Corporate Responsibility
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Bord Gáis has an excellent record in responsible business practices, but the company is aware that improvements can always be made and it is committed to fully measuring its impacts across all business activities, and to review and refine its practices to improve its performance as necessary.
During 2009, Bord Gáis started to formally collate and record the impact of activities centrally and will publish its first stand-alone Corporate Responsibility Report in conjunction with this Annual Report.
A summary of the key activities undertaken by Bord Gáis in 2009 is given below:
Marketplace
| • | Introduced competition to the residential electricity market, bringing savings to over 300,000 homes; |
| • | Acquired over 700MW of wind generation assets, operating and development, to increase the renewable share of our electricity supply portfolio; |
| • | Customer satisfaction levels monitored and improvements made; |
| • | Introduced paperless billing; |
| • | Made a special donation of €1 million to assist vulnerable customers with their energy bills following the cold spell during Christmas/New Year 2009/10; |
| • | Made a second payment of €1.2 million to the SEAI Warmer Homes Scheme; |
| • | Commenced Smart Metering trials; |
| • | Continued investment in Alternative Energy R&D; |
| • | Overall winner of best Contact Centre in the UK & Ireland; |
| • | Received three gold awards from the Irish Contact Centre Management Association for excellent customer service. |
Community
| • | Established the Bord Gáis Foundation to support charities and voluntary groups through monetary donations and staff volunteering; |
| • | Supported the Ireland Fund’s Seminar and associated Philanthropy and Fundraising Toolkit; |
| • | Invested in and encouraged education, particularly in the area of Science & Engineering: |
| - funding of bursary for Science & Engineering student at Cork Institute of Technology; | |
| - funding of PhD fellowship at University College Cork to research biogas; | |
| - funding of Lifetime Lab Bus to enable primary school students attend Science classes; | |
| - funding of EU Intelligent Use of Energy in Schools initiative in Ireland; | |
| - funding of Science & Technology in Action lesson pack for secondary schools; | |
| - participation in the Schools Business Partnership, linking with secondary schools in Dublin and Cork cities; | |
| • | Sponsored and seconded one employee full-time to Small Business Advice programme; |
| • | Special donation made to flood relief effort in Ireland; |
| • | Participated in ‘Time to Read’ programme for primary school students with literacy issues in Antrim and Ballymena; |
| • | Supported ‘Silver Surfer’ days in Northern Ireland with staff volunteers helping to teach older age groups how to use computers and the internet. |
Workplace
| • | Achieved Excellence through People Standard company-wide; |
| • | Achieved Engineers Ireland CPD Accreditation; |
| • | Employee Well Being Programme offered to all staff; |
| • | 2,412 training days undertaken by staff – average 2.5 days per employee; |
| • | Continued assistance with further education – 48 staff (5%) in further education; |
| • | Range of organisational development programmes in place: |
| - New Managers training programme for those recently appointed to management positions; | |
| - Leadership development programme for emerging leaders in the business; | |
| - Individual development plans for employees; | |
| - Extended internal communications channels and interactions; | |
| • | Implemented strict Code of Business Conduct; |
| • | Conducted ongoing health and safety awareness training. |
Environment
| • | Established Environmental Steering Committee, a sub-group of the management team; |
| • | Carbon Champions group set up, with staff volunteers proposing a carbon reduction target for personal activities of employees at work and developing programmes to achieve it; |
| • | Choice of mode of transport for business now reflects relative carbon emissions; |
| • | Strict paper recycling policy implemented; |
| • | Recycled 114 computers for re-use to improve education in Africa; |
| • | Communications material is printed on recycled paper, with electronic formats made available to customers and staff in preference to print. |