Investment in the community

Community partnerships

Endeavour Energy’s community partnership program is designed to build relationships with the community we serve through initiatives supporting youth, education, safety and business excellence. Recipients must meet the social, environmental and regional development obligations set out in the NSW State Owned Corporations Act, and partnership programs must align with our strategic purpose, value and brand.

In 2010–11, we provided $581,000 to community partners which included support for:

Australia Day celebrations across Western Sydney and the Illawarra.
Business Award programs across Western Sydney, the Illawarra, Blue Mountains and South Coast.
Youth sport programs targeting healthy lifestyles including those of the Western Sydney Rugby League Academy, the Department of Education’s NSW Schools Sports Foundation and the Illawarra and South Coast Surf Life Saving Clubs.
Arts and cultural programs for young people including ARTEXPRESS and Schools Spectacular.

In line with our cost-saving programs, our community partnership funding has been reduced by 40% over the past three years and was further reviewed following the sale of Integral Energy’s retail business to Origin Energy in March 2011.

Workplace giving

Since its launch in July 2004, our workplace giving program I care! has donated more than $1.3 million to 11 employee-selected charities. Employees have the opportunity to make pre-tax donations to the program and their donations are matched dollar-for-dollar by Endeavour Energy up to $150,000 per year. Currently, 9% of our employees participate in I care!

Queensland Flood appeal

In 2010–11 Queensland was devastated by floods that disrupted the lives of more than 200,000 people in 22 towns and cities. In response to this disaster, Endeavour Energy set up a pre-tax payroll deduction option for employees to make a one-off donation to the Salvation Army’s Queensland Flood Appeal. (The Salvation Army is one of our workplace-giving charity partners.) Thanks to the generosity of our employees and an agreed dollar-for-dollar corporate matching fund, we were able to donate over $100,000 to the Salvos’ appeal.

REPAIRING QUEENSLAND FLOOD AND CYCLONE DAMAGE

floods Endeavour Energy crews joined the effort to restore power to 380,000 Queensland customers in early 2011 after flooding in Brisbane and damage caused by Cyclone Yasi.

In total 64 employees headed north to help repair extensive damage to the electricity network. Twenty-one of them spent three weeks in Tully and Mission Beach, among the worst affected areas in Northern Queensland, helping Ergon Energy restore power to homes, schools and businesses.

The crews were part of Australia’s largest-ever deployment of electricity field staff assigned to clean up after a major weather event. In some communities, the damage caused by Yasi meant the network had to be rebuilt from the ground up.

Prior to this effort, 43 employees and vehicles assisted ENERGEX to restore power to homes and businesses in flood-affected Brisbane. While in the city, our crews – mostly electrical fitters – inspected networks, replaced meters, reconnected customers to services and undertook underground inspections and repairs.

Public consultation on key projects

Customer consultative committee

Multicultural policies and services program

Investment in the community