Assurance and benchmarking for utility

We provided independent assurance of the 2009 corporate responsibility report of German-owned global energy company RWE npower. The report describes how the company is responding to the challenge of delivering affordable and reliable energy to its customers with the least impact on the environment.

Our assurance was conducted in accordance with the AA1000 Assurance Standard (AA1000AS) (2008). We provided Type 2 assurance, which evaluates adherence to the principles of inclusivity, materiality and responsiveness as well as the reliability of specified performance data.

Among our findings and recommendations was that:

• The report provides improved coverage of customer service, pricing and billing issues, which are recognised to be of material concern to stakeholders. However, RWE npower should explore ways to include additional information on pricing in future reports.
• RWE npower has improved coverage of the nature and content of its stakeholder engagement processes and how the outputs have informed strategy and decision-making. Future reports should make clear how the involvement of customers in stakeholder engagement has helped shape the company’s approach to key issues.
• There are many useful case studies and good coverage of positive initiatives and performance relating to stakeholder issues. The expansion of the power station performance pages provides useful information for local stakeholders. Further detail on the reasons why stakeholders are dissatisfied with specific areas of performance should be provided.

Prior to this assurance assignment, we benchmarked RWE npower's accountability performance. We used our Accountability Rating (now Tomorrow's Value Rating) methodology to assess the company across a wide range of criteria, and drew on data from our application of the Rating to the world’s largest companies to compare its performance with leaders in accountability and its utilities peers. The resulting report gave RWE a comprehensive picture of how it measured up in each of the domains of the Rating. We also recommended ways it could improve its accountability, backed up by examples of best practice.

RWE npower 2009 corporate responsibility report, including a link to our assurance statement