VERBUND operates efficiently, ecologically, and in a socially sustainable way

02.06.2006Wien

VERBUND, Austria’s leading electricity company has not only developed financially into an internationally respected top company, but it has also continually improved its performance in the environmental and social areas. This is verified by the recently released VERBUND Sustainability Report 2005.

According to the VERBUND general director Hans Haider: "Our report shows that environmentally sound and socially responsible actions pay off. The financial success of The VERBUND verifies this in an impressive way. Since 2000, we have tripled profit."

Sustainable operations mean to act in such a future-orientated way that future generations can satisfy their needs in the same way that we can today. The corporate operations of the hydro power firm VERBUND was and is strategically and especially orientated around sustainability. Since 2002, this is shown each year in a sustainability report.

The VERBUND can once again report impressive figures for 2005. An important financial key figure is the Economic Value Added (EVA), which is equivalent to the financial added value that a company earns. This value has more than tripled at The VERBUND from 2004 to 2005. It increased from Euro 65 million to Euro 202 million.

The VERBUND is Central Europe’s leading hydro power firm. It has clean power in Austria from 107 hydroelectric power plants and 9 modern thermal power plants. At present, more than half the VERBUND power plants and two grid systems are regularly environmentally certified according to EMAS and ISO 14001, and each year additional facilities are added.

As an example, the report includes the dismantling of the VERBUND Pernegg power plant in Styria. This 45 year old, oil-powered power plant was not only shutdown; rather it is the first EMAS-certified power plant in Austria that has been completely dismantled.

The long-term social involvement of The VERBUND can be best seen in the almost 50-year sponsorship of the house "Schwalbennest" in the SOS Children's Village in Hinterbrühl. The "Schwalbennest", which houses a children's village mother and six children, was thoroughly renovated and expanded last year.