National Grid 2008 Annual Report Download - page 544

BOWNE INTEGRATED TYPESETTING SYSTEM
CRC: 17549
Name: NATIONAL GRID
Date: 17-JUN-2008 03:10:51.35Operator: BNY99999TPhone: [phone]Site: BOWNE OF NEW YORK
Y59930.SUB, DocName: EX-15.1, Doc: 16, Page: 27
Description: EXHIBIT 15.1
0/6223.00.00.00Y59930BNY
[E/O] EDGAR 2 *Y59930/223/6*
BOWNE INTEGRATED TYPESETTING SYSTEM
CRC: 17549
Name: NATIONAL GRID
Date: 17-JUN-2008 03:10:51.35Operator: BNY99999TPhone: [phone]Site: BOWNE OF NEW YORK
Y59930.SUB, DocName: EX-15.1, Doc: 16, Page: 27 Description: EXHIBIT 15.1
0/6223.00.00.00Y59930BNY
[E/O] EDGAR 2 *Y59930/223/6*
Table of Contents
Annual Report and Accounts 2007/08
35
The main focus of our remediation programme is on
managing the environmental risk by targeting those with the
highest environmental risk profile and those where we have
a legal or regulatory requirement to remediate, while
returning land to productive public or private use where we
can, and where it is surplus to operational requirements.
National Grid manages land contamination issues on 529
sites (not including KeySpan sites), the majority of which
were previously used for
g
as production. In the US, this
includes obli
g
ations in relation to land owned by third parties.
During 2007/08, environmental work stages were completed
on some 189 sites of which 33 included remediation.
Key performance indicators that we monitor in this area comprise the
number of significant direct environmental incidents and the total value
of fines from prosecutions and citations.
We aim to implement environmental management systems
certified to the international standard ISO 14001 in all our
businesses to help us deliver improvements in these areas.
At 31 March 2008, approximately 66% of our employees
worked to certified ISO 14001 environmental mana
g
ement
systems compared to over 90% at the same time last year.
The main reasons for this reduction were the acquisition of
KeySpan operations that were not ISO 14001 certified and
the disposal of our wireless infrastructure operations that
were certified. Durin
g
2008/09, we will work to brin
g
KeySpan operations in line with the rest of the Company.
The number of si
g
nificant environmental incidents in 2007/08
arising directly from our operations was 34, which included
25 contractor-related incidents, compared with 40, including
20 contractor-related incidents in 2006/07 and 23, including
1 contractor-related incident in 2005/06. Incidents outside of
our control resulting from third party or weather-related
damage to our networks was 1 compared with 13 in 2006/07
and 25 in 2005/06.
There were no prosecutions by enforcing bodies resulting
from these incidents. In the US, we received 6 environmental
citations in 2007/08 compared with 9 in 2006/07 and 10 in
2005/06. Of these, 1 attracted a fine of $6,000 (£3,000).
Prosecutions and citations for operations acquired with
KeySpan will be reported from 2008/09.
In our 2008 employee en
g
a
g
ement survey, 55% (2006: 73%)
of respondents considered National Grid acts responsibly in
all its business dealings, including environmental
management.
Historically
contaminated
land
We manage an inherited portfolio of historically
contaminated land including former manufactured
gas plants, industrial landfills, former gas holders
and older substations on our transmission and
distribution networks. Sites can sometimes have a
complex mix of contamination dating back over
100
y
ears.
Protecting the
environment
Our objective is to help protect the environment
for future generations and so we are committed to
continuous improvement in our environmental
p
erformance b
y
:
• efficient use of natural resources;
• keeping our waste to minimum and increasing
the economic value of an
y
waste we
p
roduce;
• actin
g
to
p
revent environmental incidents; and
• improving, where we can, the environmental
status of the land on which we o
p
erate.
We also take the issues that surround electric and magnetic
fields seriously and in all our operations, as a minimum, we
aim to comply with the regulations, guidelines or practices
relating to them in force in the different jurisdictions in which
we operate.
We recognise there is some scientific evidence suggesting
certain adverse health effects may be linked to electric and
magnetic fields. There is also evidence linking an increased
risk of certain diseases to proximity to power lines, though
the cause of this is unclear. As a consequence, there is
public concern and we take these issues very seriously. The
balance of evidence remains against both power-frequency
and radio-frequency electric and magnetic fields causing ill
health. The World Health Organization has classified power-
frequency magnetic fields as ‘possibly’ carcinogenic. Our
public position statement on electric and magnetic fields,
which we review annually, helps set the framework within
which we continually assess the scientific evidence in this
area, determine any implications for the way in which we
conduct our business and explain to society what the
science is telling us. We actively support high-quality
research and open communication and we look for more
constructive and less confrontational ways of handling issues
such as electric and magnetic fields. In the UK we continue
to support the Stakeholder Advisory Group on electric and
magnetic fields, which we initiated, and which published its
first assessment of the issues in April 2007 (available at
www.emfs.info/sa
g
e).
On our website (www.nationalgrid.com), we provide further
information on the steps we are taking to reduce our impact
on the environment, including our use of natural resources
and minimising the impact on the environment of waste.
* Excludes operations acquired with KeySpan. These will be included from 2008/09
onwards
* Excludes operations acquired with KeySpan. These will be included from 2008/09
onwards