Community support begins with our employees

We proactively encourage our employees and put them at the heart of our community programme.

A targeted programme of support

Our community programme is a win-win for our local communities and us. It enables us to offer development opportunities to our employees, whilst providing useful support to those communities in which we have a presence.

The programme is easily accessible to all employees and is seen as an important personal development tool. During 2007, employees spent almost 46,000 hours volunteering on projects in their local communities. We donate grants of up to £250 to any charity or not-for-profit organisation that one of our employees has volunteered more than 80 hours of their own personal time to. In 2007, we donated more than £41,000 to 183 organisations in recognition of the 30,714 hours of their own time that our employees had given to them. We also supported our employees' favourite charities by matching funds raised through sponsorship and other activities undertaken in their own time. Last year, that equated to more than £180,000 through matched funding to the charities supported by 1,169 of our employees.

We encourage our employees to channel their efforts into three particular areas when supporting local schools: maths, reading and information technology (IT). In 2007, more than 100 employees devoted 841 hours to one to one working with children. They helped them to improve their reading skills, self-confidence and motivation. Through our IT volunteering scheme, 19 employees with specialist IT skills helped introduce local primary school pupils to the subject in over 140 volunteered hours. Similarly, our Number Partners programme has seen employees help youngsters develop their maths skills.

Working with a rich diversity of organisations, we encourage our business teams to develop community relationships outside of the normal working environment and put something back into the communities in which they live and work. In 2007, almost 90 teams volunteered through team challenges, contributing a total of 11,445 hours to support local projects. We work closely with a range of organisations, including Business in the Community and the National Trust, to ensure challenges are safe and tailored to meet each community's needs.

We have also used our FA Cup sponsorship to help interested employees gain a nationally-recognised football coaching qualification that they can use in their local communities. Feedback has shown this course is excellent in helping to develop leadership skills and that it generates a sense of pride in working for our company, as well as an awareness of first aid. In return, it provides community organisations with trained coaches to support and motivate youngsters. We supported 35 employees through the process to gain their coaching badge and a further 100 are currently going through the course. We also provide high-quality clothing and equipment to support their training. This includes a full tracksuit, kit bag, footballs, training cones and bibs.

Energy experience

The E.ON Energy Experience is an engaging education resource that helps teach 5 to 16-year-olds about energy. So far, over 19,000 primary and secondary schools have registered to receive classroom packs.

The programme - an interactive website with supporting classroom packs - helps young people to understand the different sources of the energy we use, the merits of each and what using any particular energy source will mean locally, nationally and globally. Supporting the science and geography curricula in England, Scotland and Wales, the E.ON Energy Experience doesn't just tell young people about energy, it enables them to experience it.

The programme has four distinct themes:

• Energy Home, which is aimed at 5 to 7-year-olds, helps young people discover what energy is and why it's important to them
• Energy Town is aimed at 7 to 11-year-olds and helps them find out how energy is generated and distributed
• Energy Nation, for the 11 to 14-year-olds gives users the opportunity of exploring the key issues of energy in the UK. Should we move more towards renewable energy or not? They step into the shoes of the key decision makers and are able to draw their own conclusions
• Energy World, aimed at the 14 to 16-year-old group, gives users the opportunity of contemplating the future of the planet. It addresses global issues and gives pupils the information they need to consider their personal actions and responsibilities

In 2007, we trained 120 employees to deliver sessions in primary and secondary schools. They then spent over 250 hours delivering classroom activities within these schools. In total 315,625 children across the country have taken part in the Energy Experience in their school. In addition, we developed a touring play called The Town of Total Darkness where young people aged between 5 and 11 get to be energy detectives. This play was performed in 44 schools across the UK. We also hosted the UK's first secondary school energy conference, designed to discover what 14 to 16- year -olds think about the industry and how our energy behaviour impacts our business and the environment. Feedback from the students was fantastic and they got the opportunity to ask a panel of our senior managers what they thought about our industry.

Since its launch in 2006, 5,231 primary schools and 3,529 secondary schools have contacted us to request Energy Experience classroom packs and the programme has been shortlisted for a prestigious Hollis Award.

The E.ON Energy Experience at Conkers

This exhibition is largely concerned with creating a fun environment where young people can learn about the importance of conserving energy. Through a series of graphic panels and interactive games, the exhibition seeks to clarify and reinforce the links between what a person does and how those actions impact on the larger picture.

The exhibition is split into the same four key areas as the classroom programme:

• Energy Home
• Energy Town
• Energy Nation
• Energy World

Source

In 2007, we introduced our SOURCE fund as part of our recognition of the important role that sustainability and the reduction of carbon emissions has to play in the future of our Changing Energy strategy. E.ON SOURCE supports the development of efficient and sustainable energy measures for community organisations through a web resource. It provides information about different measures that can be implemented, and gives access to grant funding. Groups can apply for up to £30,000 of funding from E.ON SOURCE for their projects. Specialists from our business come together to review all applications and award the grants. It is a great example of our employees working across business boundaries to change and support local communities.

