Community 2009

After deducting material costs, we were left with a value added of €15.629 billion in fiscal 2009, from which our employees, shareholders and society at large profited. Some 30 percent of this total went to our employees, where the impact of additional hirings was particularly noticeable in 2008 and 2009. Nearly 46 percent went to our creditors and shareholders, while 22 percent went to the state in the form of taxes on gas, electricity and earnings. The RWE Group pays taxes where the value added is generated.

Community involvement
The RWE Stiftung commenced work in 2009. The new foundation provides an umbrella organisation for the Group’s not-for-profit activities as well as continuing the work of the RWE Jugendstiftung. Furnished with an endowment of €56 million, its primary focus is on education, arts and culture, and the social integration of young people. Our RWE Companius programme set up to support our employees’ community involvement is now a Group-wide organisation and in 2009 provided €2.33 million in funding for some 2,300 different projects. One of the Group’s largest sponsorship projects was Ruhr.2010 – European Capital of Culture, which it supported with funds of €2.5 million.

Supply chain
Nearly 88 percent of our net material costs in 2009 (€29.838 billion in total) were incurred for electricity and gas purchased from third parties, grid fees payable to other operators, taxes on oil and gas, operating costs and other expenses not directly related to the supply of goods and services. These items are not covered by supply chain management. Some €6.2 billion and hence about 13 percent of RWE’s sales revenues can be attributed to goods and services. RWE purchases most of its merchandise from states which belong to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in which compliance with our minimum social and environmental standards can be assumed. We estimate the risk of non-compliance with minimum social and environmental standards to be higher for our procurement of fuels than for our procurement of standard products, catalogue goods and services.
A recent analysis revealed that less than five percent of our standard products and catalogue goods come from countries that are not in the OECD, where the risk of environmentally and socially problematic production conditions could be higher.
 
Status: 04/2010