Future perfect
We recognise the impact that our business has on the world we live in through the burning of fossil fuels, and aim to ensure that we undertake all aspects of our business in a responsible manner. At every stage of our decision making process we consider the social and environmental impacts of our actions.
We also take the wellbeing of our employees seriously, as it is their talent, energy and knowledge that enable us to compete successfully in today’s demanding business conditions. It’s not just our employees that make our business a success – from the communities in which we operate to government departments and local liaison committees, all of our stakeholders have a role to play in our success.
Investing in a low carbon economy
As part of a whole range of initiatives, in 2007 we opened a £3.5 million biomass facility at our Didcot A Power Station. At Aberthaw Power Station, we also completed the final stage of our £10 million investment in a solid biomass plant.
DIY generation
Through npower solar and other microgeneration options, we want to help our customers generate their own electricity and hot water for the home. In 2007 the numberof customers using microgeneration products has grown from 1,851 to 3,618. Which smashed our 2007 target of 3,000.
The ’Carbon Cube’ tour
The Carbon Trust estimates that British businesses emit around 78,000 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere every day. But one of the problems with talking to people about the effect that this causes is understanding the scale.As a result, over the summer of 2007 we visited London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds with a ’Carbon Cube’. It represented one tonne of CO2 – only a fraction of the amount of CO2 emitted every day. But it was big enough to make people realise just how huge 78,000 tonnes of CO2 really is. We also asked members of the public to sign the cube to pledge their business’ support to cutting carbon emissions. The tour was a successful way of raising awareness about the harm that wasted energy is causing to our environment.
Climate Cops and Greener Schools
Last year we launched our £20 million five-year ’Greener Schools’ programme. The programme is designed to help teachers and young people ’green’ their schools. This includes giving them free energy audits and the opportunity to apply for funding support for energy efficiency and microgeneration measures. An important part of the ’Greener Schools’ programme is engaging students at primary and secondary schools to learn about climate change. We do this through our ’Climate Cops’ initiative, which includes free educational resources, events and an interactive website.
enthuse
To make sure npower has the calibre of engineers and scientists needed in the future, three of our graduates created our enthuse programme in 2006. The aim of the programme is to inspire young people to consider a career in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects and engage our employees in sharing their STEM knowledge and skills. Principally for 13 to 14 year-olds, enthuse is based around activity days for students involving teamwork exercises, problem solving and hands-on challenges with an engineering and science focus. Nearly 2,000 students from nine schools across England and Wales participated in 16 enthuse event days during 2007, and so far 21 more event days have been planned in 2008.
Never being stumped for good ideas
Launched in 2006, Urban Cricket aims to introduce cricket to a new, young audience, and to get children active. We have given out over 55,000 kits so far, and we’re now building a series of cricket specific sporting facilities in inner-city locations. We’ve already opened the first two at Wyck Park in Brixton, South London, and Abbeyfield Park, Sheffield, and a further three arenas are planned.
Macmillan
There’s one charity in particular that we support – Macmillan. Since being chosen by our people as our corporate charity, we’ve supported them in some major events including the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning – where an estimated 2 million people raised their mugs for people living with cancer. Our four year partnership is now valued at over £2 million.
Health Through Warmth
When the nights begin to draw in and temperatures plummet, most of us switch on the central heating or settle down in front of a nice warm fire. But for the people across Britain who can’t afford to heat their homes adequately, things aren’t quite so cosy. That’s why we established the HTW scheme in 2000 – to find people in the community living in cold, damp homes, and helping them by installing energy efficiency measures and heating.
Since then we’ve accessed £29.5 million to identify and help vulnerable people whose health is affected by these poor conditions. In 2007, 8,508 households were referred to the scheme and we announced plans to invest an additional £4.5 million to continue to support HTW until 2011. It’s not something we could ever do on our own. We work closely with the National Health Service (NHS), Local Authorities, Home Improvement and Care and Repair agencies, and National Energy Action in 12 areas across England and Wales.
Business in the Community – npower active
The npower active programme is the largest sports development programme for people with disabilities in the country. We started running the programme way back in 1992 – and were awarded a ’Silver Jubilee Big Tick’ by Business in the Community (BitC) in 2007, in recognition of our long-term partnership. Through its support of the English Federation of Disability Sport (EFDS) and the Federation for Disability Sports Organisations (FDSO), npower active has given people with disabilities in the UK the opportunity to try a whole range of sports. We’ve encouraged the competitive spirit in some athletes to such an extent that they’ve gone on to compete at the highest international level.
And some benefits for you…
We’re here to help, we want to put something back and we want you to have the time of your life. Don’t just take it from us; here are just some of the activities and events that our recent graduates have enjoyed over the past year: Running clubs, gym facilities, the Macmillan walk, the Great North Run, cricket, 5-a-side, graduate forums and away days, home-working options, flexible travel, volunteer days, sports events, societies and clubs, parties, nights out, team-building, charitable events and The npower Games (see our website: www.npowergames.co.uk)
