Community
We take seriously our responsibilities to the communities in which we operate. Our community programme aims to give something back to the communities we serve and to support our aspiration to be a trusted partner. We know that our employees are proud to support these programmes and it is important in maintaining trust with our stakeholders.
Our community involvement programme focusses on the three areas where we feel we can make the biggest difference:
- improving health in communities;
- protecting the environment;
- enhancing education and improving understanding of energy and climate change.
In each of these areas, many of our projects are run in partnership with other organisations, charities and community groups. These long-term partnerships give us more scope to impact the community in a positive and sustainable way, while benefiting the business by enhancing our reputation.
In 2011, we contributed £6,113,142 to the community by way of charitable donations, community investment (including employee volunteering) and commercial activities. Our community investment also generated over £7,682,278 of additional funding to benefit our local communities from a range of external sources, the majority of which is generated by our Health Through Warmth scheme.
We also support our employees in the work they do in the local community and recognise and reward the effort put in through our Volunteer Award scheme, Payroll Giving and Match Funding scheme.
Industry recognition
We are proud to have retained the prestigious CommunityMark from Business in the Community (BitC) for a further three years. This national standard aims to recognise and highlight the positive impact that business can have in the community, through long-term commitment and investment. The Independent Approvals Panel commented on our continued leadership of the community investment agenda and their commitment to making a long-term sustainable difference to their business and communities.
As part of the review process, BitC asked about RWE npower’s community programme. Community partners, including National Energy Action, Macmillan Cancer Support, Community Service Volunteers, Football League Trust and the National Trust also provided feedback. We are using the feedback to help refine and shape our plans for 2012 and beyond.
Our individual community and educational programmes received external recognition in 2011. The following programmes were re-accredited with Big Ticks from Business in the Community: our Health Through Warmth scheme, our Climate Cops education programme and our Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) commitment.
Our local communities
We believe that community investment provides a vital opportunity to engage and motivate our employees and our site level meetings are proving to be a really effective tool to encourage and engage employees to identify and address local community needs.
We remain committed to working closely with our key community stakeholders and undertake regular community stakeholder dialogue to understand and address their issues, concerns and priorities.
Impact
We use the London Benchmarking Group (LBG) model to measure and demonstrate the difference our community investment makes to our business and the community. The model is used by companies around the world to assess and report on the value and achievements of their corporate community investment.
In 2011, we reviewed Health Through Warmth, a scheme that helps to support vulnerable members of society through the installation of heating and insulation measures. As a result of the review, we changed the operational model to improve the efficiency of the scheme. These changes will be implemented in 2012.
We also developed our partnership with the Football League Trust and launched a number of programmes aiming to use young people’s love of football to help them develop their skills and improve their confidence.
