Copperleaf Community Reunites at the 2023 Global Summit in Vancouver
After the virtual experience of the global Copperleaf® Summit last year, the Copperleaf Community had an increased appetite to exchange perspectives and experiences in person.
For two and a half days, over 120 clients and partners from around the world met in Vancouver, Canada, to network, share, and learn through a variety of plenaries, workshops, demos, and industry discussion groups. We had over 25 guest speakers (a record to date!) from some of the world’s leading organizations share their asset management journeys and success stories.
The Copperleaf Community at the 2023 Global Summit
Copperleaf CEO, Paul Sakrzewski, kicked things off with a warm welcome and keynote address that highlighted “The Breakthrough Effect”, a research report that describes how multiple disparate but connected technology adoption curves can resonate with each other, leading to ‘super tipping points’—a gearing effect that triggers rapid progress and a positive spiral of new innovation.
Copperleaf subject matter experts also shared the latest and upcoming product features in the What’s New and Product Roadmap sessions, and attendees had the opportunity to explore these capabilities in more detail in the Product Playground and Demo Den. The always-popular Segment Summits gave clients a chance to break out into smaller groups to connect with peers in their industry and discuss sector-specific challenges—and ways to address them.
The Summit also featured five different tracks on a variety of topics, where clients shared the business benefits and process improvements they’ve realized using Copperleaf’s solutions.
1. Regulatory Landscape
In the face of increasing climate events, regulators are asking for more investment in climate resilience and greater transparency on the outcome risk, reliability, environmental, and social impacts from proposed investments. Copperleaf’s approach and best-practice value models have been proven and accepted by regulatory bodies globally, allowing clients to create optimal investment plans, analyze sensitivities, predict expected outcomes, and defend plans to regulators and external stakeholders. Berkshire Hathaway Energy (BHE) highlighted how cross-industry collaboration and the use of consistent standards and best practices will help organizations streamline the regulatory process and achieve improved regulatory outcomes. BHE described how partnering with Copperleaf and Accenture to integrate data across multiple systems (e.g. AIP, APM, EAM) is enabling the company to advance its asset program maturity and make data-driven decisions that deliver the highest value to customers.
2. Governance
This track began with an update on the much-anticipated revision of ISO 55001 and highlighted how Asset Investment Planning and Management (AIPM) can help companies apply these standards to align asset management and organizational objectives, increase cross-functional collaboration, and develop robust, auditable plans. Participants shared success stories on how they’ve been using Copperleaf Portfolio™ and Investment Capture to govern investment management processes. Baltimore Gas and Electric explained how Copperleaf Asset™ is helping their substation asset planning group make optimal decisions to minimize downtime, mitigate system risk, and create long-term sustainment strategies.
3. Value Realization
Understanding whether or not individual projects or portfolios of projects delivered the value that was planned, can be extremely complex. It starts with building business cases that clearly define the expected value, and then confirming if that value was in fact delivered. However, in some cases, benefits may take years to realize, or may only truly be realized when certain events take place. For example, the value of making assets more resilient to weather events can only be confirmed if/when those events occur. Copperleaf clients and partners shared some key considerations and strategies they’ve developed to track the value realized from their investments, and highlighted some lessons learned along the way.
Attendees discuss challenges, opportunities, and best practices with peers
4. Change Management
It’s no secret technology supports efficient operations, however maximum value is achieved when there is a strong, clear link with processes and business goals. In the change management track, clients shared best practices and recommendations on how to establish a foundation for success and continue the journey towards an agile, value-led culture. Salt River Project (SRP) discussed how they developed a common understanding of what was important and measuring impact, using Copperleaf’s value framework, reports, dashboards, and workflows. Enbridge shared their approach to implementation and the role governance plays in their ongoing success. Powerco, an ISO 55000-certified company, further enhanced the conversation sharing their expanding decision analytics capabilities and approach to continuous improvement.
5. Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)
Climate resilience was a recurring theme at the Summit across all industries. We kicked off this track with a demo of a social impact use case that supports environmental justice objectives. An overview of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) Climate Resilience and Adaptation Initiative (READi) covered the importance of incorporating science-based insights into investment planning. Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM) and Black & Veatch are working toward decarbonization goals through integrated investment planning solutions, and management consultant AMCL shared tips and strategies for future-proofing asset investments as organizations adapt to the effects of climate change.
Excellence in ESG Award
We were also proud to present our inaugural Excellence in ESG Award to Anglian Water (UK) for implementing a continuous, integrated approach to ESG planning using Copperleaf. We will be making a $5,000 CDN donation on behalf of Anglian Water to an ESG-related charity of their choice!
We also thank our other nominees, Southern California Gas Company (USA), Tenaga Nasional Berhad (Malaysia), and Endeavour Energy (Australia) for their high-quality submissions and ESG progress.
Copperleaf CEO Paul Sakrzewski announces Anglian Water as the Excellence in ESG Award winner
As part of our ESG@Home initiative, we were thrilled to purchase a tree on behalf of each Summit attendee through our partnership with Grow My Tree, a social enterprise that plants trees at scale to support reforestation.
The whole point of the Summit is to share information and learn from each other’s processes because we’re all trying to get to the same common goal. It’s great to be able to bounce ideas, network, and build relationships, which are a big benefit of coming to conferences like this.”
Summit attendees networking at the Women in Asset Management & Capital Planning event
Our 2023 global Summit was another success, thanks to the dedication and efforts of our team, the Copperleaf Community Advisory Board, and the enthusiasm and engagement of our clients and partners who generously shared their insights and stories. We can’t wait to see everyone again at the next Summit!