Our Community Responsibility

We want to be a responsible and caring company and to be welcome in the communities in which we operate.

We endeavour to be a responsible company in the community in a number of different ways:

• through our support for our vulnerable customers
• through our work with communities directly impacted by our operations, for example close to our power stations, major sites and distribution networks
• through our heritage of support for our local communities – for many years this has focused on helping young people to make the most of their lives
• through our support for a national charity partner

We want our employees to be central to our community work, enabling them to make a difference. In 2004, over 2,000 EDF Energy employees volunteered in their local communities through our volunteering programme 'Helping Hands', where every employee has two days of company time every year to be involved in the community. 'Helping Hands' has an 81% awareness among employees. It is an important part of the learning and development structure.

In 2004, we contributed £2.6m to the community, including over £300,000 to our School Grounds Awards programme and £1.25 million to the EDF Energy Trust.

By the end of 2004, our employees had raised over £100,000 for our charity of the year NCH, with over £50,000 of that coming from our London-to-Paris sponsored bike ride. This money was then matched pound for pound for EDF Energy. Some other key successes were the increased participation in the staff satisfaction surveys, thanks to a donation mechanism introduced for the first time (£1 was donated to NCH for every completed survey), and the introduction of a structured community module in the experienced and senior managers' programme.

Our successes were recognised with two prestigious BITC Big Tick awards for our School Grounds Awards and for our partnership with the Castle View Education Action Zone, as well as by numerous local community awards across the company.

Our aims for 2005 are:

• to review where our current community activities add value to our ambitions and to develop a company wide community strategy
• to raise £200,000 for our new charity of the year: Mencap.