POWER ING WHAT ’S POSS IB LE

12300 Elm Creek BoulevardMaple Grove, Minnesota 55369greatriverenergy.com

POWERINGGOODSOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AT GREAT RIVER ENERGY

POWERING WHAT’S POSSIBLE8/2017

At Great River Energy, we are deeply committed to social and environmental responsibility through solid environmental policies and practices, helping to build strong communities and helping our employees and their families live healthy and productive lives.

We commit diverse resources to deliver on our promise to provide our member-owners with affordable, reliable energy in harmony with a sustainable environment. Powering good communities

Great River Energy is committed to supporting the communities we serve and in which we operate through education,

sponsorships, contributions and economic development.

Employee givingYear after year, Great River Energy employees demonstrate their commitment for supporting local communities through the community giving campaign. A record total of more than $100,000 was raised during the 2016 employee giving campaign, which was distributed to local organizations.

$57,213$5,172EMPLOYEE ACTIVITIES

PAYROLL CONTRIBUTIONS

$40,000GREAT RIVER

ENERGY MATCH

$102,385GRAND TOTAL

Our community impact

2% 4,000

100+151

Percentage of our earnings donated to nonprofit groups

as used equipment, fly ash, employee volunteer time, as well as

monetary donations.

Number of high-school students pursued higher education with the help of

Great River Energy scholarships.

Number of tons of turkey donated by Great River Energy employees to families in need the

week of Thanksgiving.

Pounds of food donated to local food pantries during fall

food drives in Minnesota and North Dakota.

Nonprofit organizations furthered their causes with funding from Great River Energy’s employee-led

contribution teams.

GREAT RIVER

GIVES

Employee-directed givingGreat River Energy has two corporate contributions

teams – one in Minnesota and one in North Dakota. Each team consists of employees from various departments and facilities and meets quarterly to review requests submitted by nonprofit organizations and community groups. Both

use the same guidelines to make funding decisions.

Generally, Minnesota contributions focus on the areas in which Great River Energy and our member cooperative employees live, work and serve. In North Dakota, contributions focus on organizations within the communities of Oliver, McLean, Mercer and Stutsman counties. Typically, awarded contributions range from $500 to $2,500 per recipient. In all, the two groups made donations totaling more than $158,000 in 2016.

Employee volunteerism Great River Energy encourages employees to volunteer in their communities. We support these efforts by giving all nonbargained employees up to 12 hours per calendar year for time away from work to participate in volunteer activities.

Supporting communities

The North Dakota contributions team donated $5,000 to the Underwood Fire and Rescue Department, $4,000 to the Washburn Fire and Rescue Department and $1,500 to the Stanton Rural Fire Department in 2016. Each year, Great River Energy partners with organizations near our facilities that have a positive impact on our surrounding communities.

Employees in Minnesota made donations of $1,500 to six volunteer fire departments in communities that host Great River Energy peaking station power plants. A donation of $1,500 was also awarded to the Newport Fire Department, which serves the community where GRE Newport Services operates a resource processing plant.

In 2016, Great River Energy employees used more than 600 employer-paid volunteer hours to support their communities.

Supporting local studentsEnergy Explorers – helping students

discover careers in energy

Great River Energy sponsors and hosts an Energy Explorers program to provide high school students with information and experience in a variety of career fields possible in the energy industry. The Energy Explorers is open to all students ages 12 -18 interested in pursuing careers in energy or learning more about opportunities in the energy industry.

Monthly events consist of presentations by engineers, surveyors, tours and off-site visits. Energy Explorers provides valuable peer leadership, as it is a youth-led program.

Scholarships Each year, Great River Energy awards several scholarships to students in, or soon to enter, college. Scholarships are awarded to students attending high school near our major facilities in Minnesota and North Dakota.

Additionally, about 30 scholarships are distributed annually to employees’ children or grandchildren through the Great River Energy Memorial Scholarship fund, and one scholarship is award-ed to an Energy Explorer participant.

Great River Energy Generation Project Engineer Cole Funseth (left) explains the basics of solar power to a class of high school sophomores at Great River Energy’s Maple Grove office.

Fly ash donations support local youth

Donations of concrete to nonprofit organizations are one way Great River Energy supports communities near its North Dakota facilities. The concrete is made using fly ash from Coal Creek Station, which results in a stronger, longer-lasting product.

