CenterPoint Energy: CenterPoint Energy : 2024 Corporate Sustainability Report (CenterPoint Energy 2024 CSR 01 28 25)

Table of Contents About CenterPoint Energy 3 Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) 94 About This Report 5 EEI/AGA ESG Template Report 96 Stakeholder Engagement 6 Reconciliation of non-GAAP Financial Measures to GAAP 100 Priority Topics 9 CenterPoint Energy Cautionary Statement 104 Awards 11 Governance 12 Ethics and Compliance 14 Leadership 17 Board Committees 20 Enterprise Risk Management 22 Cybersecurity 23 Data Privacy 25 Political Engagement 27 Our Workforce and Community Impact 28 Our People 29 Our Workforce 31 Training and Development 33 Safety 35 Workplace Safety 37 Public Safety 40 Communities 42 Energy Transition Goals 44 Enhancing Resiliency 46 Generation Transition 51 Gas Innovation 54 Energy Efficiency 57 EVs and Fleet 59 Energy Access and Affordability 60 Environment 63 Environmental Compliance 65 Biodiversity and Land Use 67 Protecting and Restoring Habitats 69 Waste and Recycling 71 Water Management 72 Data Center 74 CenterPoint Energy GRI Content Index 90 About CenterPoint Energy As the only investor-owned electric and gas utility based in Texas, CenterPoint Energy is an energy delivery company with electric transmission and distribution, power generation and natural gas distribution operations that serve more than 7 million metered customers in Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Ohio and Texas. As of December 31, 2023, CenterPoint Energy owned approximately $39 billion in assets. With approximately 9,000 employees, CenterPoint Energy and its predecessor companies have been in business for more than 150 years. We look forward to utilizing new, innovative technologies to support our longstanding greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions-reduction efforts, while continuing to support energy safety, affordability, reliability and resiliency. We Strive to Provide Safe, Reliable and Resilient Delivery of Electricity and Natural Gas to Our Customers and Value to Our Shareholders, Stakeholders and Communities Affordable Renewables and Pilot Programs and Sustainable Conservation Alternative Fuel Innovative Infrastructure and Energy-Efficiency Programs Technologies Programs Our Operations Electric Transmission & Distribution and Power Generation Electric Transmission & Distribution We own and maintain the wires, poles and associated electric infrastructure serving more than 2.9 million metered customers in the Greater Houston area and in southwestern Indiana. Power Generation As of December 31, 2023 We also own and operate more than 700 megawatts of electric generation capacity in Indiana. Our employees work to reliably deliver the electricity generated by power plants and renewable energy resources to homes and businesses. As of December 31, 2023 Natural Gas Distribution CenterPoint Energy owns approximately 84,000 miles of distribution and transmission mains across our natural gas service territory and continues to be a top three natural gas utility in miles of main pipelines. We are continuing to invest in modernizing our natural gas infrastructure and are working toward eliminating the remaining cast-iron pipe in our system. 3 CenterPoint Energy Combined Service Area Map As of December 31, 2023 *In February 2024, we announced the sale of our Louisiana and Mississippi natural gas LDC businesses. The transaction is expected to close toward the end of first quarter 2025, following the satisfaction of closing conditions. CenterPoint Energy provides investors and other stakeholders with information about the company's corporate sustainability activities and highlights relevant data and examples. Our reporting discusses our business, operations, and strategies and how we engage with our stakeholders, approach environmental stewardship, and support our communities, as well as our efforts to provide a safe, inclusive workplace. 4 About This Report Publication Date: January 28, 2025 Reporting Period: January 1 to December 31, 2023, unless otherwise indicated Date of Previous Report: September 2024 (for 2023) Reporting Cycle: Annual Contact: sustainability@centerpointenergy.com We are pleased to provide investors and other stakeholders with transparent information about the company's corporate sustainability efforts, including relevant data and examples. This website demonstrates our progress on issues that are important to our long-term performance. In response to stakeholder feedback, we designed and organized our Corporate Sustainability Report into a web-based structure with a dedicated Data Center. Our reporting follows the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework and has been prepared with reference to the GRI Standards. We disclose information using the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) standards in the Reports section of this website. To better serve our stakeholders, we have also incorporated both the American Gas Association's (AGA) and Edison Electric Institute's (EEI) ESG Template 3 into our annual