| |
 |
|
 |
GENERATING RESPONSIBLY
International Power is committed to
conducting business in a responsible
manner wherever we operate. Since
our formation in 2000, we have put
the highest emphasis on environmental,
health and safety performance, and on
valuing our shareholders, customers,
employees, neighbours and suppliers.
As an electricity generator, we see
corporate social responsibility (CSR) as
being an integrated approach to managing
environmental, health and safety (EH&S),
employee, community and ethical issues.
We have previously reported on our
EH&S performance for 2000 and 2001.
For 2002, the scope of reporting has been
broadened to include all of our CSR issues.
In last year’s Annual Report, we made
a commitment to seek to comply with
guidelines produced by the Association of
British Insurers (ABI)1 for reporting on CSR
issues. The decision reflected an increasing
interest amongst our key stakeholders to
be informed of our overall CSR performance
including how we manage the associated
risks and opportunities.
Stakeholders increasingly judge companies
on their social and environmental
performance. In recent years a number of
indices have been developed to inform
stakeholders, including pension fund
managers and analysts, on how
a company is performing over time
and relative to other companies in their
particular sector. In the UK, Business in
the Community (BITC) is acknowledged
as a leading index provider. In 2002
International Power took part in the first
BITC Corporate Responsibility Index.
The detailed performance feedback
provided by BITC will form a key input
to our work in improving our CSR
performance in the coming year.
We take a risk-based approach to
managing our CSR issues and this is
consistent with the way in which we
manage other business issues. This year
our CSR management team has conducted
a full analysis of the CSR issues facing
International Power. This analysis is helping
to drive our programmes for the future.
In order to provide assurance that our
policies are being properly implemented
we will be further integrating these issues
into our existing compliance audit
programmes, which already cover
the areas of EH&S.
The content of this report closely
reflects the key issues identified within
the ABI Guidelines. These issues are
described in greater detail overleaf. For
our full CSR report please visit our
website at www.ipplc.com or write to
the Company Secretary.
1 Association of British Insurers (ABI) “Investing in Social
Responsibility” (October 2001)
|
 |
Environmental protection and efficiency
Power generation can have a significant
environmental impact. In providing
electrical energy to sustain modern
society we recognise we must strive to
implement environmental management
systems at all our assets. During 2002,
we had four minor reportable incidents
across all our assets, none of which
incurred regulatory action. We continue
to seek ways of reducing our environmental
impact through improvement in operational
practices and the introduction of
new technologies.
We recognise climate change as being
a key business issue for the future.
As society’s attitude to fossil-sourced
emissions changes, together with the
introduction of the EU Emissions Trading
Scheme, we anticipate there will be an
increasing impact on our business. As part
of our management process, data on our
most significant environmental impacts,
including carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions,
will continue to be monitored and reported
annually as Key Performance Indicators
(KPIs). Details of our other emissions can
be found on our website. Figure 1 illustrates
the emissions of CO2 per kilowatt-hour
resulting from our power generation
activities over the last three years.
|
|
Figure 1 Total CO2 emissions from
International Power’s power stations
|
We strive to make our power stations
as efficient as possible and to ensure,
through proper maintenance practices,
that they are available to operate
whenever required.
 |
Cleaner power stations
Blackstone and Bellingham, US
A number of our power stations, including Blackstone and
Bellingham, are now some of the cleanest in the US. Our use
of Best Available Control Techniques (BACT) has meant that
we now emit some of the lowest levels of oxides of nitrogen
(NOx) in the US.
The power stations use low NOx burners and selective catalytic
reduction (SCR) which allows them to operate within their
permit NOx levels of two parts per million.
|
|
 |
Employee rights and human rights
It is the policy of International Power to
ensure that all employees or applicants
are given equal opportunities regardless of
race, colour, religion, sex, marital status,
sexual orientation, age and physical or
mental condition when unrelated to
job performance.
We support the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights (UNDHR) and will apply its
principles throughout our workforce. This
commitment extends to ensuring that the
health and safety of our employees and
the environment, in which they live and
work, is actively managed.
Health and safety
In the last two years several of our
plants have received Royal Society for
the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA)
Gold Awards for their health and safety
performance, including Hub in Pakistan,
Deeside and Rugeley in the UK and Pego
in Portugal. We value such awards very
highly and encourage all our facilities to
seek the same high level of recognition.
