Operating environment

Health and safety

A safe working environment is given high priority across the Group. A health and safety policy is maintained and implemented at each subsidiary.

John Cuthbert and Ceri Jones with players from the Newcastle Eagles basketball team (l-r Darius Defoe, Lynard Stewart and Reggie Jackson) supporting Children in Need.

Employee Share Incentive Plan (SIP)

The directors believe that employee investment strengthens the ties between the Group and its employees. More than a third of employees participate in the SIP, with an interest in 0.5% of the issued share capital. The scheme provides one free matching share for every three shares bought by an employee. Shares for the SIP are purchased at market price by the Trustee and dividends are paid in cash directly to participants. There are no performance conditions attached to the SIP but free shares not held in trust for at least 12 months are forfeited. Employees participating in the SIP are given the opportunity to exercise their voting rights through the Trustee of the SIP.

Corporate responsibility

NWL is expected to provide a secure supply of water, a basic necessity for health, and to protect or enhance the environment when we return waste to it. However, our stakeholders also expect us to:

• behave fairly and responsibly;
• use resources wisely;
• improve quality of life; and
• contribute to economic development.

We take our corporate responsibilities seriously. Our aim of balancing economic, social and environmental priorities underpins all of our activities and is an integral part of the way we do business.

We have significant resources in our assets, land and employees and believe we have a responsibility to use these resources for the benefit of our customers, our shareholders and the wider communities we serve.

The Managing Director is directly accountable to the NWL and NWG boards for both the environment and sustainable development policies.

We have developed our own model to integrate corporate responsibility as an essential part of normal business practice in NWL. This model is published on our websites with links to our policy, action plan, key performance indicators, trend data and case studies for 25 key areas of our business.