Safety · Environment · People & Culture · Governance
This report sets out OE Utility Services’ sustainability performance, practices, and forward commitments across four areas: Safety, Environment, People & Culture, and Governance.
The 2025 Sustainability Report covers OE Utility Services’ performance and activities from January 1 to December 31, 2025, with reference to significant developments through the date of publication.
This report covers OE Utility Services’ operations in Ontario, Canada. OE operates from six locations: the Head Office and Main Yard in Vaughan, and regional yards in Hamilton, Durham (Courtice), Barrie (Holland Landing), London (Thames Centre), and Ottawa (Nepean). Data presented reflects the full operating footprint unless otherwise noted.
Where 2024 figures are referenced for comparison, the source is OE’s 2024 Sustainability Report. Where prior-year comparisons require clarification — for example, where the basis of measurement has changed — that change is noted alongside the data.
Operational figures in this report (training hours, audit counts, driver coaching sessions and outcomes, fleet size, Kaizen initiatives, supplier spend, and EcoVadis results) are drawn from OE’s internal management systems and the records of the responsible functional leaders.
The three headline waste-processing statistics (silt and clay diverted, sand processed, and water recycled) are reported from OE’s integrated soil recycling facility billing records. The 2025 sand figure reflects sand only and is not directly comparable to the 2024 figure, which included sand and aggregate combined.
OE is currently undertaking a comprehensive review of its greenhouse gas measurement methodology and baseline assumptions. Specific GHG performance figures are not reported in this document; an updated position will be provided in a future report once the review is complete.
The content of this report has not been subject to independent third-party assurance. All figures and statements have been reviewed and confirmed by the OE leadership team prior to publication.
This report contains forward-looking statements regarding OE Utility Services’ plans, commitments, and intentions, including but not limited to forward statements on Indigenous engagement, greenhouse gas measurement, fleet development, community investment, and operational growth. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and expectations that OE believes to be reasonable as of the date of publication. Actual outcomes may differ from those described. OE undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements except as required by applicable practice.
OE Utility Services publishes a Sustainability Report annually. Prior reports remain accessible on the OE website at www.oeservices.ca/sustainability.
OE welcomes feedback on this report and on our sustainability practices. Inquiries may be directed to sales@oeservices.ca or 416.749.0005.
It is my privilege to introduce OE Utility Services’ 2025 Sustainability Report — my first as President and CEO. Joining OE has reinforced what I believed coming in: that this company’s strength is its people, and that sustainability, done honestly, is the natural outcome of putting people, safety, and craft at the centre of the business.
Sustainability is not a department at OE. It is the result of thousands of small, disciplined decisions made every day — in the field, in the yard, in the office, and at the leadership table. This report tells the story of those decisions in 2025.
That commitment shows up most directly in how we handle the material we collect. OE disposes only at Environmental Compliance Approval (ECA) sites, and the bulk of our hydrovac waste is recycled at our integrated soil recycling facility, where it is transformed into saleable products — clean fill, premium-grade sand, and reclaimed water that returns to our operations. This is not a side benefit of how we work; it is the centre of how we work, and the foundation of the environmental case we make to every Customer.
Safety remains the foundation of everything we do at OE. In 2025, we deepened our investment in the systems and habits that protect our people. We maintained both our ISO 45001 and COR 2020 certifications through the surveillance audits completed during the year and continue to operate as a Recognized Safe Employer under the Chief Prevention Officer’s Supporting Ontario’s Safe Employers (SOSE) program — a recognition we have not previously highlighted, but which speaks to the standard we hold ourselves to.
We saw a significant increase in front-line leadership presence in the field, including a 41% year-over-year increase in job site audits. We also introduced bi-weekly incident reviews that bring front-line leadership together to learn from incidents and identify meaningful preventative actions. Safety performance is now directly linked to management incentive pay — a deliberate signal that this work is core to the business, not adjacent to it.
Our zero lost-time injury goal remains in place. We did not achieve it in 2025, and that result is one we sit with honestly. It is the reason the work continues.
Our AI-enabled fleet camera system delivered measurable behavioral change in 2025. Across the program, we recorded an 80% reduction in handheld device use, an 80% reduction in seatbelt non-compliance, and a 52% reduction in triggered safety events. In total, 162 drivers received coaching across 611 sessions — coaching led by people, supported by data.
