Report 2007 confirms: Sustainability pays off

This is mainly attributable to the fact the principle of "Sustainability" is practiced with consistency at the Hydropower Group. The results are clear: Sustainability pays off.

Sustainable management means acting with a responsible view to the future so that future generations might be able to meet their needs just as we can today. One piece of evidence in this regard is provided by the economic, ecological and social indicators. Which, as the newly published Sustainability Report 2007 demonstrates, are on a steady upward trend.

One economically highly significant indicator is the Economic Value Added (EVA) achieved by a company. In Verbund's case, this indicator has doubled since 2005 alone, climbing from Euro 202 to Euro 406 million. At the same time, company turnover and employee productivity has increased significantly, specifically speaking, by more than one third respectively. Verbund, whose 107 hydropower plants cover more than one third of Austria's electricity requirements, has also achieved remarkable progress in the area of the environment: Currently, more than half of the power plants and grid facilities are ISO 14001 certified in accordance with EMAS, and new plants are added every year.

Verbund invests in renewable energy
In future, Verbund will focus even more on the electricity generation from renewable energy sources: the production portfolio is to be expanded by the factor of new renewable energy sources, in particular, wind power and photovoltaics.

Another remarkable contribution of the company has been achieved with regard to climate protection: Verbund's generation of hydropower last helped to prevent the emission of 22 million tons of CO₂ annually, corresponding to one fifth of entire carbon dioxide emissions in Austria. In addition to that, the amount of waste produced in the company has been reduced by more than half since 2005.

Employee education and safety first
In the company itself, a lot of emphasis is placed on continuing education and employee safety: thus, for instance, training expenditures per employee were increased by more than one third in the past three years and the accident rate has dropped by more than a quarter.

This year's Sustainability Report is divided into two parts, which can be downloaded from the right-hand column:

• the key indicators section, in which all essential information and values can be found quickly and easily, which is important particularly to rating agencies and analysts, and
• the magazine, which focuses on the sustainability aspects of the current Verbund projects. Whereas the the key indicators section is more conceived for the traditional addressees of sustainability reports, the magazine is to be included as a special in a daily newspaper, which, it is hoped, will attract new circles of readers.

In addition to that, you can order a printed version of the Sustainability Report. The link to the order form is in the right-hand column.