Sustainability Report 2013
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Sustainability report 2013 Welcome Contents This report sets out our commitment to sustainability, highlighting the five core areas we focus on and our performance across these areas through the year. It has been created in line with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and independently assured. You can read our GRI checklist online at www.urenco.com. A performance summary and glossary is included at the back of the report. Sustainability report 01 Introduction p02 Chief Executive 02 Chief Executive Officer’s review Officer’s p22 review Developing our 04 Our business model position as an employer of 06 What we do and where we do it choice 08 We play a key role at the heart of the nuclear supply chain p10 10 Our focus areas Our focus areas p26 12 Managing health, safety, safeguards and security Supporting education, cultural and community 16 Minimising our environmental impact projects 20 Being considered the supplier of choice 22 Developing our position as an employer p12 of choice Managing health, safety, safeguards 26 Supporting education, cultural and and security p32 community projects Managing sustainability 30 Engaging with our stakeholders 32 Managing sustainability 34 Reporting parameters p16 35 Assurance statement Minimising our environmental 36 Summarising our performance impact 38 Glossary of terms Overview Living up to our commitments Introduction At URENCO, we are at the heart of the nuclear energy industry – providing our customers with the enrichment services they need to generate the low carbon nuclear energy that is an important part of the world’s energy mix. We are determined to play our part responsibly by honouring our commitments to sustainability. We deliver a reliable, responsive, high quality service to our customers. Ongoing sustainability Ongoing sustainability Continuing to give safety the highest Sustainability report This report provides an update on our ongoing priority sustainability journey. Safety is URENCO’s highest priority and we are constantly striving to exceed our own high Chief Executive It is a journey that started back in our earliest standards. We had one Lost Time Incident this days with the Treaty of Almelo. Signed in 1970, year, a reduction from the two reported Officer’s review the Treaty sets out the principles for the incidents in 2012. effective supervision of URENCO’s technology, centrifuge manufacturing and operations with I am saddened to report that in our 50/50 joint respect to nuclear non-proliferation. As the venture with Enrichment Technology Company, Group has grown, it has extended its two employees were tragically involved in a international co-operation with treaties with fatal accident at the Dutch site in 2013. We the USA and France. These treaties provide a express our sincere condolences to the families framework for the consistent operation of the and friends of those employees. business regardless of any potential change As a precautionary measure, URENCO in ownership. conducted a full review of all our critical life safety procedures to ensure each was fit for Long-term commitment purpose and adhered to rigorously. No major The Treaty demonstrates our long-term issues were found, but as part of the process a commitment to play a responsible central part number of improvements were identified and in the nuclear energy industry. For over 40 made. Furthermore, in 2014 a Group-wide years we have been providing our customers safety campaign will be launched to further with safe, reliable supplies of the enrichment embed safety in URENCO’s culture. services they need to fuel their civil nuclear reactors. This is and will continue to be the Lost Time Incidents are only one measure of fundamental objective of our business – the how we are delivering on our safety source of our success and the focus of our commitments. It underpins the considerable efforts to improve our business. Our customers focus we have placed on behavioural safety by can be assured that we will continue to focus identifying and sharing best practice across the on delivery, quality and reliability and the Group. A Group-wide campaign to raise highest standards of corporate responsibility. awareness of near misses typifies our approach. Helmut Engelbrecht Rather than simply responding to incidents, we are increasingly devoting our attention and Chief Executive Officer Embedding responsibility efforts to prevention, notably by encouraging We aim to embed responsibility across every employees to speak up and share near misses aspect of our business and we often find that across all business areas so that we can learn by doing this we also achieve other from them. Reports are shared with URENCO’s performance benefits such as improvements in Board and Audit Committee. efficiency, reductions in cost and enhancements to quality. Demonstrating Improving our environmental performance responsible leadership Good corporate citizenship and good business Our focus on minimising our environmental go hand in hand. But there is always scope to impact ranges from ensuring we handle uranic go further, which is why we continually look to materials to the highest standards of safety We are proud of the improve the ways we live up to our corporate through to finding ways to minimise our key part we play in responsibility commitments. energy consumption. Our commitment to energy saving is Continuous improvement spearheaded by a Group-wide energy savings helping to deliver low Over the years we have sought to increase taskforce. Energy saving initiatives, such as both the rigour and the performance of our making sure wherever possible we reuse heat carbon, sustainable business. This is a step by step process, where and water across our facilities, not only benefit we constantly look to maintain our good work the environment but also improve efficiency. nuclear energy. that has gone before. We discuss these initiatives on pages 18-19 of this report. Our strategic approach Our corporate responsibility strategy guides Excelling for our customers the way we manage and demonstrate our To maintain our market share and position as a commitment to good business across URENCO. world-leading supplier of uranium enrichment We focus on five key areas of sustainability: services, we focus on consistently delivering 1. managing health, safety, safeguards excellent customer service across the Group. and security; The core of this commitment is to deliver on 2. minimising our environmental impact; our promises. Once again we met 100% of 3. being considered the supplier of choice; our customer delivery commitments this year. 4. developing our position as an employer of choice; and Being a good employer 5. supporting education, cultural and We are proud to have a capable and engaged community projects. workforce and we are committed to inspiring and challenging our employees, to manage We summarise our approach and performance their performance effectively and fairly and I across these five areas further on in this report, recognise their achievements. and highlight key developments. We completed our third Group-wide employee survey in 2013. The results were very positive, with improved scores across a number of areas compared to 2011. More details can be found on page 22 of this report. URENCO 02 Sustainability report 2013 Enriching young people’s experience of Lost Time Incidents Awards in 2013 science Through our ‘Richie’ science workshops, we President’s Award by encourage young people to experience and 1 learn about science in a fun and interactive The Royal Society for the way. The success of the initiative has allowed There was one Lost Time Incident related to Prevention of Accidents. us to share the Richie science workshops with employees and contractors across our our industry peers, enabling a greater number enrichment facilities and construction sites in Best Dutch Employer Award of pupils to understand the enrichment process 2013, compared to two recorded in 2012. and how this links into nuclear energy and the 2013 in the category of wider concepts of energy and electricity. organisations with fewer In addition, we have developed a partnership than 1,000 employees. with the British Science Association who will Accreditation in 2015 incorporate the ‘Richie’ school science Best German workshops as a key element of their current company in the field of CREST awards. CREST is a UK award scheme ISO 14001 recognising success, building skills and Communications and demonstrating personal achievement in STEM All our European enrichment facilities have (science, technology, engineering and maths) environmental certification to ISO 14001. Leadership. project work. Our USA facility is due to gain ISO 14001 accreditation in 2015. PRCA DARE Award for Maintaining our position as a global player Internal Communications. 2 Our operations in Europe and the USA give us a unique advantage that allows us to serve more than 50 customers in 19 countries worldwide. Our USA facility enables us to meet Delivery commitments the requirements of our customers in North America and in the growth markets in Asia. Operating in the USA also provides 100% environmental benefits by reducing the number of transatlantic shipments. In addition, Once again we met 100% of our customer it provides valuable diversity of supply within delivery commitments this year. our business for our customers around the world. Looking ahead Along our sustainability journey, we envisage Group-wide employee survey further embedding corporate responsibility across URENCO. This involves ensuring that as a Group we have the appropriate principles, 8 policies and governance established and shared and that across our different enrichment In our third Group-wide employee survey, facilities and businesses we continually completed in 2013, the general satisfaction – encourage good practice and improvements. the sense of well-being our employees gain from their work – remained at 8, well above In December 2013, our Board approved the the external benchmark of 6.6.1 establishment of a Sustainability Committee, underlining senior level commitment and involvement.