Our Health, Safety and Environment Committee was chaired in 2009/10 by non-executive board member Michael Pavia, and is now chaired by non-executive board member Gordon Parsons. It advises our Board on any significant matters relating to corporate responsibility (CR).
Members of our Executive team have responsibility for specific parts of our CR programme, with overall direction on CR matters and sustainability provided by our External Affairs and Sustainability Director, Richard Aylard.
We measure our performance against a wide range of CR issues, and have summarised this in our 'Key targets' section.
We were pleased to improve our performance in this year's Business in the Community Corporate Responsibility Index. Our overall score improved from 93 per cent to 95.2 per cent, resulting in a Platinum ranking in the Index, up from Gold in the previous year.
We are participating in London Benchmarking Group reporting of community involvement. Our community investment for 2009/10 was £1.7m, a 50 per cent increase over 2008/09 (£1.1m). A further £1.1m was raised by our customers, employees and suppliers.
Although 2009/10 industry benchmark reporting is not yet available, for 2008/09 our rate of employees volunteering in the community was above average. However, our overall community investment was below sector average.
As a member of Water UK, the body representing water companies and other water organisations in the UK, we take part in the annual reporting of Water UK Sustainability Indicators. This report is available on the Water UK website.
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