On a brisk late-April morning, a group of employees helped with the Adopt-a-Highway spring cleanup efforts in Elk River, Minn., in honor of Earth Day. The state of Minnesota presented us with a Certificate of Commendation recognizing our volunteer community service.

Employees in North Dakota held a Spring Clean Drive. Over 700 personal care and cleaning items were donated to local, county resource centers.

The Minnesota Twins, Twin Community Fund and Play Ball! Minnesota, in partnership with Great River Energy, were able to offer 37 youth baseball clinics and two youth softball clinics – free of charge – throughout Twins Territory during the summer of 2016.

Powering good environmental practices

Great River Energy has sought many different ways to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and to diversify its generation sources and include more

renewable resources in response to member demand.

Evolving our energy portfolioWe’re working to make power plants more efficient with DryFining™, our patented method of drying coal and reducing emissions of mercury, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide. DryFining increased Coal Creek Station’s efficiency by 4 percent and reduced carbon dioxide emissions by the same percentage.

In early 2017 we announced plans for an additional 300 megawatts (MW) of cost-effective wind energy, which will bring our total renewable energy capacity to more than 1,000 MW in 2021, including 200 MW of hydropower. The purchase will put Great River Energy on track to meet Minnesota’s renewable energy standard requiring utilities to generate 25 percent of electricity from renewable resources by 2025. In addition, Great River Energy and its member cooperatives have installed more than 5.5 MW of solar and community solar projects.

Largest solar project owned by Minnesota co-opsThe largest solar array in Minnesota owned by electric cooperatives began generating electricity for members of Wright-Hennepin Cooperative Electric Association (WH) in August 2016.

The Dickinson Solar Project was a collaborative effort between WH and Great River Energy and brought an additional 2.25 MW of renewable energy onto the grid. The

project consists of 8,352 panels on a 13-acre site in Buffalo already owned by Great River Energy, so construction did not affect or harm any farmland or wooded areas.

New solar project underwayDakota Electric Association also collaborated with Great River Energy on a solar project that will provide dedicated solar power directly to Dakota Electric’s membership. This 1-MW solar project includes approximately 3,600 solar panels on 5 acres of land and will provide enough electricity to serve about 150 average residential members.

Turning waste into energyGreat River Energy’s Elk River Resource Processing Plant (ERRPP) received its 10 millionth ton of garbage in April 2016. In nearly 27 years of operation, that waste has been mostly used to generate renewable energy.

ERPPP processes municipal solid waste into fuel for Great River Energy’s Elk River Energy Recovery Station (ERERS), which is a renewable waste-to-energy power plant that operates around the clock. ERRPP also recovers recyclable materials from the waste stream.

Due to improvements at the facility in recent years, Great River Energy sends virtually no municipal waste to the landfill. About 12 percent of the waste was landfilled during the first 20 years of the project.

The Dickinson Solar Project was a collaborative effort between WH and Great River Energy.

Promoting pollinator habitat Over the last decade, Great River Energy has re-established more than 200 acres of native habitat at our facilities and along trans-mission lines.

In 2016, we helped students from an elementary school in Duluth, Minn., to plant pollinators around a new solar array at the Laurentian Environmental Learning Center near Mesabi, Minn. The plants will provide food and shelter for butterflies, native bees, birds and bats well into the future.

In addition we are working with the Minnesota Department of Transportation and the city of Elk River to re-establish nine acres of native, pollinator-friendly habitat on Great River Energy’s Elk River campus. As more than 27,000 motorists travel by the Elk River location daily, this site has the opportunity to educate motorists and others about the importance of pollinator-friendly habitat. Pollinators provide an ecological service necessary for the reproduction of more than 85 percent of the world’s flowering plants, including more than two-thirds of the world’s crop species.

Students from Holy Rosary in Duluth, Minn.,plant common milkweed, wild bergamot, fragrant giant

hyssop and lindleys aster around a new solar array at the Laurentian Environmental Learning

Center near Mesabi, Minn.

A partner in economic development

As a utility provider, we play an important role in moving economic development projects forward – from the exhaustive exercise of a national property search, to the financing and permitting of construction projects at the local level.

Our economic development team, along with our member cooperatives, offers a wide array of assistance to communities working with new and expanding businesses to fill their industrial parks and vacant buildings.

