Canada's Greenest Employers (2025) - Flipbook - Page 56
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CANADA'S GREENEST EMPLOYERS (2025)
Passion fuels Newfoundland Power’s green team
W
hen Kathleen
Fillier looks at
the towering
calendula
plants in her
office, she is reminded of the fun
she had with colleagues during a
gardening competition and the
deep commitment to
environmental stewardship and
innovation at Newfoundland
Power Inc.
“We try out new technologies
that exist rather than just going
with the status quo. We use the
new technologies to reduce our
environmental impact,” says
Fillier, an environmental analyst
at Newfoundland Power, the
primary distributor of electricity
in Newfoundland and Labrador,
serving over 276,000 customers.
minimize environmental impacts
of future spills. In the process,
Newfoundland Power became the
first North American utility to
assess replacing mineral oil in
transformers with a synthetic
biodegradable alternative.
“The outcomes of this project
will be valuable for Newfoundland
Power and could help inform
environmental practices for the
utility industry,” says Mullins.
Potential environmental benefits
from the highly biodegradable
esters, chemical substances
derived from acids, are now being
explored through the pilot project
that will run into next year. In the
case of a spill, environmental
impacts could be minimized as the
compound is highly
biodegradable. The ester also has
a higher flashpoint than mineral
oil so has the potential to reduce
the risk of a transformer fire and
increase fire safety.
In another pilot project, recently
entered into with Electricity
Canada’s Centre for Excellence,
Newfoundland Power is looking at
leveraging satellite imagery and
artificial intelligence to automate
land mapping and habitat
identification to improve its
environmental stewardship of
land in the province, particularly
when undertaking big projects
such as rebuilding transmission
lines.
“Employees get excited about
coming up with new and
innovative ways to solve age-old
problems,” Mullins says. “We want
to continue to be inspired by the
amazing ideas our employees
bring forth.”
Being from Newfoundland, I
am really connected to the
environment here. My job
allows me to have a direct
impact on the environmental
conservation of my province.
— Kathleen Fillier
Environmental Analyst
For Jamie Mullins, who oversees
the company’s environmental and
sustainability initiatives as vice
president customer operations,
the Biodegradable Ester Pilot
program is a perfect example of
how the company’s more than 600
employees take an innovative
approach to problem-solving.
Faced with an oil spill from a
transformer, they started
questioning how they could
Kathleen Fillier, environmental analyst, at Newfoundland Power.
In her job as environmental
analyst, Fillier is involved in
everything from environmental
assessments and waste
management to fostering a culture
of caring about the environment,
which includes organizing fun
events like gardening competitions
among employees. She also takes
a leading role in EnviroFest, the
company’s annual celebration of
the environment. By providing
funding and offering support to a
wide variety of organizations
throughout the province,
Newfoundland Power assists with
community green projects.
Last June, the company
celebrated more than 25 years of
EnviroFest by funding six
beautification projects, including
the Cormack Wildlife Garden.
Fillier and a handful of employees
