Communication on Progress

Communication on Progress

Participant
Published
  • 13-Jul-2012
Time period
  • April 2011  –  March 2012
Format
  • Stand alone document – Basic COP Template
Differentiation Level
  • This COP qualifies for the Global Compact Active level
Self-assessment
  • Includes a CEO statement of continued support for the UN Global Compact and its ten principles
  • Description of actions or relevant policies related to Human Rights
  • Description of actions or relevant policies related to Labour
  • Description of actions or relevant policies related to Environment
  • Description of actions or relevant policies related to Anti-Corruption
  • Includes a measurement of outcomes
 
  • Statement of continued support by the Chief Executive Officer

  • Statement of the company's chief executive (CEO or equivalent) expressing continued support for the Global Compact and renewing the company's ongoing commitment to the initiative and its principles.

  • Our online corporate responsibility report, 'Operating Responsibly' acts as our Communication of Progress. It is updated annually in June, and reflects our activities and performance for year ended 31 March each year.

    The following open letter, dated June 2012, is reproduced as a pdf in the 'Operating Responsibly' section of our corporate website, which can be found at www.nationalgrid.com.

    Dear Mr. Secretary-General,

    National Grid has been a member of the Global Compact since January 2008. I am pleased to affirm that we continue to support the ten principles of the Global Compact and express our intent to advance those principles within our sphere of influence.

    National Grid’s purpose is to connect people to the energy they use.

    We own and manage the grids to which many different energy sources are connected. In Britain, we run systems that deliver gas and electricity across England, Scotland and Wales. In the northeastern US, we provide power directly to millions of customers. We hold a vital position at the centre of the energy system. We ‘join everything up’.

    That puts National Grid at the heart of one of the greatest challenges facing our society – creating new sustainable energy solutions for the future – and developing an energy system that can support our economic prosperity in the 21st century.

    We recognise that a key requirement for participation in the Global Compact is the annual submission of a Communication on Progress (COP) that describes our company’s efforts to implement the ten principles. We support public accountability and transparency, and therefore commit to report on progress annually according to the Global Compact COP policy - our online corporate responsibility report fulfils this requirement. It is available at www.nationalgrid.com, and provides information on our governance, policies and achievements over a wide range of environmental, employee, economic and social issues, including five-year trend data for most of our key performance metrics.

    Steve Holliday
    Chief Executive

Human Rights
  • Assessment, policy and goals

  • Description of the relevance of human rights for the company (i.e. human rights risk-assessment). Description of policies, public commitments and company goals on Human Rights.

  • Our public position statement on human rights is available on our corporate website. It can be accessed at:

    http://www.nationalgrid.com/corporate/Our+Responsibility/Managing+our+Impacts/Ourpolicies

    Our Global Standards of Ethical Business Conduct are available via the same URL

    Our Supplier Code of Conduct can be found at:

    http://www.nationalgrid.com/NR/rdonlyres/027656B7-ABDB-40C0-9886-B527962B60A6/46631/SupplierCodeofConductFinalUK2011.pdf

  • Implementation

  • Description of concrete actions to implement Human Rights policies, address Human Rights risks and respond to Human Rights violations.

  • National Grid operates in the UK and US only, so is not exposed to the same level of human rights risks experienced by many multinational companies. We do not own or operate manufacturing facilities.

    Our primary human rights-related actions are associated with our employees. Our actions and performance on employee related issues (e.g. safety, health, inclusion & diveristy and talent & skills, can be found at:

    http://www.nationalgrid.com/corporate/Our+Responsibility/Our+Impacts

    and

    http://www.nationalgrid.com/corporate/Our+Responsibility/Reporting+our+Performance

  • Measurement of outcomes

  • Description of how the company monitors and evaluates performance.

  • Our key performance indicators in this area can be found at:

    http://www.nationalgrid.com/corporate/Our+Responsibility/Reporting+our+Performance/

Labour
  • Assessment, policy and goals

  • Description of the relevance of labour rights for the company (i.e. labour rights-related risks and opportunities). Description of written policies, public commitments and company goals on labour rights.

  • Our labour related policies and commitments can be found at:

    http://www.nationalgrid.com/corporate/Our+Responsibility/Managing+our+Impacts/Ourpolicies

    Our Global Standards of Ethical Business Conduct are availabe via the same URL

  • Implementation

  • Description of concrete actions taken by the company to implement labour policies, address labour risks and respond to labour violations.

  • Our actions and performance on labour-related issues (safety, health, inclusion & diveristy and talent & skills and business conduct), can be found at:

    http://www.nationalgrid.com/corporate/Our+Responsibility/Our+Impacts

    Information on safety also covers public and contractor safety.

  • Measurement of outcomes

  • Description of how the company monitors and evaluates performance.

  • Our actions and performance on labour related issues (safety, health, inclusion & diveristy and talent & skills and business conduct) can be found at:

    http://www.nationalgrid.com/corporate/Our+Responsibility/Our+Impacts

    Information on safety also covers public and contractor safety.

Environment
  • Assessment, policy and goals

  • Description of the relevance of environmental protection for the company (i.e. environmental risks and opportunities). Description of policies, public commitments and company goals on environmental protection.

  • Our company-wide environment policy can be found at:

    http://www.nationalgrid.com/corporate/Our+Responsibility/Managing+our+Impacts/Ourpolicies

    It is also applicable to our suppliers and contractors.

  • Implementation

  • Description of concrete actions to implement environmental policies, address environmental risks and respond to environmental incidents.

  • Our material environmental issues and actions are described at:

    http://www.nationalgrid.com/corporate/Our+Responsibility/Our+Impacts

    and

    http://www.nationalgrid.com/corporate/Our+Responsibility/Our+Impacts/Envpol

  • Measurement of outcomes

  • Description of how the company monitors and evaluates environmental performance.

  • Our key performance indicators relating to the environment can be found at:

    http://www.nationalgrid.com/corporate/Our+Responsibility/Our+Impacts/Envpol

Anti-Corruption
  • Assessment, policy and goals

  • Description of the relevance of anti-corruption for the company (i.e. anti-corruption risk-assessment). Description of policies, public commitments and company goals on anti-corruption.

  • Our Global Standards of Ethical Business Conduct can be found at:

    http://www.nationalgrid.com/corporate/Our+Responsibility/Managing+our+Impacts/Ourpolicies

    Other policies, inlcuding whistleblower provisions, can be found at the same URL.

    Our Supplier Code of conduct can be found at:

    http://www.nationalgrid.com/NR/rdonlyres/027656B7-ABDB-40C0-9886-B527962B60A6/46631/SupplierCodeofConductFinalUK2011.pdf

  • Implementation

  • Description of concrete actions to implement anti-corruption policies, address anti-corruption risks and respond to incidents.

  • Natonal Grid operates in the UK and US only, so its exposure to corruption risks are generally less than those for many other multinational companies.

    Information on our approach to bribery and corruption can be found in our Strandards of Ethical Business Conduct (URL provided above).

  • Measurement of outcomes

  • Description of how the company monitors and evaluates anti-corruption performance.

  • Information on our performance in this area can be found at:

    http://www.nationalgrid.com/corporate/Our+Responsibility/Reporting+our+Performance/Employees/ethicalconduct