Corporate Social Responsibility at E&C

A LETTER FROM OUR CEO

BenedictDear 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 

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A picture taken of Himba village in Namibia by Benedict. If you zoom in extremely on the middle hut, you will see the miniscule solar panel used to power a mobile phone.
Request a full copy of our CSR policy document here
Keep scrolling to find our annual CSR reports.
       

 

E&C's 4 key CSR pillars 

 

We are Teal

 

 

 

CompanyOur company

We work by our core values: flexibility, integrity, transparency, caring and empowerment.

Our ethical charter is the cornerstone of our internal training.

We have in place non-opportunistic practices to safeguard anti-corruption.

We have a strict cyber-security policy and procedures.

 

PeopleOur people

Wellbeing, especially stress management, is a focus and steps are taken to ensure the health and safety of our people.

Personal development, performance and salary are actively fostered to ensure a sense of value for everyone.

Our diversity is important to us. Part of nurturing this is to learn from each other and promote equality.

 

E&C considers itself to be a Teal organization.

This is a type of structural model coined by Frederic Laloux in his book Reinventing Organizations, which embraces a flat structure as opposed to the hierarchical structure seen in many traditional companies. The Teal organization is based on three key ideas: self-management, wholeness and evolutionary purpose. As such, E&C embraces a bottom-up approach and is less reliant on documented processes and procedures, preferring instead to encourage empowerment and ownership.

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To find out more about what this looks like at E&C, you can take a look at the Management Vision document shared internally by our CEO in September 2023 (link below).
EC_2023_Clickstock_studioThe E&C team at its best during our company event in September 2023
Request our Management Vision document here

 

 

 

PlanetOur planet

Our responsibility to the planet is two-fold. Firstly, we are in the crux of an energy transition where smarter energy for us needs to mean a better world. We assist our clients in getting there.

Secondly: internally, we look to improve practices including greening mobility, materials and waste, using initiatives on a local level. 

 

SocietyOur society

A big part of what we do is share knowledge. We use this drive to help our wider communities; by hiring interns, volunteering at universities, etc.

Working in the energy industry, and with such large volumes of energy, we feel strongly about energy poverty and want to do what we can to help eradicate it. We have partnered with an NGO, Solar Sister, who activity works in areas of the world particularly affected by energy poverty.

 

   

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Solar Sister is an NGO dedicated to the eradication of energy poverty in remote communities in Nigeria and Tanzania. Solar Sister tackles energy poverty in two ways:

  1. They provide products best suited for improving the lives of individuals and families by using the energy most available to them: solar. These products include lamps, solar home systems and water pumps – things that make a difference to education, safety, health, and independence.
  2. They provide a network of women-centered entrepreneurs, women who live in the communities they are looking to aid. Solar sister provides training, mentorship and support to these women and thus help to create economic stability and empowerment within these communities. 
We are proud to be partnering with Solar Sister in our aim to tackle energy poverty - together we not only help our clients in procuring smarter energy for a better world, but we also ensure we leave no one behind. To find out more about this organization, visit our news page: Solar Sister partnership.

Our 2022 audit focused on actions we as individual E&Cers can do to make E&C a more responsible organization, not only regarding our sustainability but also concerning our wellbeing, safety and feelings of inclusion.

Take a look at our 2022 CSR highlights below.


Download our 2022 CSR report here

Would you like to take a look at our 2021 CSR report?

Diversity in 2022

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The gender spread at E&C has gradually and naturally been equalizing. We can now boast a 50:50  workforce, with 51% of women making up the management team. 

We can also see that the flexible working measures introducing during Covid made an impact on our office diversity, with a 6% drop in non-nationals but an 8% rise in remote workers, making team bonding an even greater necessity.

Energy poverty

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Since partnering with Solar Sister in 2021, we have continued to support this fantastic NGO. One way is by raising awareness of energy poverty through our channels. Another is contributing 5% of our pre-tax profits and raising funds. In 2022, we raised 2,247 Euros. Read our interview here with Solar Sister CEO, Katherine Lucey.

World Cleanup Day

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We went international with our litter picking by encouraging our offices to participate on World Cleanup Day. As a result, Kortrijk (BE), Madrid (ES), Melbourne (AU), Valencia (ES) and Wrocław (PL) made their parts of the world a little greener.

Wellbeing award

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In 2022, we won the Family & Human Wellbeing Humanities Award for our Polish office. The award focuses on the concept of the "integration of professional and private roles" as an alternative to the notion of work-life balance. The proudest element for us is that this award is the result of direct, confidential feedback from our E&Cers and how they feel about working here. 

Fundraising

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Our charity events in 2022 included:
• An E&C auction across five offices: Madrid,   Valencia, Kortrijk, Heerlen and Wrocław.
• A 2022 World Cup Sweepstake.
Marathons in Madrid and in New York. The US   run (with Dante pictured) raised money for CliniClown.

Electric cars 

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As part of our mobility policy, we are switching our corporate petrol cars for electric ones. In 2021, we turned 3 of our 13-car fleet green. In 2022, another 2 went green and 1 hybrid

Green wheels

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To support greening our mobility, we encourage our E&Cers to opt for a more sustainable and heathier mode when travelling to work. Our ´Tour d´E&C´ competition ran for 7 months and included 18% of our people. Participants travelled 2,994 km; saving 1 tonne of CO2 compared to car travel.

Inclusion

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On the back of our diversity survey done in 2021, we launched an internal webpage dedicated to raising awareness on diversity issues. We started with a focus on gender/sexual stereotyping and LGBTQ+ support. Not only that, in 2022 we launched our Pride Club to better represent our LGBTQ+ community.

Wellbeing

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We take stress management serious at E&C, where the dynamics of the energy markets affect pressure and workload. To tackle this, we initiated a flash hiring process that resulting in 20 new E&Cers; gave time management training, facilitated more social time with colleagues; launched a new holiday policy that introduced extra ´balance days´; gave access to physical activities including online yoga classes; and to OpenUp, a platform with access to mindfulness sessions and certified psychologists.

E&C bonds

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Our company event in 2022 once again allowed us to come together, meet new colleagues, strengthen bonds and catch up on company news, achievements and plans. Such events cannot be underestimated in their importance – each time, we come away with a renewed sense of purpose and camaraderie.

Blood drive

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Did you know that donating blood has benefits for your emotional and physical health? This was one of the messages highlighted in our call for donators for World Blood Donor Day. We had a great response, beautifully depicting our E&Cers´ (like Juan pictured in Melbourne) regard for our societies.

Salary equity

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With the new salary policy, we use benchmarks to ensure our pay is competitive and fair regardless of the residing country. An in-depth task of benchmarking every role in the company was undertaken, with the benchmarks based on relevant years of experience and level of competence.

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