“We want to be a safe and responsible company regarding our people, the environment and the communities we serve.”

Climate Change

We produce 7.6% of the UK's electricity, largely from two coal-fired and one gas-fired power stations. As such, climate change is potentially our most significant environmental impact. We measure the carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from our power stations in terms of total emissions and per TWh of electricity generated. Both of these increased in 2004, due to greater customer demand and higher wholesale gas prices, which prompted us to rely more heavily on our coal-fired power stations.

Environmental Management

Our ISO14001 environmental management systems now cover 100% of our business operations (up from 80% in 2003). In 2005, we will develop a biodiversity framework that will result in a more co-ordinated approach to minimising our negative and maximising our positive impacts on biodiversity. This framework will feed into our overall environmental management system.

Health, safety and environment

Our 'Fit, Safe and Responsible' conference in October launched a renewed, more inclusive approach to health and safety within EDF Energy. Our 2007 target is to score 90% in a new internal health, safety and environment index, with our 2005 milestone set at 45%.

2004 saw a reduction in our lost time incidents. Nevertheless, we have set 2005 milestone targets for both lost time (one day or more) and lost time reportable to the regulator (three days or more). A serious injury to a contractor at one of our power stations in December reminded us that no target other than zero can ever truly be acceptable. We are committed to root-cause improvement to help move us toward this aspiration.

Being a good neighbour

We aim to build strong and trusted relationships with the communities we serve. We visit schools to explain the potential dangers of electricity and, through our 'Green Fund', assist in the development of small-scale community renewable energy schemes. During 2004, 23% of our staff volunteered in local communities through our award-winning Helping Hands programme, raising money for our Charity of the Year, NCH. This formed part of our £2.6 million community investment programme.