Demonstrating not just what we did, but what changed for customers + communities
Since we launched The Energy Charter in early 2019, accountability has been central to everything we do. From the beginning, our Full Signatories recognised that earning trust with customers + communities required more than simply making commitments. It required being transparent about progress, listening to feedback and being accountable for delivering better outcomes under our 5 Principles.
Together, we created an Accountability Process that was unlike anything else in the energy sector. It represented a significant step forward - placing customer + community outcomes, CEO leadership and public accountability at the heart of how we worked together. Led by CEOs, transparency and accountability became foundational behaviours that helped build credibility and trust across the energy sector.
Over the past six years, however, both our collaboration and environment have evolved. As our Signatories have matured, reporting expectations have changed, and our #BetterTogether initiatives have expanded, so too has our approach to accountability.
Our journey
Building trust through transparency
When we began, our priority was clear: establish trust. Our original Accountability Process focused on creating a robust, independent process that enabled Full Signatories, led by their CEOs, to publicly demonstrate their commitment to The Energy Charter Principles. This included:
- Independent Accountability Panel Review
- Annual Signatory Disclosures
- CEO interviews
- National stakeholder forums
- Independent Accountability Reports
This independent model played an important role in establishing transparency, credibility and trust during the early years of The Energy Charter.
Embedding accountability
As The Energy Charter matured, so did our approach. Independent reviews confirmed that accountability had become increasingly embedded within our Signatories and recommended a more flexible, decentralised model that strengthened CEO leadership and Customer Council engagement. During this period we saw:
- Increasing organisational maturity across our Full Signatories
- Stronger Customer + Community Council engagement
- More focused Signatory Disclosures
- Greater flexibility in how accountability was demonstrated
- Annual Energy Charter Disclosures identifying sector-wide insights and opportunities
Importantly, accountability became less about a single annual event and increasingly part of how our Signatories engaged with customers + communities throughout the year.
Demonstrating impact
Today, our Signatories operate in a very different environment. Integrated reporting, sustainability reporting, ESG reporting and mandatory climate disclosures all contribute to organisational transparency. At the same time, our #BetterTogether initiatives have grown into more than 30 collaborative programs delivering practical outcomes across energy equity and the energy transition.
Rather than duplicating reporting already occurring elsewhere, we believe our greatest opportunity is to demonstrate something unique: The collective impact we create when we work #BetterTogether.
That is why our Accountability Process continues to evolve. Our commitment to transparency and accountability remains exactly the same. What is changing is how we demonstrate success for customers + communities.
From accountability to accountability + impact
In 2026, our next evolution reflects a simple idea. Customers and communities are interested not only in what we did, but what difference it made. Together, The Energy Charter and our Full Signatories are moving:
- From reporting activities to demonstrating outcomes and impact
- From individual organisational reporting to showcasing collective impact
- From annual accountability to continuous learning and improvement
- From measuring outputs to understanding customer + community outcomes.
- From transparency alone to building lasting trust through evidence and collaboration.
Our Impact Framework helps us better understand how collaboration leads to meaningful change for customers, communities and the broader energy system.
Our Impact Framework
Our Impact Framework helps us provide a consistent approach to understand, measure and communicate the difference our collective work is making for customers, communities and the energy system.
Rather than simply reporting on activities or outputs, the Framework helps us tell the complete story of change:
- What challenge were we trying to solve?
- What actions did we take together?
- What outcomes were achieved?
- What difference did it make for customers and communities?
- What did we learn, and what will we do next?
Embedded across our #BetterTogether initiatives, the Impact Framework helps us demonstrate not only what we have delivered, but why it matters.
It enables us to move beyond measuring activity towards understanding the lasting value created through collaboration - supporting continuous learning, strengthening accountability and building trust through evidence of real customer + community outcomes.
Why this evolution matters
The challenges facing Australia's energy transition cannot be solved by one organisation acting alone. They require collaboration, shared accountability and a commitment to continuously learning and improving together.
Since 2019, our Full Signatories have demonstrated that transparency and accountability build trust. Now we are taking the next step, demonstrating not only our commitment, but the collective impact we create when we work #BetterTogether. This evolution reflects the maturity of our Signatories, the changing expectations of customers + communities and an increasingly complex reporting environment. It also recognises that the greatest value we can create is not through additional reporting, but by showing how collaboration is delivering meaningful outcomes for customers, communities and the energy system.
Our commitment to accountability remains unwavering. What continues to evolve is how we demonstrate it.
By combining transparency, collaboration and our Impact Framework, we are moving beyond reporting activity to demonstrating outcomes, learning from experience and continuously improving the way we serve customers and communities. Ultimately, accountability is measured by whether customers and communities experience better outcomes because we chose to work #BetterTogether.