We extended AI applications into sales support, estimating, and contract review during the year. Looking ahead, our plan is to use AI-enabled tools to support our dispatch process. Our approach to AI is straightforward: it should make our people safer, faster, and more effective at the work they already do well. Technology serves the team, not the other way around.
In 2025 we did not open new regional cities, but we expanded our Ottawa yard to better support Customer demand. We also grew our service footprint with Enbridge Gas across South-Western Ontario, Barrie, and the Greater Toronto Area, and began expanding our work with electricity distribution utilities across those same regions — a meaningful diversification of our Customer base. Our Storm and Underground Service Engineering (SUE) and Enbridge Gas Inc. (EGI) work expanded across the board.
Growth in 2025 was about serving existing Customers better — adding capacity, depth, and responsiveness in the regions where we already operate.
LEAN remains how we improve, every day. In 2025, our teams completed 204 continuous improvement initiatives through our Quick and Easy Kaizen program — a number that represents real participation across the company, not a corporate target. We also ran a three-day cross-functional Kaizen with significant field crew involvement on our Asset Management Program (AMP) work, which delivered a 20%-plus gain in throughput. That is what LEAN looks like at OE: structured discipline, applied by the people closest to the work.
Our commitment to deepening engagement with Indigenous businesses and communities continued in 2025. Building on the foundational work begun in 2024 — joining the Canadian Council for Indigenous Business, attending conferences, and engaging an Indigenous Relations Advisor — we used 2025 to develop a multi-year action plan and to begin training at the leadership level. Our approach is field-first and evidence-based: we are building this program to be operational, measurable, and owned by OE for the long term. We will say more about this in the People and Culture section of this report.
Our vision — to provide groundbreaking utility support services, driven by unparalleled safety and sustainability to help our communities thrive — remains unchanged for 2025. Our four core values — Respect Each Other, Be Responsive, Champion Safety, and Do The Right Thing — remain unchanged as well.
What changed in 2025 was how we use them. We have woven the values more deliberately into recognition, tying praise directly to the value being demonstrated. Values become real when they show up in the language of everyday work.
Looking ahead, three commitments anchor our forward view:
2026 also marks an important milestone for OE: our 30th anniversary. Thirty years of utility support work across Ontario, built on the same foundation we report against today — safety, environmental responsibility, the people who do the work, and the trust of the Customers we serve. We will recognize the anniversary throughout the year, including a monthly leadership article series that gives voice to the people who have built this company and continue to carry it forward.
Thank you for your continued support and trust in OE Utility Services. The work is the work, and we will do it together.
OE continues to operate with environmental responsibility as a core operating principle. Our 2.5-hectare hydrovac waste disposal and processing site continues to operate under the approval of the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, in compliance with all applicable Ontario environmental regulations. Our Environmental Compliance Approval remains current, as are our obligations under Ontario Regulation 406/19 and the City of Vaughan’s sanitary discharge requirements. No regulatory inspections, orders, or correspondence of concern were received during 2025.
In 2025, our integrated soil recycling facility began a comprehensive plant overhaul scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2026. The overhaul is an investment in the capacity, reliability, and long-term performance of the facility that anchors OE’s environmental case — and a signal of our continued commitment to upgrading rather than relying on what is already in place.
How we manage hydrovac waste defines who we are. OE disposes only at sites operating under a Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks Environmental Compliance Approval (ECA) — and the bulk of the material we collect is processed at our integrated soil recycling (ISR) facility, where it is transformed into usable, saleable products: clean fill, premium-grade sand, and reclaimed water. Our soil handling and refining processes continue to enable 100% of hydrovac waste to be upgraded for value-added use. This is not a marginal practice at OE; it is the operating model.
Refining is not just a process; it is a commitment to keeping valuable materials in productive use rather than sending them to landfill. When hydrovac slurry arrives at our ISR facility, every drop of water is repurposed — supporting the upgrading process from treatment through to refilling our hydrovac trucks. The material itself is transformed into commercially saleable products that return to the construction supply chain: clean fill, premium-grade sand for utility pipe bedding, and reclaimed water. The refining process itself remains unchanged in 2025 — proven, controlled, and applied consistently across our operations. All materials continue to undergo rigorous testing, tracking, and tracing to monitor contamination risk.
Our recycled sand continues to be formulated for use as premium bedding material for underground utility piping. Engineered for high performance with higher moisture content, our bedding material experiences less sinkage and fewer effects from freeze-thaw contraction. The product specification and process are unchanged for 2025 — what is proven, we keep.
