Corporate goodwill during COVID-19

We’ve been tracking all the goodwill efforts utilities are making to support their customers, their employees, and their communities. It’s inspired us to do the same for utility companies across the US and Canada.

During the COVID-19 crisis, we’re giving anyone who has a utility email address access to our coronavirus-related reports and tools. You don’t have to buy anything. All you have to do is:

  • Sign up for an E Source account.
  • Go to your email preferences and select “COVID-19 (coronavirus)” to make sure you get weekly notifications about all our new content. Every Friday, look for a summary of new publications in your email inbox.

But we also want to recognize the work you’re doing. We’re maintaining a Google spreadsheet called Utility responses to the COVID-19 pandemic to track the initiatives you’re rolling out to protect your employees; support your low-income, recently no-income, and vulnerable customers; and help your communities survive this crisis and get back on their feet. You’re moving quickly and we know we’re missing information. We opened the spreadsheet to the public and invite you to tell us about the programs, policies, protections, and general good stuff you’re doing. And check out what other utilities are doing. You might get some great ideas. For example:

  • Pacific Gas and Electric Co. donated over 1 million masks to hospitals.
  • Nashville Electric Service is going to absorb customers’ credit card fees.
  • Through the government of Ontario, for the next 45 days (starting March 24, 2020) Toronto Hydro is offering 24/7 off-peak pricing for households, farms, and small businesses that pay time-of-use rates.

If you need further inspiration, scroll through COVID-19 Corporate Goodwill, a public Google document that keeps a running account of the goodwill other companies are spreading. You’ll see that:

  • Customer relationship management software giant Salesforce is opening up its technology to emergency response teams, call centers, and care management teams.
  • Videoconferencing company Zoom is allowing K–12 schools to use its software for free.
  • Telecom company Verizon is giving all mobile customers an extra 15 gigabytes of data until April 30, 2020.

Add your utility’s goodwill actions to the list!

How E Source, utilities, and others are doing their part Joy Herbers Corporate citizenship COVID-19 (coronavirus)