Dear reader,

For many years, I was walking around with ideas on what our company could do in terms of corporate social responsibility. And now, and to be honest with a push in the back after some requests of clients, we’ve finally made the time to define this in a policy. Because our company is out-growing the excuse that we’re small enough to practice good corporate citizenship without having it written down.

Also, it’s not a coincidence that this policy is written during the COVID-year. For E&C, as for every company, the pandemic was an exercise in corporate citizenship. How could you organize your activities and save your economic model without running too much risk for your employees, their families and society at large? For me personally, the decisions on remote work, continuity plans and guidance for employees that are confronted with positive tests were a sharp reminder of the responsibility we all have for the well-being of other living beings than ourselves. 

As a master in philosophy that wrote a master’s thesis on climate change, I’ve always been sensitive about the ethical dimensions of doing business. On a personal level, I am strongly motivated in life by a sense of duty to make the best out of my talents, and I believe that a company is an excellent instrument to give people the opportunity of achieving that life goal. In that sense, I believe that the first moral imperative of a company is to create added value. To make the best out of the talents of your team and seeing that best expressed in terms of turnover or profitability growth is nothing to be ashamed of.

But as the liberty of the individual ends where the liberty of the other individuals starts, the drive towards value-creation and profit-making cannot be unlimited. Capitalism’s miracle is that the selfishness of everyone results in progress for society. But it can’t go unfettered. Companies interact with people, the planet and that abstract called ‘society’. And this creates a whole range of supplementary moral imperatives. This CSR policy puts in place the principles and practices to balance E&C´s value-creation imperative with our responsibilities towards people, planet and society. In a talk I held with a young team member regarding how he felt about the job, this person, in the typical way that we all look for the meaning of our presence on this planet, told me: ‘what change do I make by helping companies to buy energy?’ Well, to start with, you create value and that in itself is good. If worldwide GDP grows by a few tens of a percentage less, it’s the poorest among us that suffer most. And however small we are, by doing a good job we contribute to the never-ending multiplication of wealth that is behind the growing GDP figures. Moreover, our work facilitates the energy transition, which has a huge impact on the important issue of climate change. And lastly, this CSR policy lays the seeds for becoming something more than just a company. This company received and receives a lot from the societies in which it is embedded. In this policy, we launch a range of initiatives to give something back to those societies and the world. In that sense, the execution of this policy will give E&C extra goals on top of the enrichment of its employees and shareholders.

I personally feel very much engaged towards the goal of donating to initiatives to eradicate energy poverty. Two summers ago, I travelled to Namibia with my family. We visited a Himba village. I was intrigued by the little solar panels on top of the huts. They were used to power mobile phones that were used by farmers to check prices in the different markets where they could sell their produce. Which means that they can select the best deals without having to travel the long distances to all these marketplaces. This convinced me more than ever that bringing renewable energy to the poorest people on this planet can bring a huge change to their lives.

I want to thank everyone that contributed to the creation of this CSR policy. And I want to offer it to everyone at E&C as a gift, a gift to give an extra dimension to your professional life.

Benedict De Meulemeester
CEO and chairman of the board of E&C