Interaction with our environment

Being ‘in touch with our environment’ is an increasingly important part of our task and our day-to-day work. At all levels. Listening and engaging in dialogue with our stakeholders is an indispensable step towards ‘doing the right things right’, having a shared understanding of the challenges we face in the energy transition and being and remaining in touch with what the environment asks and demands of us. Our mission is ‘Working together to create an environment filled with new energy’. We do this proactively on our three strategic spearheads and on the material topics prioritised by us and our stakeholders.

The importance of these material topics is also reflected in the ancillary positions held by members of our Board of Management. See also Biographical details of members of the Board of Management of Stedin Group

Our stakeholders

Our stakeholders are the people, groups or authorities that have an influence on Stedin Group and vice versa. Contacts with our stakeholders partly take place in a structured form, but they can also take place on an ad hoc basis, depending on the topic. The public and regulated nature of Stedin Group to a large extent determines the categorisation below into stakeholder groups.

• internal: employees;

• external: private and business customers, shareholders, investors and rating agencies, government, politics, regulators, energy supply chain, public organisations, local environment, NGOs and civil-society organisations, suppliers, media, memberships, interest groups and industry organisations, knowledge institutions and partners.

Policymakers and policy frameworks

Stedin Group aims to play a linking role in the transition to a new energy system to ensure that this remains safe, sustainable, reliable and affordable. Our core tasks as grid manager are impacted by the transition, and existing policy frameworks must be adapted to make the necessary changes possible. Owing to our public function, Stedin Group’s interests in this regard are social interests. We engage in constructive dialogue with the stakeholders in the societal arena, and we contribute our experience and expertise. We mostly do this in cooperation with Netbeheer Nederland. These talks are always conducted by employees of Stedin Group. We do not engage a Public Affairs consultancy firm on a permanent basis. Nor does Stedin Group donate funds to politicians, political parties or government institutions.

Environment management

The energy transition will require numerous and sometimes major adjustments that also necessitate spatial adjustments. Strategic environment management is necessary to ensure this is supported by society. In order to create a shared position and support, we involve other organisations and stakeholders as early as possible to ensure effective coordination of plans. We do so in several ways - for example, by making data on our grids publicly accessible and by concluding covenants as well as agreements for long-term cooperation with municipalities and other parties. In 2023, the new Environmental and Planning Act (Omgevingswet) will come into force, under which participation will be required, whereas at present it is voluntary.

Corporate social responsibility

Given our societal role, we are reserved in engaging in sponsorship activities, also in 2022. Our choice for sponsoring or a financial contribution is determined by the initiatives concerned, in which we foreground our primary core tasks in the energy transition and get energy users on board in the changing energy world. In addition, in 2022 we also elected to sponsor initiatives that allow us to give greater visibility to our brand as an employer, especially within our service area. One key aim of this is to attract new colleagues. Our most important initiatives in 2022: supporting the Energy Bank in Rotterdam and The Hague, sponsoring the Delta Ride for the Roses in Goes and sponsoring various football teams in our service area.

The Energy Bank

The purpose of the Energy Bank is to ensure energy remains available as a primary necessity of life for households that do not have enough money to pay their energy bill. Stedin’s assistance is provided through people as well as funds. In addition, we donate €8,000 annually. In 2022, the Energy Bank was again one of the two charities included in the annual end-of-year gift. Stedin employees were able to opt for a personal gift or a financial contribution to a charity. As a result, we were able to hand over an additional amount of €1,150 to the Energy Bank Rotterdam and The Hague. In 2022 we deployed 65 coaches and visited 80 households. This means we did not reach our target to support 200 households and to deploy 80 active coaches in that connection. The target for 2023 remains unchanged.

Strengthening the employer brand

The Delta Ride for the Roses, a major cycling event, was held in the town of Goes on 11 June 2022. The Delta Ride is the largest cycling event in the province of Zeeland for the general public. Participants all share a single objective: raising money for cancer research. Stedin was an ‘Official Partner’ of this event and donated €10,000. In addition to supporting cancer research, this sponsoring activity also helped to strengthen our position in the province of Zeeland. Through a range of communication tools, we placed the Stedin (employer’s) brand in the spotlight in the run-up to the event and during the event itself.

In the summer we invited colleagues within Stedin to register their (or a family member’s) football teams for our football sponsoring campaign. Again, the aim was to promote the position of Stedin within our service area and highlight Stedin as an attractive employer. The number of teams that registered was overwhelming; in the end lots were drawn and 21 teams were sponsored. Each team received a fixed amount of €750 for shirts, jackets, scoreboards or advertising boards around the pitch, depending on the specific needs of the team concerned. In addition, each team received a pack with water bottles and sports bags printed with the Stedin logo and was referred to the ‘work-at-stedin’ website. Sponsoring costs in 2022 totalled €23,740.

This year, as always, all Stedin employees received an end-of-year gift in December. Besides the Energy Bank, colleagues could choose from five more charities to donate their end-of-year gift to. These other charities received a total of €8,225 in donations.

We also undertake active and broad-based efforts to promote an inclusive society.

In the table below, we provide insight into the numerous contacts we have with our principal stakeholders.