbeing. And we ensure that our governance structure includes robust oversight, data protection, business integrity, and appropriate transparency and stakeholder involvement.
Our mission, vision, and values have been integrated into our corporate strategy. Our dedicated staff embody our core values—expertise, respect, collaboration, dependability, and innovation—as they carry out the ISO’s three critical roles: grid operation, market administration, and power system planning.
State policy goals to decarbonize the economy are reshaping the region’s power system. In addition to our collaborative work with regional stakeholders in facilitating this clean energy transition, ISO New England employs practical, ecological programs in our own backyard.
Following remodeling and expansion in 2007, our two-building main campus in Holyoke, Massachusetts, became the first commercial corporate headquarters in New England to receive gold certification from the US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System.
Our Windsor Campus in Connecticut, home to the ISO’s backup control center, was completed in 2014. It is also gold certified and features an 84 kilowatt rooftop solar photovoltaic system.
Gold certification is based on an evaluation of key elements of human and environmental health, including responsible construction practices such as the use of recycled and locally sourced building materials, recycling of waste materials, and energy and water efficiency.
Both ISO campuses provide bicycle storage with amenities for showering and changing, preferred carpool parking spaces, and charging stations for electric vehicles.
High construction standards and ongoing efforts preserve healthy air quality in our buildings. In 2023 the ISO received a Clean Air Award from the National Air Filtration Association for increasing the efficiency of our heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems in 10 categories.
Designated recycling stations are located throughout both campuses for collecting cardboard, paper, plastic, glass, and metals.
ISO New England fosters an open, collaborative work environment where all employees can be their full selves. Recognizing that employees with a variety of backgrounds, identities, and perspectives are needed to help the region successfully navigate the clean energy transition, we recruit and nurture a diverse and inclusive workforce.
ISO New England honors diversity and promotes inclusion, knowing that a unique blend of experience improves problem-solving, spurs innovation, informs decision-making, and makes the ISO a place where people want to work.
The ISO New England Board of Directors has adopted a mission statement on diversity, equity, and inclusion, and our chief executive officer is part of a growing coalition of corporate leaders involved in the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion program.
We’re proud that our multigenerational workforce is made up of highly educated individuals from around the globe. Over 20% of our workforce is racially and ethnically diverse. Women represent about a third of our staff, many of them in leadership positions. We encourage continuous learning through in-house training and other professional development opportunities including tuition reimbursement.
ISO colleagues participate in the Council for Diversity and Inclusion, which offers programming based on each member’s unique ideas, fresh perspectives, and experiences. Additionally, the Women’s Business Network helps empower, develop, and support the continued success of ISO New England’s female-identifying personnel through programming, mentorship, networking, and business-results-based opportunities.
The ISO’s workforce also values giving back. In an effort that has been underway for a decade, employees make and deliver dozens of sandwiches to a local free meal site each month. An annual toy drive provides gifts to children at Christmas. Outside of these and other organizational efforts, staff members celebrate individual contributions through the “Gift of Giving” series, which shares stories about employees’ charitable work.
One of the cornerstones of ISO New England is its independence. Its employees and members of its board are bound by a Code of Conduct that ensures their freedom from conflicts of interest. The ISO is also bound by an Information Policy that recognizes the confidentiality and commercial sensitivity of the information it handles. Within these overarching confines, the ISO has adopted governance policies that maximize its accountability and transparency.
The ISO New England Board of Directors holds an open meeting once a year, allowing members of the public to observe board discussions and offer feedback. Board members and ISO executives participate in meetings of the Consumer Liaison Group, a forum for the exchange of information between the ISO and electricity consumers. The board meets regularly with state officials and industry stakeholders.
The ISO elects its board of directors following a joint nominating process that involves representatives from the board, the New England Power Pool (NEPOOL), and the New England Conference of Public Utilities Commissioners (NECPUC). A rigorous search process ensures that the ISO has a highly qualified, independent board.
The board and senior management promote an ethical culture and support rigorous regulatory compliance. Board members and ISO employees annually confirm their compliance with the Code of Conduct, which contains strong corporate policies against conflicts of interest, ensuring the ISO does business legally and ethically. A suite of annual training programs reinforces the Code of Conduct and supports other regulatory obligations. The company’s compliance handbook describes three “lines of defense” against risk, including internal controls and audit mechanisms.
ISO-NE’s transparent budgeting process allows for detailed examination by the New England states, stakeholders, and our federal regulator. The board carefully weighs feedback from all of these parties as it works to strike the appropriate balance between cost impact and growing demands on the ISO. The ISO is the only system operator that files its budget with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
As established in the Participants Agreement between the ISO and NEPOOL, a number of committees and working groups meet regularly to learn about and provide input on the ISO’s functions and initiatives. These groups play an important advisory role in fulfilling our responsibilities to the region. They cover a wide variety of topics including the ISO’s budgets, the efficient operation of the region’s wholesale electricity markets, design and oversight of reliability standards, and reliable operation of the transmission system. ISO-NE employees chair or provide support to several of the committees and working groups.
For 19 years running, ISO New England has earned an “unqualified opinion” from independent auditors that assess the controls around our administration of the region’s wholesale electricity markets.
ISO-NE also retains external auditors to ensure the accuracy of its financial statements and the robustness of its internal controls. An internal audit department, meanwhile, regularly reviews a number of aspects of ISO-NE’s business, including pre-implementation reviews of ISO-NE software.
In addition, the ISO has an internal market monitor and an external market monitor, each responsible for ensuring the integrity of the wholesale electricity markets.
ISO New England’s networks contain vast amounts of critical and confidential information pertaining to the bulk electric system, requiring us to be ever-vigilant as cybersecurity threats increase in volume and sophistication. As part of our commitment to keeping power grid and market operations secure, the ISO maintains a Security Operations Center to monitor threats and follows Critical Infrastructure Protection standards set by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC).
ISO New England’s Purchasing Policy includes a commitment to vendor diversity, creating opportunities for small, local, minority-owned, and woman-owned business enterprises. The Audit and Finance Committee of the board of directors assesses the results of this commitment each year.
The ISO’s annual financial reports offer more in-depth information about ISO-NE’s environmental, social, and governance practices.