Our facility-level climate practices remain in place in 2025:
These are not commitments awaiting action — they are operating practices that continue to deliver results every day, in the background of how we run the business.
One of the most direct ways OE addresses environmental impact is through the equipment we choose to operate. Our hydrovac fleet is purpose-built — selected and specified to deliver high productivity with reduced fuel consumption, lower noise output, and reduced emissions relative to standard alternatives.
Our fleet now numbers 183 vehicles, an increase from 2024. Approximately 60% of our fleet has now been converted to vegetable-oil hydraulic systems, further reducing environmental risk in the event of a leak or spill. The technical advantages our equipment was selected for in 2024 — quieter operation in noise-sensitive areas, cold-weather cabinetry that eliminates freeze-up, rotating water nozzles for safer and faster excavation, the highest flow rates in the industry, and dig reach up to 900 feet from the truck — remain current in 2025.
At OE, our integrated service model continues to be one of the most direct ways we reduce environmental impact for our Customers. By combining hydrovac excavation, road cutting and coring, U-Fill services, aggregate and sand delivery, surface restoration, support vehicles and crews, and soil disposal and recycling under one company, we eliminate the inefficiency, the redundant travel, and the coordination overhead that come with multiple subcontractors.
The environmental case for bundling is simple: fewer trucks on the road, less repeated travel between sites, and more material reused in place of disposed. The operational case is equally clear: faster projects, lower coordination cost, and a single point of accountability for safety and quality.
Our co-location model — positioning our operations close to where the work is — continues to be a defining feature of how OE delivers value. Co-location reduces travel, reduces emissions, and reduces cost. It also keeps our crews closer to home and closer to the communities we serve.
In 2025, we continued to serve Customers from our six locations across Ontario — the Head Office and Main Yard in Vaughan, and regional yards in Hamilton, Durham, Barrie, London, and Ottawa. The model remains the foundation of our regional growth strategy, and the principle behind it — bring the work, the people, and the materials together — continues to guide how we plan operations.
At OE, our people are the company. In 2025, our people strategy was centered on sustainable growth, reflected in a more than 20% increase in headcount. To support this expansion, we prioritized strengthening our onboarding and training processes — ensuring new hires were effectively integrated and equipped to uphold the safety standards and quality of service that define how OE operates.
We met our 2024 commitment to ensure a minimum of 1.5% of goods and services spend (exclusive of vehicles and fuel) be directed to diverse suppliers. Our 2025 result was 1.9%. We will maintain the same 1.5% goal for 2026 as a baseline and continue to push higher where the business case supports it.
Our 2025 diversity, equity, and inclusion work was centered on strengthening internal awareness and education across the organization. This included a structured communications approach that highlighted diverse cultures, backgrounds, and abilities — using targeted campaigns and curated content to promote understanding, inclusion, and continuous learning among employees.
Groundbreaking Utility Support Services, Driven By Unparalleled Safety And Sustainability To Help Our Communities Thrive.
We approach each other with honesty, trust, care, and mutual respect. We embrace inclusivity.
We strive to be engaged and committed to the success of our Customers, our people, our industry, and our communities. We are forward thinkers, continuously improving.
We are relentless in improving physical and emotional well-being.
We always act ethically. We take concrete actions to attain sustainable, social, and environmental objectives.
In 2025, we launched our first Great Place to Work survey to gather direct feedback from employees on workplace improvements. As a first-year baseline, we were pleased with the response — and more importantly, the feedback has given us a clear focus and tangible action plans heading into 2026. Listening is only the first step; what we do with what we hear is the test.
In 2025, we launched our Volunteer Day initiative, giving every employee a paid day per year to volunteer with the charity or community organization of their choice. Employees stepped up — volunteering with organizations including the Girl Guides of Canada and the Royal Canadian Legion. A group of OE employees also participated in the Hazel McCallion Run for Health, an initiative brought forward by a field employee. That last detail matters: the best community programs come from the bottom up.
We began a structured leadership development program in 2025, supporting current and emerging leaders across the company. Strong front-line leadership is the single most important determinant of safety, retention, and operational quality — and we are investing accordingly.
In 2025, we tied recognition more directly to our four core values — celebrating not just outcomes but the way the work was done. We are particularly proud that Joe Chase of OE was recognized with the Utility Contractors Association of Ontario Safety Award in 2025 — a meaningful recognition both for Joe and for the safety culture his work reflects.
