Rod Kenyon, director of the British Gas Engineering Academy, is joined by a group of trainees to launch the academy.

Energy Angel Eleanor Whitehead whose school, Little Gaddesden Primary, signed on for the next stage of British Gas’s award winning ‘Think Energy’ educational programme.

Corporate responsibility

We try to understand the impact we have on society, the economy and the environment, so that we can build positive relationships with stakeholders for the benefit of both business and the community.

Corporate responsibility has a bearing on all our activities, and detailed information of how we approach this can be found at www.centrica.com/responsibility. We are listed in the 2002 FTSE4Good Index and also, for the first time, in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes for 2003. We are conscious not only of the business benefits of good corporate responsibility, but also of the risks presented by poor performance, not least for the reputation of our brands.

Marketplace

We try and sell our products and services responsibly, enabling our customers to make informed choices and benefit fully. Some customers have special needs. We now issue more than 500 communications each day to blind or visually impaired customers in the format of their choice, such as Braille, large print or audio. We have developed website accessibility guidelines based on international standards, which all our business websites will meet or exceed in the near future. Text phones have been installed throughout the business and the AA has developed a text messaging service to enable hearing- and speech-impaired members to communicate effectively via their mobile phones.

British Gas is investing more than £70 million in a scheme to tackle household poverty in deprived communities, with a range of support services including energy efficiency measures.

Workplace

Relationships with our employees are based on trust and respect. We aim to attract, reward and keep high quality people who want to achieve our business objectives. Our policies aim to motivate employees, support equal opportunity and reward results. A new guide to sound business practice, developed in 2002, sets out how we expect our employees to act in a variety of situations.

In a competitive world it is important we embrace diversity in our workforce and select the very best employees from a wide and varied choice of applicants. Our staff are trained in diversity issues and in disability awareness. More than 180 people from disadvantaged backgrounds joined our workforce in 2002 through a targeted recruitment programme. British Gas aims to recruit 200 gas engineers from the long term unemployed and from people such as single parents who find it hard to fit in their career with their lifestyle. This initiative is part of the government backed Ambition Energy programme, chaired by Sir Roy Gardner, to address an anticipated shortage of qualified gas engineers.

Nearly three quarters of our employees took part in our worldwide employee satisfaction survey, which measures customer focus, performance and development, management impact and working life. The results of this survey affect how much performance-related remuneration directors receive for the year.

The health and safety of our employees is of paramount importance to us. The amount of time lost to injuries or occupational ill health in 2002 was low. Injuries have been attributable mainly to slips, trips and falls, which are being addressed by our accident prevention programmes.

Other programmes include measures to protect staff at risk of violence in the course of their jobs, such as gas engineers, roadside patrols and debt collectors. Good practice workshops share new techniques for safety and performance, particularly in our power generation and upstream gas businesses.

Environment

We have to manage our impact on the environment and enable our customers to make informed choices about our products and services. As part of our energy efficiency programmes we are on target to achieve latest government energy saving targets. In our own offices, recycling almost doubled to 34% and we made energy savings of more than 4.5 million kWh for the year. Our ISO14001 certification was updated at existing sites and newly achieved by British Gas Service Centres and AA Service Centres. To date, about a million schoolchildren from 7 to 14 have been involved in our award winning ‘Think Energy’ education programme.

Community

A sound business case is the best basis for sustained involvement and benefit to the community. Our contribution to community causes in 2002 was £5.66 million as measured by the London Benchmarking Group model. Each year, our staff raise funds for a charity of their choice. The Cystic Fibrosis Trust received more than £475,000 and over £150,000 was raised for its successor, the Meningitis Trust, in the last quarter. Our employees in North America are also involved in local community projects.

There have been 1.6 million beneficiaries of initiatives since British Gas launched its partnership with Help the Aged in 1999. British Gas has provided support of more than £5.4 million. The partnership received an excellence award from Business in the Community.

The AA Accessible Hotel of the Year Awards emphasise the need for equal access for people with disabilities. The AA Foundation for Road Safety Research published reports on different driver groups and on pan-European tunnels.

One.Tel announced a scheme to support the Samaritans from 2003, donating 1p to the charity for every call made to One.Tel’s new directory service.

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