From rebate programs and economic development financing tools for growing businesses, to general support and sponsorship of community-led initiatives, Minnesota’s electric cooperatives are some of the most dynamic partners a community can have in helping to grow the economy and create new jobs.

Powering good peopleEmployees at Great River Energy often hear the phrase

“Employees are our greatest asset” spoken by our leadership.

That sentiment is demonstrated with an outstanding commitment to employee well-being. We work hard to provide our employees with the safest and healthiest working environments, to give them opportunities to volunteer and serve the community, and to compensate them fairly for their hard work and dedication.

Ranked No. 16 as healthiest workplace in AmericaGreat River Energy was one of 100 organizations honored for its commitment to employee health and exceptional corporate wellness in 2016. We were awarded 16th place out of more than 5,000 organizations that applied for the award nationally. This makes three years in a row Great River Energy has achieved a top-100 status, placing 31st in 2014, and 14th in 2015.

Since completing a wellness culture audit in 2015, we took a number of steps to strengthen our culture of health. We participated – placing in the top 10 – in the Wellness Council of America’s “On the Move” challenge and provided employees with free Fitbits.

Safety: A top priorityGreat River Energy’s corporate culture stresses the importance of safety, and although each employee should take safety personally – it’s one of our core values. Throughout the year, employees have many opportunities to participate in safety training sessions.

We’re (officially) a Great Place to Work

Great River Energy was certified in early 2017 as a great workplace by the independent analysts at Great Place to Work®.

This certification honors employers of all sizes and industries from across the United States. Great Place to Work not only measures whether a majority of employees experience a great place to work, but also analyzes whether experiences are highly consistent, regardless of gender, race/ethnicity, job role or other personal characteristics.

Certified companies are selected through a two-part process. First, employees complete the Trust Index survey, responding to statements that measure five critical dimensions of great workplaces: camaraderie, credibility, fairness, respect and pride — all of which contribute to trust. Seven out of 10 employees must rate the organization as “great” to become a certified Great Place to Work. Second, employers must complete a culture brief questionnaire about company benefits, perks and programs.

88% of our employees say Great River Energy is a great workplace

Each year, employees are invited to participate in Safety Day at Coal Creek Station and learn about various safety practices. Here, employees learn the proper way to tie knots from the rope rescue team.

Great River Energy’s relay and line technicians took to the road in July to learn about driving maneuvers that can keep them safe behind the wheel at the Minnesota Highway Safety and Research Center Advanced Driving Skills Course in St. Cloud, Minn.

The Women in Leadership employee resource group held a panel discussion where Great River Energy’s four female board members shared their personal leadership journeys.

Supporting each other

Great River Energy employees hold a wide spectrum of experiences, backgrounds, viewpoints and abilities. Our employee resource groups are just one way we can share those commonalities. Groups focus on unique topics like adoption, veterans, women’s leadership and navigating modern family life.

A culture of inclusion

Great River Energy’s Inclusion Council is a team of employees working to foster a safe and open work environment by respecting and valuing differences and recognizing contributions of all individuals.

In 2017, the council is conducting an audit of our culture of inclusion that includes focus groups and interviews with employees. The information gathered will be used to identify what our employees understand about inclusion, and to discover possible need for more awareness and education.

Great River Energy is committed to building and supporting a diverse employee base to shape our future by using open and honest communication to support and nurture a values-driven culture.

Divisions set unique safety goalsEach division within Great River Energy is encouraged to include a safety goal in its yearly planning. Some division goals include:

• CPR training

• Begin every division meeting with a safety message

• Achieve an 85 percent participation rate in the safety perception survey

• Create awareness of severe weather and fire evacuation procedures

Improved safety = business improvement Great River Energy’s successful business improvement culture focuses on identifying cost savings and efficiency opportunities that meet or exceed annual business improvement targets that lead to keeping costs competitive, one of our strategic imperatives.

Although safety business improvements don’t require a dollar savings, many of them do save the company money. In 2016,68 safety business improvements were submitted which resulted in saving Great River Energy and our members $1,130,871. Examples include:

• Installing automated soap, hand sanitizer and towel dispensers at Spiritwood Station lowered costs and reduced potential risks

• Streamlining the order process of fall protection equipment for line technicians created consistent equipment training for all and improved work site safety

• The purchase of a combination generator/hammer drill system saves time for our transmission surveyors and provides a safer work site by eliminating unneeded stress to elbows and shoulders by the repetitive motion of iron bar picking