Our hiring approach continues to prioritize skills and gender equality. A formal pay equity review was completed in 2025; no gaps requiring remediation were identified. The underlying commitment — to monitor and maintain pay equity regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, age, religion, or other non-job-related factors — remains unchanged. We acknowledge that meaningful movement toward gender parity at field, office, and management levels remains a longer-term effort, and one we are committed to continuing.
OE Utility Services is committed to providing a barrier-free environment for our employees, Customers, and stakeholders, in alignment with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). We support the principles and requirements of the Act and strive to meet or exceed applicable accessibility standards across our operations, hiring, and Customer service.
In 2025, OE published its Multi-Year Accessibility Plan covering the 2025–2030 horizon, alongside our Customer Service Standards Policy and Integrated Accessibility Standards Policy. Accessible formats and communication supports are available on request, and OE welcomes feedback on the accessibility of our services and facilities at any time. All three documents are available at www.oeservices.ca/accessibility.
Meaningful Indigenous relations begin with respect, understanding, and a genuine commitment to creating mutual benefit. This commitment is a direct reflection of our core values. Operating across diverse regions of Ontario, we acknowledge that our work takes place on the traditional territories of many First Nations communities, including the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat, and Mississauga peoples. We are grateful for the opportunity to live and work on these lands.
In 2024, we began a deliberate journey to deepen our engagement with Indigenous businesses and communities — joining the Canadian Council for Indigenous Business, participating in key conferences, and engaging an Indigenous Relations Advisor. We approached that work with a clear principle: learn before acting and challenge our assumptions through thoughtful questions before making promises we have not yet earned.
In 2025, we continued that learning posture while taking concrete steps forward. We delivered foundational training on Indigenous histories, cultures, and contemporary realities to our Executive Leadership Team — a deliberate choice to start at the top. Leaders who do not understand cannot lead a program that does. Building on that foundation, we developed a multi-year action plan to guide OE’s Indigenous engagement going forward — one that is field-first, evidence-based, owned by OE, and built for the long term rather than for any single moment of communication. We also began the transition to a consulting partner with deeper sector experience, positioning OE to move from foundational learning to operational delivery in the work ahead.
We continue to operate from a position of honesty about where we are. We do not yet have active partnerships with Indigenous businesses in the utility support services sector. We do not yet have measurable procurement spend with Indigenous-owned businesses. We do not yet have the metrics framework we committed to in 2024. These are not things to obscure — they are the next steps of the work, and they will be reported when there is real progress to report.
OE joined the CCIB in 2024 as a foundational step in our Indigenous engagement, gaining access to its programming, network, and certified Indigenous business directory.
Our forward commitments remain:
Building trust takes time and consistent action. As we move forward, we will continue to listen, learn, and adapt our approach — and we will report what we do, not what we intend to do.
OE Utility Services operates from six locations across Ontario — the Head Office and Main Yard in Vaughan, and regional yards in Hamilton, Durham, Barrie, London, and Ottawa — and remains actively engaged in supporting the communities where we live and work.
In 2025, OE continued our long-standing support of community organizations and charitable causes that reflect our values and the communities where our people live and work. Our giving supports health, education, and community well-being initiatives across the regions we serve. We are also proud that our 2025 community footprint included employee-led initiatives such as participation in the Hazel McCallion Run for Health, brought forward by a field team member through our new Volunteer Day program.
Looking ahead, we are working toward a more focused and structured community investment program — one that will allow OE to deepen impact in a few well-chosen areas rather than spread investment thinly. We expect to have more to share on this in future reports.
Safety is the foundation of OE’s culture and the priority that guides every decision we make. With the implementation of our Lytx camera system, our 2025 focus was to drive down motor vehicle accidents and damages — a focus that will continue into 2026. We have also tied safety performance directly to management incentive pay, signaling clearly that safety outcomes are core business outcomes.
Field employees continue to receive all essential protective clothing, seasonal adaptations, and personal protective equipment. Our zero lost-time injury goal remains in place. We did not achieve it in 2025, and that result drives the continued investment in audits, training, and front-line leadership presence.
In 2025, our teams completed more than 4,600 hours of in-class and online training — a number that does not include the substantial on-the-job training hours invested in growing our team’s skills. We continue to maintain 100% training of field employees in the safe stewardship of hydrovac waste under the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act and Environmental Protection Act Regulation 347, and 100% training in spill response and containment.
