Continued strong commitment to corporate responsibility
Foreword
We are pleased to present Pennon Group's thirteenth report describing our approach to environmental and social issues and our commitment to corporate responsibility.
Pennon Group is a member of the FTSE Environmental Opportunities All-Share Index, comprising 472 companies from around the world, 30 of which are listed in the UK .
The Group continues to report to the Carbon Disclosure Project, which recognises our ability to log our carbon footprint, to assess our work to minimise our carbon emissions and to address the impacts of climate change.
Both of Pennon Group's two main operating companies continue to increase their generation of renewable energy. Viridor's landfill gas power generation output achieved 504GWh in the year, an increase of 6% on 2007/08. South West Water generated almost 19GWh of renewable energy from hydro and anaerobic digestion sources. Overall, Pennon Group's renewable energy generation was 188% of our energy consumption in the year. The Group has been a net energy producer since 1999/2000, and we will be increasing our energy production rates rapidly in 2009/10 as new waste management sites are commissioned.
South West Water won the Sustainable Drainage and Flood Management Initiative of the Year category in the 2009 Water Industry Achievement Awards, in respect of the Exmoor Mires project. The company won the Gold Green Apple Award for Environmental Best Practice in recognition of its work to help businesses save water and money.
Dinah Nichols
Chairman
Corporate Responsibility Committee
Ken Harvey
Chairman
Pennon Group Plc
Viridor recycled and composted around 1.8 million tonnes of material - an increase of 7.9% on the previous year. The company invests in the appropriate infrastructure to facilitate this, and continues to secure long-term recycling-led contracts such as the South London Waste Public Private Partnership (PPP) and the Greater Manchester waste and renewable energy Private Finance Initiative (PFI), which was secured shortly after the year-end.
I would like to thank my colleagues on the Group's Corporate Responsibility Committee for their support and guidance towards achieving a Group-wide commitment to best corporate responsibility practice. We would welcome feedback on this report from our stakeholders.