Throughout the pandemic, we remained focused on providing safe, clean, affordable and reliable energy to our customers and communities. Our employees understand the essential role we play in ensuring the lights are on and the gas is flowing - in emergency response centers, hospitals and across our communities. We are proud of the ability of our workforce to adapt to these challenging conditions.
Given the crucial importance of energy to our communities, Constellation already had in place robust emergency and contingency plans to maintain operations and business continuity. At the start of the pandemic, we activated the executive-level Crisis Management Team to coordinate our overall response. We also connected with industry organizations to ensure we were sharing and applying best practices.
Once our team moved into long-term pandemic response operations, we shifted focus from daily needs, like securing the personal protective equipment (PPE) supply chain, to supporting vaccine distribution and ultimately using the lessons learned to develop new and more flexible workspace arrangements. We developed criteria and plans for responsible re-entry to the workplace. Throughout the pandemic, we maintained a clear focus on our employees, our customers, and our communities.
Constellation’s leadership and safety and occupational health professionals have worked tirelessly to keep our employees and customers safe by ensuring adherence to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance and compliance with state and local requirements. Our actions aim to protect the health of our employees and customers and reduce virus transmission by:
Providing proper protective gear and sanitizer
Implementing screening protocols for essential workers
Updating policies to limit person-to-person contact and ensure social distancing
Enhancing cleaning and disinfecting protocols and frequency
Enabling remote work as much as possible
Although responding to COVID-19 was challenging, we gained understanding that is helping us shape the workplace of the future at Constellation. Shortly after we directed a large subset of our employees to work remotely, which they did for nearly two years, we learned that productivity was not adversely impacted; costs associated with travel and other activities decreased; and employees highly valued the flexibility of working remotely, something we had not generally done prior to COVID-19. As we look to the future, we plan to have some employees working remotely on a regular basis while some will have the flexibility to work remotely at times; some employees will still need to report to Constellation power plants, field operations and office locations. This arrangement will give employees the flexibility they desire and contribute to reducing operating costs.