Our leadership team continues to convene daily to review business activities and safety incidents. In 2025 we increased the frequency of safety alerts highlighting incidents across the company and introduced bi-weekly incident reviews that bring all front-line leadership together to learn from incidents and identify meaningful preventative actions. The bi-weekly cadence has changed the conversation — incidents are not isolated events to be closed out but learning opportunities for everyone.
OE continues to hold COR 2020 and ISO 45001 certifications, both current and in good standing for 2025. We also continue to be recognized as a Safe Employer under the Chief Prevention Officer’s Supporting Ontario’s Safe Employers program. No new certifications were added in 2025 — the standard we hold ourselves to is already among the highest in our industry, and our focus is on continuing to live up to it.
In 2025, our crews continued to conduct thorough job site safety assessments before any work began. We saw a substantial increase in on-site leadership presence during the year — including a 41% increase in job site audits performed by our leaders. That presence is the most direct way leadership demonstrates commitment to the people doing the work.
Our AI-enabled fleet camera system delivered measurable behavioral change in 2025. Across the program, 162 drivers received coaching through 611 individual sessions. The outcomes speak directly to the program’s value: an 80% reduction in handheld device use, an 80% reduction in seatbelt non-compliance, and a 52% reduction in triggered safety events. In 2025 we also introduced a Fatigue Alert capability, which triggers in-cab alerts and notifies the supervisor if a driver is not fit to be behind the wheel due to fatigue. Technology supports the coaching; the coaching changes the behavior.
OE remains committed to enhancing its sustainability performance on an ongoing basis. We understand that sustainability extends beyond environmental issues and requires a comprehensive view — one that recognizes environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors as interconnected dimensions of how a business creates and protects value.
In 2025, OE completed our annual EcoVadis assessment. Our score improved by six percentile points, moving us from the 59th to the 64th percentile globally — with our strongest gains driven by a focused effort on Sustainable Procurement. While our overall rating remains at the Bronze level, the underlying improvement represents meaningful progress against the gaps identified in our previous assessment and gives us a clear direction for continued advancement. We will publish and distribute our Sustainability Report annually as committed.
The 2024 report included three specific GHG claims. On review, none could be substantiated with documented data or methodology, so the 2025 report does not repeat them. In their place, OE is undertaking a comprehensive review of its GHG measurement methodology and baseline assumptions, to report against a robust, defensible framework in future reports.
At OE, we believe every business has a meaningful role in environmental stewardship. We are committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and partnering with Customers who place environmental responsibility at the centre of their operations.
We continue to meet or exceed all legislative requirements for the safe testing, handling, and disposal of hydrovac waste under provincial Regulation 406/19. Our Environmental Compliance Approval (ECA) remains current, and we continue to meet the City of Vaughan’s sanitary discharge requirements.
Greenhouse gas reduction at OE is driven by the operational choices that define how the company runs: LEAN discipline that eliminates waste at every step, a co-location model that reduces vehicular travel, on-premises soil disposal and recycling that eliminates long-distance haul, integrated service bundling that reduces the number of trucks required to complete a project, and a steady investment in equipment specified for lower fuel consumption and emissions. These are the levers we control directly, and they are the levers we continue to apply.
OE is currently undertaking a comprehensive review of our greenhouse gas measurement methodology and baseline assumptions, with the goal of reporting against a robust, defensible framework in future reports. We will provide an updated position on our long-term emissions trajectory once that work is complete.
We are committed to leading sustainable practices and to communicating openly about both our progress and the work that remains. Our environmental policy was updated in 2025 and is published on the OE Utility Services website, where it is available to employees, Customers, and the broader public.
OE’s leadership team as of the publication of this report — full biographies are available at www.oeservices.ca/about-us:
OE Executive Leadership TeamOur regional leadership team includes Zoltan Pop, Noah Badgerow, Jason Walker, and Todd Desjardins, with Mike Vander Holst serving as our Facilities and Fleet Manager and Chris Penic, Ellen D'Alessio and Abhishek Hosahalli serving as a Sales Manager.
This report sets out an honest account of where OE Utility Services stood in 2025 — what we built on, what we delivered, where we fell short, and what we are committed to next.
We are proud of the progress reflected in these pages. We are equally clear-eyed about the work that remains — on greenhouse gas measurement and reduction, on Indigenous engagement, on gender parity, and on the safety target we have not yet reached. None of this is the work of a single year, and none of it will be done quickly. But all of it will be done.
Thank you for your continued trust in OE Utility Services.