The energy group TXU Europe is to build human rights considerations into future company policy.
The group, which operates in northern and central Europe, including the Czech Republic and Poland, says it will ‘consider the issue of human rights applicable to the company and engage in dialogue to identify issues and implications’.
TXU Europe’s corporate sustainable business manager, John Hill, said the company was still developing its approach to the issue of human rights and was ‘very much open to suggestions at the moment’.
However, he added that the company was keen ‘to put it [human rights] on the agenda’. Any new policies were likely to be developed in-house and not by consultants.
‘We don’t think our exposure to human rights issues is great at the moment, but the subject is very much on the business agenda and it’s a matter of risk management,’ he said.
‘We need to identify issues and put some procedures in place so that we have a policy in this area.’
Hill said one concern was possible human rights violations in countries where suppliers operate. ‘We don’t, for instance, know much about the origins of the coal we buy on the Rotterdam spot market. It could be that some of it is produced in unacceptable conditions in Colombia, or elsewhere.’
The work on human rights is outlined in the group’s second sustainability report, which is also the first public statement of the group’s sustainability principles.
The principles, which have been drawn up after stakeholder consultation, identify seven ways in which the company hopes to contribute to society. These include commitments to ‘reduce costs and our impact on the local and global environment’, and a pledge to maintain ‘fair, safe and healthy working practices to ensure a balanced life inside and outside work.’
Hill said TXU Europe (formerly Eastern Group) hoped to have the principles adopted worldwide by TXU, its US parent company.
‘Effectively they are a lay persons’ guide to the way in which we would like to do business, and they also explain to people who work for us the sorts of things we value,’ he said.
Hill said the principles ‘will be developed in the light of further stakeholder dialogue’.
The sustainability report is available as a summary in a printed version, gives details of TXU Europe’s social action plan. Work on this plan began last year.
The plan has been further developed this year, following discussions with a group of 50 stakeholders. It includes ‘a commitment to keeping community involvement high on the agenda, developing new social initiatives and providing products and services for disadvantaged customers and those who cannot afford electricity.’
Social action projects developed last year by TXU Europe included its ¤4.9million (£3m) Energy in the Community scheme to tackle fuel poverty in a former coal-mining community of Thurnscoe in South Yorkshire. The project offers home energy checks and grants to residents.
The sustainability report is likely to be expanded to cover more of the group’s European activities after its verifiers, Ai Associates, said it was ‘heavily biased’ towards the UK.