Better Health for All

Plug Power's core business focuses on zero-emission green hydrogen, which displaces fossil fuels and reduces emissions, thereby improving air quality.

This provides substantial health benefits, and the health impact is fundamental to all business decisions. In 2024, the company launched a Global Employee Assistance Program to support mental health.

Fair Money & Economic Opportunity

Plug Power Inc. is a provider of hydrogen fuel cell solutions, not a financial institution.

The company does not offer lending, deposit, or consumer credit products. Therefore, all KPIs related to financial services, such as underserved client share, pricing fairness, exploitative fee exposure, inclusion initiatives for financial products, data accessibility for financial data, fair lending compliance, wealth building outcomes from financial products, profit reinvestment in community finance, financial literacy initiatives, debt burden ratio, geographic inclusion for banking services, and product simplicity for financial products, are not applicable to its core business model.

Fair Pay & Worker Respect

For the 2024 fiscal year, the CEO-to-median-employee pay ratio was 34:1, with CEO Andrew J. Marsh's total compensation reported at $2,240,079 and median employee pay at $66,793.

Employee reviews on Indeed.com indicate an overall satisfaction rating of 2.7 out of 5 stars. No regulatory actions, violations, fines, or compliance issues related to labor laws are mentioned in the provided employee reviews.

Fair Trade & Ethical Sourcing

No specific, quantifiable data was provided across the articles to assess Plug Power, Inc. against the Fair Trade & Ethical Sourcing KPIs. While a Supplier Code of Conduct is mentioned, outlining expectations for ethical, social, and environmental standards, and the company is a Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI) member with a conflict minerals policy, no percentages of spend, audit frequencies, incident numbers, traceability coverage, remediation speeds, or ethical clause coverage percentages were disclosed.

Efforts to reduce iridium use are noted, but no current share of spend on high-risk materials is provided.

Honest & Fair Business

Plug Power incurred a $1.25 million civil fine from the SEC for accounting and control failures, including improper accounting for equipment sold and leased back, misclassification of fuel delivery costs, and underestimation of potential losses on maintenance contracts.

The company also restated financials for 2018, 2019, and part of 2020 due to these errors, identifying a material weakness in internal controls over financial reporting and ineffective disclosure controls. A formal whistleblower policy, approved August 7, 2024, is in place, offering anonymous reporting channels and protection against retaliation, with oversight by the Audit Committee. The Code of Conduct, updated August 7, 2024, states that a policy and annual training are in place, but program effectiveness is not publicly measured. Anti-bribery and anti-corruption policies are in place, with annual employee reaffirmation and training modules, but the effectiveness metrics are not detailed. The Rochester facility holds ISO 9001:2015 certification, and EcoVadis sustainability ratings are used for supplier assessment, indicating some third-party verification, but the percentage of ethical claims verified is not specified.

Kind to Animals

The provided article focuses on Plug Power's general sustainability initiatives and ESG commitments, including supplier conduct and environmental health and safety.

However, it does not contain any specific data or information relevant to the 'Kind to Animals' ethical value or any of its associated KPIs, such as animal testing, animal-derived ingredients, or habitat conservation.

No War, No Weapons

Plug Power has a Conflict Minerals Policy, last revised on December 1, 2022, and reports annually on its compliance with the Conflict Minerals Rule.

The company requires suppliers to report company-level and smelter data using the Conflict Minerals Reporting Template (CMRT) for materials supplied after January 1, 2019, and to maintain annual compliance. Materials collected from suppliers are reviewed in an audit framework based on the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk areas, with action plans implemented to address concerns.

Planet-Friendly Business

Plug Power reported total Scope 1 and 2 emissions of 26,273 tCO2e in 2023, a 7.9% decline from 2022.

However, Scope 3 emissions are not disclosed, with the company stating it is only starting to track them. The company has not publicly committed to specific 2030 or 2050 climate goals through major frameworks. Plug Power aims for over 50% of its hydrogen supplies to be produced from renewable resources by 2024 and has an agreement to source 100% renewable energy from Brookfield Renewable for a planned green hydrogen production plant. The company's 2023 ESG report indicates water consumption increased from 21 million gallons in 2022 to 212 million gallons in 2023. Plug Power has a 10-year water purchase contract for up to 587,520 gallons daily for its Georgia plant and applied for a permit to withdraw up to 1.1 million gallons per day. In 2023, the SEC charged Plug Power for failures in financial reporting, accounting, and control, resulting in a $1.25 million civil fine. The company has a net-zero target year of 2025. Plug Power issued $212.5 million in Green Bonds in May 2020.

Respect for Cultures & Communities

Plug Power states a strong focus on local employment, giving priority to local hiring for projects such as the one in Aragón, Spain, which created over 2,089 direct jobs.

However, the company's total permanent employees were approximately 2,250 as of March 31, 2022, and no specific percentage of local hires from this total is provided. In 2021, DEI awareness training was added to the learning plan for the leadership team, with plans to distribute this training to all employees in 2022, indicating it was not yet company-wide.