On the world’s financial markets, the significance of corporate responsibility (CR) has grown significantly in recent years. Investors increasingly look for companies that create value sustainably and responsibly and thus represent a solid investment for the long term. We’re contacted almost daily by rating agencies, customers, shareholders and an increasing number of investors and CR departments at financial institutions and investment funds for information about E.ON’s environmental and social performance. Among the CR issues that interest the financial markets the most in relation to E.ON are efforts to tackle climate change, ensure security of supply and for the utility industry to regain the public’s trust.

At E.ON, we aim to report on our CR activities as transparently as possible and proactively meet the information needs of our stakeholders. That’s why we report in accordance with the principles of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). The GRI’s vision is for reporting on companies’ environmental and social performance to become as routine, transparent and comparable as the reporting on their financial performance. Since 2006, our CR reporting has received GRI’s highest application level: A+.

This year, our CR reporting for the first time reflects the criteria of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC). The IIGCC is a forum for collaboration between pension fund and other institutional investors on issues related to climate change. It seeks to encourage companies to address the risks and opportunities to their businesses associated with climate change and the shift to a lower carbon economy. The IIGCC currently has 42 members, many of whom are E.ON investors. Together, IIGCC members have more than EUR3.7 trillion of funds under management.

In order to find out more about which aspects of CR our investors are interested in, E.ON organized its first IR dialog event in December 2007 specifically aimed at tackling the topic of social responsibility. The main focuses of the event were climate change and security of supply. There were a number of questions addressing how E.ON’s generation strategy and reduction in CO2 emissions can help in the fight against climate change. There were also discussions on other environmentally-relevant questions like dealing with nuclear waste, water shortages and stricter emissions guidelines.

We reached an important milestone in our CR activities in September 2007 with our inclusion in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index and the Dow Jones Sustainability STOXX Index for European companies. The DJSI are the most important indexes for tracking the financial performance of the world’s leading sustainability-driven companies. They are a cooperation of Dow Jones Indexes, Stoxx Limited, SAM Group, a Swiss fund management firm.

Our inclusion in the two DJSI confirms that E.ON creates value for its investors and other stakeholders in a particularly responsible manner. On top of that, E.ON was also accepted into the ASPI Eurozone® Index (Advanced Sustainable Performance Indices) in 2007.