As well as the significant impact of power generation itself, we also have impacts on the environment through our business operations. Our aim is to manage and minimise these impacts. Our environmental policies set out our objectives and are updated annually.

We have corporate certification to the International Standards Organisation's environmental management standard (ISO 14001), or operate to an equivalent standard, wherever our operations may impact on the environment.

From time to time, despite our best efforts, incidents do occur. We respond to all incidents and complaints, involving the Environment Agency where appropriate.

Our supply chain is a critical area of our business and one where we are now seeking to develop best practice. This will encourage our suppliers to increase their efficiency and reduce their environmental impact.

The latest phase of the Large Combustion Plant Directive (LCPD), which regulates the emissions to air from power stations throughout Europe, involved us working alongside other UK generators to develop and agree a regulatory framework with the Environment Agency, for 2008-2015.

Our Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station at Nottingham was ready to meet the requirements of the new regulations. We decided not to invest in additional abatement equipment at our two other coalfired power stations at Ironbridge in Shropshire and Kingsnorth in Kent. These two stations therefore face restrictions on their hours of operation and must close by the end of 2015.

During 2007, we carried out research to determine the best approach for implementing a biodiversity action plan in our distribution business. We've now completed our studies and we're developing a plan that will ensure legal compliance, and move us towards best practice in this area.

We intend to work closely with local biodiversity officers and wildlife groups to take our biodiversity action plan forward and we've initiated conservation projects at a number of our sites.

As a result of a proactive campaign to make all employees aware of the importance of waste management, we increased the amount we recycled during 2007 by nearly 13 percent (compared with 2006).

We began work on measuring our non-operational carbon footprint in 2005 and since then we've managed to improve our data collection processes which now capture around 95 percent of our office and transport-related emissions. Since we began measuring our carbon footprint, our organisation has grown and we now employ around 17,000 people. Despite this, the overall energy use from our offices have risen very little and have significantly decreased per employee. Our transport emissions still present a cause for concern, however, due to increased travel requirements between our UK and German offices, flights have continued to rise steeply.

The number of miles driven for business purposes has also been increasing over the last year. We're currently working to develop a better understanding of these trends and implement the necessary measures to prevent nonessential journeys. Our fleet and workplace improvement teams are playing a key role in making this happen.