sustainability reporting activities. We also published a Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) report in 2022. We announced our first Sustainable Financing Framework in early 2023, setting the foundation for CenterPoint Energy to access financing to invest in certain environmentally- and socially-focused initiatives, and published a 2024 Green Project Sustainable Financing Report . CenterPoint Energy's Investor Relations and Environmental and Corporate Sustainability organizations provided guidance on the development of the report. Various business units and work groups collaborated on content and data for this report based on topics that are important to the company, as well as the programs and initiatives that address these opportunities. LEARN MORE Stakeholder Engagement Priority Topics Governance 5 Stakeholder Engagement Our major stakeholders include customers, communities, investors, employees, suppliers and regulators. We believe that good governance practices include maintaining a consistent and transparent dialogue throughout the year with our stakeholders. Each year, we engage in shareholder outreach through various engagement channels including direct meetings, analyst conferences and road shows, among others, and proactively solicit feedback. We also regularly reach out to the proxy governance teams of certain of our large institutional investors to solicit feedback on a range of topics, including various sustainability-related matters. This feedback is shared with the CenterPoint Energy Board of Directors. Through CenterPoint Energy's stakeholder engagement process, we define our Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) priority topics for sustainability disclosures. Priority Topics Stakeholder Customers: Residential, Commercial and Industrial Communities Topics How We Engage Electricity and natural gas emissions CenterPoint Energy website Effluents and waste Customer Contact Center Environmental compliance Social media, TV, radio, email and marketing campaigns Non-discrimination Mobile application to report outages and make payments Anti-corruption Speaker's Bureau presentations Customer health and safety Bill inserts Customer satisfaction Customer surveys and focus groups Customer privacy Energy efficiency/demand-side management initiatives Trade shows and customer forums Business and commercial account managers Ethics and Compliance Concerns Helpline for grievances Community impact and engagement CenterPoint Energy Foundation Human capital Online grant applications Environmental compliance and Community events and sponsorships stewardship Employee volunteerism Customer health and safety Community partnerships to revitalize low-income Effluents and waste neighborhoods Advocacy Low-income energy assistance Economic development City and county council meeting presentations 6 Stakeholder Topics How We Engage Investors Employees: Current and Prospective Employees, Retirees and Labor Unions Suppliers Economic performance Short-term and long-term incentive plan design Executive succession planning Sustainability matters: corporate governance practices - board structure, composition and refreshment; climate change and GHG emissions reduction goals; human capital management Proxy statement disclosure Human capital Equal opportunity Economic performance Environmental compliance and stewardship Employee recruitment, turnover, benefits and retention Employee health and safety Training and development Non-discrimination Employee engagement Economic impacts Compliance Supplier engagement Community investment Equal opportunity Shareholder engagement program Energy consumption and conservation Environmental compliance Community engagement Customer satisfaction Quarterly earnings conference calls Meetings, road shows and presentations Analyst/industry conferences Public disclosures Annual meeting of shareholders Website Governance outreach Shareholder services Proxy Statement Annual Report Investor Relations staff Leadership meetings with employees Employee meetings, video-streams and webcasts Training and skills development and leadership development programs Informal, ongoing meetings with employees Employee engagement surveys Professional affinity and employee resource groups Workforce recruiting programs Ethics and Compliance Concerns Helpline for grievances Ethics and Compliance Roundtables with employees Health and wellness programs Labor and management joint engagement on key topics, such as safety Supplier engagement program: mentoring and scholarships; participation in supplier development councils; recognition events; engagement with business organizations; industry trade shows Meetings with suppliers to review Key Performance Indicators Fair dealing Timely payments Competitive bidding processes Ethics and Compliance Code of Conduct for Consultants, Contractors, Suppliers and Vendors Ethics and Compliance Concerns Helpline 7 Stakeholder Topics Regulators/ Economic performance Government Indirect economic impacts Energy consumption and conservation Emissions Compliance Occupat