Through our employee volunteering and community programmes, we seek to play a full role in the communities in which we have a presence.

Community Summary

The key elements of our programme include:

• The E.ON Energy Experience
• Our employee volunteering initiatives
• Our matched funding scheme

Highlights in 2007 were:

• The national success of our Energy Experience programme, which supports the National Curriculum in helping to give young people a greater understanding of energy and climate change. Around 19,000 Energy Experience classroom packs were distributed. This figure represents 65% of all secondary schools in the UK. Over 90% of teachers surveyed felt that the resources are easy to deliver and said that they would be likely to use them again
• 3,269 employees undertook volunteering activities during working hours, giving up almost 46,000 hours
• 183 employees volunteered in their own time and as a result, we donated nearly £42,000 to community groups, schools, charities and sports clubs they support in recognition of their 31,000 hours given up
• We supported almost 1,200 employees who raised money for charities or community groups and in total these groups received almost £500,000
• Almost 90 teams of employees volunteered to take part in team challenges, contributing a total of 11,445 hours to support local projects
• We received a Bronze Award from the Charities Aid Foundation for our payroll giving scheme
• We won six Business in the Community Awards (BiTC) including a fourth consecutive Big Tick for our 'We Test, You Rest' electric blanket testing initiative
• We won the BiTC Jubilee Award for our relationship with Age Concern
• Our SOURCE fund awarded grants of up to £30,000 to 17 community groups and charities for renewable energy or energy efficiency schemes
• More than 300,000 primary school children took part in the National FA Cup Day which was supported by former England captains Alan Shearer and Tony Adams and used football as a basis for a series of imaginative lessons.

Our vision is to use our community programme to promote our Changing Energy strategy, helping change attitudes and behaviours towards energy and enhancing our reputation as a leader in community relations.

We run flagship programmes such as the Energy Experience education resource at a national level, but we also engage with community groups at a local level. This gives us the ideal platform to help deliver our Changing Energy strategy to a wider audience - making it a reality by influencing people's attitudes towards energy and its use. At the heart of our programme, as ever, is our greatest resource - our employees!

The Energy Experience programme is a free, engaging, multimedia resource for 5 to 16 year olds. It explores the theme of energy and is split into two key areas: Education through Energy and Community Energy Solutions. Education thorough Energy supports curriculum-based and extra curricular learning, to educate young people in the information they need to make informed future energy choices. To bring the Energy Experience to life, our employees are trained to deliver elements on the concept of energy and our role in it. It focuses on how we produce and use energy.

The Hams Hall Environmental Studies Centre is located on the site of a former power station, near Coleshill in North Warwickshire. We own the centre and run it in conjunction with Birmingham City Council, Solihull Metropolitan Council and Warwickshire County Council. The centre provides a fully-equipped teaching facility and each year over 9,000 pupils and their teachers benefit from courses that support the Energy Experience, a resource for schoolteachers to help bring energy to life as part of the national curriculum.

Visit www.eon-uk.com/energyexperience to find out more.

Our other initiatives include:

• A Football Association coaching course that ties in with our commitment to grass roots football
• The Power Discovery Zone, an interactive website teaching children about energy
• Plugin2engineering, which aims to encourage young people to consider a career in engineering
• Our support of the Conkers interactive education centre in Leicestershire

We aim to involve our employees as much as possible in all of our programmes, from individuals who volunteer for our education schemes like the Energy Experience, Right to Read and Number Partners to those taking part in an environmental team challenge, or who are members of the committee that considers grant applications for our SOURCE community environment fund.

We support our employees' fundraising activities and last year, almost 1,200 of our employees applied for matched funding from the company. They raised almost £435,000 for their chosen charities or community groups. We contributed more than £179,000 of this amount via match funding, to national charities and campaigns such as Race for Life, as well as small local community organisations that or employees support. The common theme is that it's our employees who decide which organisations to support. We also back the regular donations that employees make to their chosen charities by supporting Payroll Giving. In Give as You Earn's 20th year of operation, we achieved a Bronze Award from the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF). The Bronze Award means that up to 4% of our employees participate in our scheme. We also add 10% to employees' contributions.

We are the only electricity distribution company to hold customer service road shows. These are attended by our senior managers and target areas where there have been higher than average numbers of power cuts. In 2007, 16 of these events took place in Northampton, Lincoln, Stoke, Gloucester and Hereford. Thousands of customers were able to speak face-to-face with our employees and were given useful items including advice leaflets and fridge magnets displaying emergency loss of supply numbers.

Our EnergyRight scheme was launched in 2007 to help older customers use energy more efficiently, by looking at their energy use in the home. The scheme has been set up to provide face-to-face information and practical assistance to help older people understand and control their energy usage. Age Concern volunteers are trained to carry out individual home energy checks, identifying steps residents can take to boost their energy efficiency. After the home visits, residents are telephoned by our CaringEnergy team who offer further advice, including an additional benefit entitlement check to ensure they are claiming the appropriate Government benefits. We also check their eligibility for grants and free energy efficiency measures.

SOURCE was developed to support efficient and sustainable energy measures for community organisations. It's made up of two parts: a web resource and a fund. At www.eon-uk.com/source, community organisations can access information on fuel poverty, energy efficiency, microgeneration and other low carbon measures they can implement to make a real difference to the environment. The second part of the programme is a fund offering grants of up to £30,000 to community groups and not-for-profit organisations.

Our Electric Blanket testing scheme for older people is unique. The tests are free and for every faulty blanket we provide a free replacement, so that everyone attending the sessions leaves with a safe electric blanket. Run in conjunction with Age Concern, the project is as much about education and awareness as it is about the provision of free tests and replacement blankets.

We're currently working with several schools across the UK in our Low Carbon Schools Programme, offering financial support for sustainable, projects. We also work with these schools offering help, guidance and implementation of any related and relevant projects.

The Safer Environment Fund supports safety and environmental projects and schemes across central England. The fund considers applications for up to £2,500 from community projects that will have a positive and lasting impact on local environments, from building a nature reserve on waste ground to improving safety in children's playgrounds. During 2007, 28 community groups have benefitted from our support.

We also support our employees who want to give blood. We work with the National Blood Service to visit our sites. According to the National Blood Service, once the blood donated by our employees has been split into its component parts, this could potentially save 2,787 lives. Our employees donated enough blood to supply the hospitals in a city the size of Nottingham for three weeks.