In 2007 we received over 9,000 unique visits to our website. This resulted in 422 applications for funding from groups asking for over £9 million in grants. We supported 17 projects ranging from small energy efficiency makeovers for village halls, to major investments in sustainable energy solutions.

plugin2engineering

plugin2engineering is an education programme designed to support and enhance teaching on the subject of electricity in 21 selected secondary schools and colleges across central England, at Key Stages 3 and 4 (11-16-year-olds). It helps students to see how their classroom learning has applications in the real world and we hope will encourage some of them to consider a career in engineering.

As with other engineering-based industries, the steadily declining interest in the sciences over recent years has translated into a shortage of young talented individuals wanting to work within its field.

The challenge of raising the appeal of the sciences, as well as the somewhat negative perception amongst young people of engineering as a profession, has been the driving factor behind our investment into the plugin2engineering programme. Based around the creation of a small housing development called Greenviews, the activities throughout the programme seek to encourage students to consider electricity as not just a topic to be remembered for an exam, but as a source of power upon which we depend for light and heat as well as to power appliances we use every day for business, home and leisure.

Electricity can be one of the most difficult elements of the science curriculum for students to grasp, and we hope that our activities and supporting equipment will help to encourage a better understanding of the principles of electricity and their application.

Hams Hall Environmental Studies Centre

Located on the site of one of our former power stations, near Coleshill in North Warwickshire, Hams Hall Environmental Studies Centre is run in conjunction with Birmingham City Council, Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council and Warwickshire County Council.

The centre provides a fully-equipped teaching facility and each year, over 350 teachers and pupils of all ages benefit from courses that support the National Curriculum. Since the centre opened its doors, over 160,000 children have visited. The centre provides a stimulating indoor and outdoor learning environment for visiting schoolchildren and has a team of qualified teaching staff. The centre is open to schools during term time and also offers in-service training for teachers.

Low Carbon Schools Programme (LCSP)

As a leading renewable energy supplier, we are committed to providing clean energy solutions to our customers and influencing Government strategy for a lower carbon future. One of our teams focuses on large-scale renewable energy schemes greater than 1 megawatt, such as wind farms and biomass power plants, whilst additional groups are investigating renewable technologies on a smaller scale, including microgeneration.

At present there are a number of technologies that we are focusing on, which will be available through the Low Carbon Schools Programme:

• Ground source heat pumps (GSHP)
• Micro combined heat and power (mCHP)
• Solar photovoltaic (SolarPV)
• Solar thermal
• Wind

As part of the scheme, we will be offering the opportunity to assess, install and maintain one or more of these technologies in four schools in our region. We already have an established relationship with each of the schools through our current education and volunteering programmes:

• Whitecross School, Gloucester (Secondary)
• The National School, Nottingham (Secondary)
• Limbrick Wood Primary, Coventry (Primary)
• Morven Park, Nottingham (Primary)

The FA Cup sponsored by E.ON

As part of our sponsorship of the FA Cup, we've developed a number of schemes to support communities and our employees.

E.ON National FA Cup Schools Day

In 2007, 300,000 primary schoolchildren across England took part in a day designed to celebrate the magic and excitement of The FA Cup. Schools received free packs to help them create a day of fun activities for the children. The packs included games linked to reducing the carbon footprint of football matches, English lessons designed to bring The FA Cup to life and maths problems linked to the competition. Former England captains Alan Shearer and Tony Adams were our ambassadors for the day.

Football Association Young Leaders Camp

The Football Association (FA) attracts young people to football, not only as players, but also as coaches, referees and marketing specialists. The FA Young Leaders Camp was a week-long programme of activity for 16 to 18-year-olds who are acknowledged as being the 'top' young leaders within their county. We supported this event by supplying activities for the camp and by working with The FA to identify four people with the ability to take their skills to Africa in a programme designed to support developing nations.

Get Your Kit On!

In August 2007, we launched our Get Your Kit On! scheme for all employees. We funded up to £150 towards the cost of football kits to help employees who play in local leagues. This helps to raise brand awareness at a local level, but also shows support for all areas of the game - from grassroots to the elite level.

We also sponsored the Excellence in Enterprise Awards in 2007. The Excellence in Enterprise Awards are a series of exciting challenges for both individuals and teams of year 10 and 11 students in Leicestershire. The awards programme is run by the Leicester Education Business Company (LEBC) to help schools meet their Enterprise curriculum objectives and to encourage students to consider the world beyond school. Last year, we ran a 'Careers in Engineering' team challenge as part of the programme. The programme culminated in an awards ceremony attended by over 400 students from across the county to celebrate their achievements.

Team challenges form a key part of our community relations programme. They also have links into the development of our employees. They not only build teamwork within the company by engaging people in a new activity and changing team dynamics, but they also provide managers with another employee development tool, incorporating the skills of planning, presentation and working with external stakeholders.

In December 2007, 45 employees delivered E.ON's Energy Experience to the pupils of Limbrick Wood Primary School which is near our HQ in Coventry. About 150 pupils took part in the sessions, which focus on how we produce and use energy within our towns and homes.

We have very close links with the school, having built an outdoor classroom as part of our Forest Schools scheme and we have also committed to replacing the roof insulation of this listed building as part of our Low Carbon Schools Programme. Through our relationship with Business in the Community, we also place employees at the school to help children improve their reading through the Right to Read programme. This, combined with our close and enduring relationship, mean that Limbrick Wood has been chosen as one of our Energy for Children centres in the UK.