Read: Centrica puts people at the heart of its levelling up work
Today, energy services and solutions company Centrica is launching a Levelling Up Impact Report which assesses its social impact and recommends further steps it can take.
With a 200+ year heritage, Centrica provides energy and services to over ten million residential and business customers primarily in the UK and Ireland through brands such as British Gas, Bord Gais, Dyno Rod, Hive and Centrica Business Solutions, supported by over 7,000 engineers. As well as energy supply and boiler maintenance, it works across EV charge point installation, smart meters, heat pumps, solar and battery storage projects, gas production and electricity generation. Its purpose, developed with its employees, is to help people live sustainably, simply and affordably, supported by its values of care, delivery, collaboration, agility and courage.
As part of that work, the Levelling Up Impact Report has been developed with the Purpose Coalition and considers Centrica’s work against a set of 14 Purpose Goals, known in the UK as Levelling Up Goals. Launched in 2021, they provide a framework to help organisations identify gaps in access to opportunity, covering key life stages from early years to adulthood as well as the barriers that can prevent people from achieving their potential, for example good health and wellbeing or digital connectivity. They also provide a way of generating benchmarks, targeting social impact more effectively and collaborating through the sharing of best practice.
The report demonstrates Centrica’s strengths in meeting five Goals in particular and highlights a number of initiatives that makes Centrica a successful purpose-led company:
Goal 3 Positive Destinations Post 16+ An extensive apprenticeship programme, with a strong focus on gender equality and diversity, which has welcomed over 900 new apprentices in the last 18 months with a pledge to create one new apprenticeship for every day of the 2020s.
Goal 5 Open Recruitment Recruitment of a Net Zero Battalion of 500 former service men and women (and their partners), with a tailored programme which will place them in a range of roles to facilitate the transition to Net Zero.
Goal 8 Good Health and Wellbeing Its internal staff support programme, MyHealth, takes a holistic approach to employee mental health and wellbeing and its approach to workplace mental health has placed it in the top three of 100 of the UK's largest companies.
Goal 13 Harness the Energy Transition Its People and Planet Plan sets out its ambition to make customers net zero by 2050 and to achieve net zero business status as an organisation by 2045, developing new, greener skills and technologies that will support opportunities for its customers, colleagues and communities.
Goal 14 Achieve equality through diversity and inclusion A recognition that its people should reflect the communities in which they work so that it offers an open and inclusive employee journey, including at senior levels, with a commitment to fill 30% of executive board roles and 40% of middle management with women by 2030.
The report also includes recommendations for future action that will strengthen Centrica’s positive social impact, leveraging its position as an industry leader to focus more specifically on targeting support for the most deprived areas and helping to shape the broader levelling up agenda. This could also include the tracking and measurement of the socioeconomic diversity of its workforce to better understand the barriers to career progression.
Chris O’Shea, Group Chief Executive at Centrica, said: “We’re proud to be a purpose-led company that believes in a just transition that doesn’t leave anyone behind. Leading the energy transition is where we can play a key role and the report highlights the steps we are taking to help our customers and the business achieve net zero. Currently we are doing this whilst helping our customers with the current cost of living crisis – our enhanced support of the British Gas Energy Trust, which has seen us make an additional £50 million of voluntary contributions, allows the trust to provide grants and help for people struggling during this difficult time.
“We are committed to our building the workplace of the future with highly skilled and well paid jobs created through our apprenticeship programme and multiple other schemes that ensure Centrica’s people reflect our communities as we work to achieve net zero by 2045.”
Chair of the Purpose Coalition, Rt Hon Justine Greening, said: “As an energy company, Centrica is in the vanguard of changing how we think about energy. Customers want their homes and businesses to be able to access flexible, connected energy systems and it is determined to be a key deliverer of that change. It has set bold targets to reach net zero while developing innovative solutions that will create the greener, high tech skills base the economy needs.
“People and planet are two sides of the same coin, and this report demonstrates that Centrica is a truly purpose-led company, putting its people at the heart of everything it does as a business. Through the lens of the Purpose Goals, it has been able to highlight the areas where it is making a difference but, crucially, also identify where there are still barriers which might prevent people from achieving their potential. The energy transition is undoubtedly an opportunity and Centrica is in a prime position to position to drive well-targeted, positive change that will benefit us all.”
Chair of the Purpose Business Coalition, Lord Walney, said: “The best businesses search out the talent that is found in every community, nurture it with the right advice and guidance and provide the opportunity to acquire new skills that will equip people with the tools for job success, no matter what their background. The approach detailed in this report shows that Centrica has understood that this is the way to attract and retain the best talent. It also recognises that ensuring genuine diversity in its workforce is not just the right thing to do but makes good business sense, bringing fresh perspectives and creative thinking to the way it works.
“As part of the Business Purpose Coalition, it is setting the standard for purpose-led companies. Sharing its best practice, targeting its work on equality of opportunity towards the areas that need it most and tracking and measuring its progress will provide insights for others and help shape the levelling up agenda that the country needs.”
