OREANDA-NEWS. July 02, 2015. SSE provides people with a vital service that they need and we believe that means we have a responsibility to reach for higher business standards as a result.

That’s why throughout 2014/15 we’ve been taking steps to demonstrate the enhanced social, economic and environmental impact we have through our core business activities. 

The reporting of SSE’s sustainability impacts (financial and non-financial) is integrated throughout its 2015 Annual Report. But we also want to make more detailed information about our responsible approach, and the impact it is having, accessible and transparent to all stakeholders. 

Today we have published our first Being Responsible annual review, which is specifically designed to meet that objective. It provides an overview of key policies and actions associated with SSE’s responsible approach to managing its activities, with a particular focus on those achieved in the 2014/15 financial year. It puts in one place all the data and information our customers, employees, investors and other stakeholders may require in order to understand SSE’s business ethos and its contribution, beyond the bottom line, to the wider world.

2014/15 was a challenging year commercially, and while I am satisfied with our financial performance, I am confident that our performance in the long run has been enhanced as a result of the progress we have made in becoming a more responsible company.

Last year, we implemented the Living Wage in our supply chain. Meaning that as well as all SSE employees being paid at least the Living Wage,  from April 2014, all new service and works contracts include an obligation to pay anybody working regularly on SSE sites a Living Wage too. 

In October 2014, SSE became the first company in the FTSE 100 to be accredited by the Fair Tax Mark. To meet the standards set, SSE published a tax policy that explicitly ruled out the use of tax havens and artificial profit shifting arrangements. We have also disclosed a lot more detail regarding our tax calculations. We believe this is good for business because it helps rebuild trust with the customers and communities we serve. Importantly, it also provides reassurance to our investors that tightening international tax rules are very unlikely to pose a risk to SSE’s future earnings.

During the year, CDP gave SSE an ‘A’ rating for its performance in managing its response to climate change and included SSE in the 2014 Climate Performance Leadership Index. This review demonstrates that we have continued to make progress in this area with our overall carbon emissions falling by 34% and the carbon intensity of our electricity generation falling to its lowest level since 2009.  We remain on track to achieve our 2020 target of reducing by 50% the carbon intensity of our electricity generation.

Beyond these flagship initiatives, SSE made good progress in disclosing its economic and wider social impacts. For the first time, we published our economic contribution to the UK and Irish economies alongside our annual report – the first for any company in the FTSE. And we have quantified the economic value of SSE’s Human Capital, demonstrating that SSE’s people, are indeed our most important ‘asset’.

While reporting is crucial and we believe it has an important function in holding companies to account, our objective is not to report for reporting’s sake. I am very clear, the actions and the values that underpin those actions are what matter most. 

I don’t think it’s too much to say that responsible companies should go ‘beyond the bottom line’. For SSE, it’s not about making a profit, it’s about earning a profit, and simultaneously delivering a social and economic contribution for the common good. The Being Responsible review we have published today demonstrates that 2014/15 took us several steps closer to meeting that objective and I look forward to SSE taking further steps in the years ahead.