The needs of our customers, stakeholders and communities are at the heart of everything we do and we want to make sure we deliver value for them every day.
We have a lot to achieve and we can't do this on our own. Building strong partnerships with charities and community organisations is really important to us in helping tackle the challenges we all face together, as we introduce more renewable and decentralised generation and shape the future energy landscape – something that will affect us all.
That's why we have linked up with partners to share knowledge, develop solutions and support causes that both our customers and employees care about. Together we can help make a difference to today's society.
The Prince of Wales established an Accounting for Sustainability (A4S) to help the business community and public sector recognise the benefits of considering the environment and wider society as part of their mainstream day-to-day business decisions. National Grid has contributed to and continues to support a number of the working groups designed to incorporate sustainability into financial decision making.
The American Red Cross is a humanitarian organisation that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and education. National Grid partners with the American Red Cross in the US, providing support for programmes and activities that include disaster/storm preparedness and response, resiliency, home fire safety and emergency blood services – all designed to provide assistance to our customers during times of greatest need.
City Year places recent school leavers and graduates as volunteers for a year in schools where they can have the most impact. The volunteers work with the children to help them understand their own potential and widen their horizons; showing what both the world of work and broader participation in social institutions could bring to their lives.
FSC manages our UK environmental centre, Bishops Wood. FSC is an environmental education charity that believes that the more we know about and take inspiration from the world around us, the more we can appreciate its needs and protect its diversity.
Girls Inc. inspires all girls to be strong, smart and bold, through direct service and advocacy. Its approach equips girls to navigate gender, economic and social barriers and grow up healthy, educated and independent. In the US, National Grid is the Northeast Regional STEM partner; an innovative collaboration that brings STEM programming to girls.
National Grid has supported Groundwork at our environmental centres at Iver and West Boldon in the UK, providing land on which Groundwork staff work to support the local community and improve access and understanding of the environment.
Step up to Serve is a UK-wide campaign to help young people make a difference in their communities through social action, including activities like campaigning, fundraising and volunteering. We are a founding member and leading supporter of the initiative and have pledged to help double the number of young people volunteering and working in social action by 2020.
National Grid has supported The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) at our UK environmental centre at Skelton Grange since 1992; providing the land on which TCV staff and hundreds of local community volunteers have created a beautiful 10 acre nature reserve of woodland, pond, meadow and hedgerow habitats. This space is used for education, work experience, skills development, wellbeing and play for thousands of visitors of all ages every year.
We take a local approach to managing our land in the UK. Therefore, in many cases we are partnering with a local wildlife trust in order to make contributions to bigger, better and more joined up ecosystems.
United Way improves lives by mobilising the caring power of communities around the world to advance the common good. Its focus is on education, income and health – the building blocks of a good quality of life and a strong community. National Grid supports 36 United Way chapters across the areas where we operate in the US – through our annual employee giving campaign, corporate donations and community service events, involving hundreds of employee volunteers.
Volunteering Matters is the UK volunteering and social action charity that works with organisations across the UK and Europe, helping people to build stronger communities. It has been working in partnership with National Grid since 2012, to coordinate high-quality volunteering opportunities on behalf of our employees.
The Business Disability Forum is the UK's national employers' network specifically focused on the topic of disability. The Forum provides pragmatic support by sharing expertise, giving advice, providing training and facilitating networking opportunities.
Business in the Community works to secure a fairer society and more sustainable future by developing a contract between business and society. Its focus is on stimulating local economies to create jobs, reducing the impact of unemployment, addressing the skills shortage and inequality in recruitment, as well as cutting dependency on natural resources.
The ICRS is the UK's professional body for corporate responsibility and sustainability. It helps organisations demonstrate their commitment to responsible and sustainable business, share best practice and help build their CR and sustainability capacity through dedicated member events.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people bring value to organisations by providing a different set of experiences and perspectives. Stonewall helps hundreds of organisations recognise the benefits of these perspectives for all employees, service users and members of the community. The Diversity Champions Programme is a world-leading employers' programme for making sure all LGBT staff are accepted without exception in the workplace.
WES is a charity and a professional network of women engineers, scientists and technologists, offering inspiration, support and professional development. Working in partnership, the charity supports and inspires women to achieve as engineers, scientists and as leaders – we encourage the education of engineering – and they support companies with gender diversity and inclusion.