In 2008 we submitted a planning application for our second biomass power station, at Blackburn Meadows in Sheffield. The 25MW plant would produce enough renewable electricity for around 40,000 homes and could displace the emissions of around 80,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year.

Throughout the process we made sure that the local community were kept informed and had the opportunity to give us feedback on our proposals. Recognising the multi-cultural nature of the community, we produced newsletters in Slovak, Urdu and English and held a number of exhibitions for different parts of the community to allow them to get a better understanding of the project and ensure that their views were listened to and taken into account in the final design.

Alongside our consultation process we were also involved with local community events, such as Sheffield is My Planet and the Tinsley fun day. These were particularly successful because they allowed us to access a broad spectrum of stakeholders in an informal environment.

Our strong stakeholder engagement and consultation process helped us achieve planning consent within 16 weeks of the application being submitted.

Strategy Analyst Naomi Webb is a volunteer on the Energy Experience and described her own experiences with the programme: “I was quite apprehensive about delivering a lesson to a group of 4 – 5 year olds; however the training was very thorough and we were each issued with an employee volunteer handbook which included lesson plans on a variety of subjects to support the delivery of lessons into the classroom. We were also supplied with a volunteer ‘kit’ with everything you could possibly need to support an interactive lesson.

“The UK Strategy team and I actually delivered seven lessons at Limbrick Wood Primary School, Coventry, teaching the entire school in one day. The children were great and really got involved in the activities. For example, the nursery and year 1 children taught by me and three colleagues thoroughly enjoyed the interactive computer programme using cartoons to explain energy usage in the home.

“Not only did the children learn about energy but I also really enjoyed my time at the school, and as a knock-on effect, it’s improved my presentation skills – presentations to adults are definitely not as daunting as delivering to classes of 4 and 5-year-olds and the day encouraged me to volunteer for more community involvement activities.”

How would you solve the climate challenges our planet is facing? This was one of the questions we posed to secondary school students from across the UK who attended our Secondary Schools Conference last November.

Due to the success of our previous conference we were inundated with requests for repeat visits and as a result over 170 delegates attended.

The day’s workshops and activities brought to life the energy challenges facing us all on a local, national and global scale. Presented by GMTV’s John Stapleton, the conference was also attended by other representatives from our company, Nottingham MP Alan Simpson, previously named Environmental Politician of the Year, and yachtswoman Dame Ellen MacArthur, who is leading our Energy Marshals campaign.

Key activities of the day included:

• faced with a planet in climate crisis, students put themselves in the shoes of decision makers
• through a range of challenges, they got the chance to consider the impact of their own actions and behaviour
• they also had the opportunity to put our own energy experts on the spot and have their most pressing energy questions answered.

The students also considered the pros and cons of different technologies and designed their own eco-efficient energy products in a ‘dragon’s den’ style challenge.

We’ve been supporting local primary schools through our community programmes for a number of years and our Energy for Children initiative is a valuable part of our strategy supporting the advancement of education through energy. The initiative has seen us build strong partnerships with three primary schools, offering them a network of support including access to our advice and expertise, education programmes, finance where appropriate and employee volunteering.

In 2008, one of our Energy for Children Centres, Nottinghamshire’s Cantrell Primary School, challenged us to transform their disused courtyard into a welcoming and safe inspirational space for children to use for reading. We combined their request with the partnership between the charity Business in the Community and the Government’s National Year of Reading programme.

A group of our colleagues volunteered to help create the garden, planting sensory and climbing plants to provide beautiful colours around the courtyard and even recycling our waste paper bins as hanging wall baskets with decorative ivy. Engineers from our distribution business created a special stage for the children to perform on and we installed a weather station and a model wind turbine to support the science curriculum at the school.

The reading theme continued with the children drawing their favourite Roald Dahl characters which our volunteers recreated in the courtyard walls along with other reading-inspired pictures. The children were asked to write a poem about energy and reading. Abbie aged 10 won with her poem all about how energy helps her to enjoy her books. This has now been made into a plaque and takes pride of place in the garden.

The creation of the garden further supports our commitment to education by providing an inspirational environment for learning which will raise standards of achievement and attainment and support child development. Providing literacy support at the school has reduced the gap between peer reading levels and given the children the opportunity to develop their confidence and ability in reading.

We’ve also helped Cantrell through our Energy for Children partnership other ways:

We donated £3,000 to the Cantrell Breakfast Club to ensure children at the school receive a healthy breakfast. On top of that, we’ve donated a further £10,000 for other projects.

One of our senior managers has offered his expertise and experience by taking up the role of Governor at the school.

We’ve offered teachers access to training courses from leadership to negotiation skills

Our volunteers supported children with their SAT tests particularly children with special literacy needs.

Colleagues at our modern gas-fired Connah’s Quay power station have been turning back the clock nearly 200 years to investigate an earlier form of electricity generation.

Two years ago, colleagues were involved with a project to clear the site of a 19^th century industrial water mill. Our colleagues have researched and developed the project sourcing expertise in waterwheel electricity generation and worked with the Pedley Wheel Trust, who were selected as the prospective supplier for the wheel.

The Trust applied for funding from E.ON SOURCE and was awarded a grant of £30,000 in April 2008.

A metal wheel and flume will be installed in the existing wheel pit, and whilst considerably different from the probable original in both design and construction, it will provide maximum efficiency for the existing flow with the ability to generate 30 MWh and save around £3,600 in energy costs. We continued to develop our relationship with the Trust and engineers from Connah’s Quay worked with Trust staff to prepare reports and carry out the feasibility study.