Diverse celebration for EDF Energy’s East Kilbride staff
Staff at EDF Energy’s East Kilbride office held a series of events to mark the company’s Diversity and Inclusion week.
As well as a quiz, world food tasting and a tombola in support of the GB Paralympics team, the office also hosted a visit from two Olympic and Paralympic athletes.
British Judo champions Sam Ingram and Gemma Gibbons met staff and answered questions.
The theme of this year’s Diversity and Inclusion week is ‘All about us!’ and asked staff to think about how a diverse and inclusive workforce leads to innovative ideas, increased productivity and improved well-being of all employees, as well as having a positive impact on the Company's performance.
Sam and Gemma both won Silver medals at the Paralympics and Olympics respectively during London 2012 and Sam is preparing to compete in his third Paralympics in Rio in September. The fight for qualification for the Olympics is ongoing for Gemma with the GB team due to be announced mid-June. They train in Edinburgh and talked to staff about the importance of diversity and inclusion in creating high performing teams.
Paralympic judoka Sam Ingram, said: “Although when on the mat, we are fighting as individuals, we couldn’t do it without our team behind us. We must always embrace the individual skills and strengths of all those in our team to be the best we can, and get the best from everyone. It makes you stronger when you are on your own when you are pushed and supported by those around you.”
Robert Gilhooly from EDF Energy said: “It was great that Sam and Gemma could take some time out of their training schedules to come along and talk to staff about their experiences of diversity and inclusion. It is important to EDF Energy that all the staff who work here share a sense of belonging, mutual respect, and support from others so they can do their best work.”
At the event, there were also stands representing EDF Energy’s Diversity and Inclusion networks and Glasgow Pride.
EDF Energy’s commitment to diversity and inclusion saw the company achieve the National Equality Standard at the end of 2015; the third UK company and first in the energy industry to be awarded this accreditation.
EDF Energy in Scotland
In Scotland EDF Energy operates Hunterston B in North Ayrshire and Torness in East Lothian which employ over 1,000 staff and around 500 contracting partners across the two power stations. EDF Energy employs a further 200 office based staff in East Kilbride. As well as generating enough power to serve some 4 million homes the company also provides gas and electricity to over 80,000 Scottish customers with around half of those opting for one of the company’s Blue+ products which are backed by low-carbon generation. We operate two windfarms in the Scottish Borders and make sure we buy enough electricity generated from a low-carbon nuclear source to match every unit of electricity we estimate our Blue customers use. EDF Energy is proud to power up some of the largest organisations in the UK, including supplying almost all public sector bodies in Scotland with after being awarded Scotland’s largest electricity supply contract by annual volume from April 2013. Following a landmark agreement with Network Rail the company also provides nuclear-backed Blue energy to power up the UKs electric rail network, covering most of the south east of England and the main lines from London to Edinburgh and Glasgow, as well as the Merseyrail network around Liverpool and the Glasgow suburban network.