As in previous years our standards of
health and safety continue to be high and
are considered a critical aspect of our
operations. We will continue to review
our policies and reporting requirements.
We issued a revised health and safety
policy in February 2003 and have
introduced additional specific KPIs for 2003.
|
 |
Community involvement
We consider the communities in which
we operate to be one of our most
important stakeholder groups and
we strive to interact both locally and
proactively with them. Our community
involvement is targeted to improve
economic, environmental and social
well being in qualitative and quantitative
terms. Our contributions are through
leadership, by initiating and steering
community projects or in the form of
donations of time, cash, equipment or
facilities. These initiatives include:
- funding free ‘eye camps’ to combat
blindness (caused by cataracts) in
the local community around Hub
in Pakistan;
- education through industry schemes
at Deeside and Rugeley in the UK;
- support for para-Olympians annual
award ceremony in Midlothian,
Texas, US.
During 2002 International Power
and its majority-owned subsidiaries
donated £455,000 to charitable causes.
Companies in which International Power
has a minority shareholding (associates)
donated a further £215,000.
The Company also supported LEPRA,
the Salvation Army, SCOPE, The Queen
Elizabeth Trust and Sightsavers. The
Company match-funded money raised
by staff for charitable causes.
|
|
|
Figure 2 International Power charitable donations
|
Figure 2 illustrates our KPI on spending in
community initiatives as a percentage of
our annual turnover for 2001 and 2002.
|
 |
Bringing the land back to life
Pelican Point, Australia
Pelican Point’s Ecological Restoration Project has made
a significant contribution to the greening of 33 hectares
surrounding the power station. Up until two years ago,
it was a very windswept and lifeless environment as a
result of previous industrial use. Since then, 25 native
plant species have been reintroduced to the site.
Over 1,000 members of the local community have
participated in the revegetation activities. The environment
surrounding the site is now rapidly being transformed to
establish primary habitat for the diverse range of wildlife
found locally.
|
|
Learning for life
Balochistan, Pakistan
As part of our educational support programme and in
conjunction with The Citizens Foundation (TCF) we are building
a new primary and secondary school in Balochistan near to our
HUBCO plant. This province is one of the poorest in Pakistan
and has the lowest literacy rate.
The school will be run by TCF and will welcome its first
primary children in April 2004. The secondary school will
open in April 2005 and by 2008 we expect the school
to have over 500 pupils.
|
Young Environmentalist of the Year Awards 2002
The Young People’s Trust for the Environment is a charity
which aims to encourage young people’s understanding of
the environment and the need for sustainability. Every year the
charity holds a competition to raise awareness of the threat to
the environment and how we may best preserve our fragile
planet. Entrants are asked to submit a project relating to
environmental and nature conservation issues.
This annual competition is open to children aged between
8-16, of employees from six participant companies including
International Power. In 2002, a total of 80 young people entered
from International Power, with the winners being flown to
London with their families to collect their prizes at the
awards ceremony in November.
This year’s award winning projects covered: – endangered
species – the giant panda and the cheetah (junior category)
and European wasps as pests in Australia (senior category)
|
Bob Holness,
Marnie Peterson (senior winner),
David Crane,
Katy Secombe,
Rachel Maggiani (junior winner),
Danny John Jules.
|
Ethical behaviour
In a climate of fierce competition,
International Power has a business
practice policy, which has been approved
by the Board, and which is designed to
ensure that we operate to the highest
ethical standards. This policy covers:
- relations with officials and prospective
business partners;
- business gifts and hospitality;
- conflicts of interest;
- proper financial control and accounting.
This policy and the associated procedures
help us to ensure that we conduct our
business in an ethical manner. Our combined
compliance audit process gives us
assurance that these arrangements
are effective.
|
 |
2003 targets
- We will continue to encourage and
support all our assets to operate to the
principles of, and be certified to, ISO
14001 (the international
environmental management system
standard) by December 2004.
Certification to recognised standards
for health and safety, and quality
management systems will also
be encouraged.
- We will seek to understand better
the ethnic, gender and age dynamics
of our workforce.
- We will further integrate CSR issues
into our existing audit programmes.
- During 2003, at each asset we will:
| - |
set targets for group discussions about safety issues in the work place – ‘toolbox talks’;
|
| - |
set targets for periodic inspections of specific plant areas – ‘safety walks’;
|
| - |
review lost time incident frequency and set an appropriate reduction target;
|
| - |
review first aid treatments and set an appropriate reduction target.
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|