We continue to present the 2017 nominations for the energynomics.ro Awards, with the Corporate Social Responsibility section. Only one of the projects below will be awarded during the Gala from December 8th, but every company and everyone involved in these projects deserve our respect and the widest promotion. We thank all the companies and personalities involved in this effort to draw the image of the Romanian energy industry in 2017 through its achievements!
Energy Complex Oltenia – Young labor force qualification
The reform of the Romanian vocational training system is part of the specific recommendations received from the European Commission. Professional training at economic agents and strengthening of the training component are development priorities at both European and national level.
CE Oltenia is directly involved in the qualification of the young labor force in accordance with the needs of the labor market, and also for ensuring the continuity of its own activities.
CE Oltenia supports state professional education, ensuring the necessary conditions for practical training for 164 students, in the fields of power generation and lignite extraction: turner, welder, electrician, mechanic for industrial equipment and installation, electromechanic for power plants.
CE Oltenia provides the necessary material conditions (training facilities, educational facilities, equipment, installations) as well as specialists for the coordination of the practical training activity.
CE Oltenia supports university education by ensuring the practical training of students, future energy specialists, based on framework conventions concluded with over 10 faculties in Romania.
CEZ Romania – Marathon of Oltenia
Since 2012, in the last weekend of August, the CEZ Group in Romania organizes in Râmnicu Vâlcea the Marathon of Oltenia, a sports event dedicated both to amateurs and professionals. What distinguishes the Marathon of Oltenia from similar activities is the family character of the event, which includes sports competitions for both adults and children, which support the local community and a noble cause.
The participation fees at the two-day event are doubled by the CEZ Group in Romania and donated to a social cause meant to help strengthen and support the community in Oltenia.
Given the lack of blood for transfusions is one of the major problems at national level and one of the most critical in Râmnicu Vâlcea, CEZ, together with the community of athletes involved in the Marathon of Oltenia decided that through their actions to help improve this situation.
Each month, 400-450 blood bags are collected, covering only one-third of the blood needs of the Local Transfusion Center. In the context of an acute blood shortage, the Blood Transfusion Center could be equipped with the specialized equipment needed to collect blood outside the center, which would help increase the number of accepted donors by up to 50%.
Under the slogan “Get into the Rhythm of Nature”, CEZ Group in Romania launched the fifth edition of the Marathon of Oltenia, with the first soundtrack that reproduces the heart rhythm of some athletes when on the Marathon route. The invitation to participate was accepted by over 600 athletes enrolled in the competition, as the number of available entries exhausted one week before the event. Thus, 15,000 euros were donated to the Valcea Transfusion Center, with 7,500 euros collected only from participation fees and individual donations.
Moreover, among CEZ Group employees in Romania, blood collection was encouraged in order to support the Craiova Blood Transfusion Center. More than 120 employees have been involved in the blood donation campaign and about 28 liters of blood have been collected.
Enel România – Improving access to electricity in Ferentari neighborhood
The pilot project in Ferentari, one of the most stigmatized neighborhoods of Bucharest where access to electricity is limited due to poverty. Enel Romania teamed up with two experienced NGOs, active in the area (Policy Center for Roma and Minorities and Carusel) to design an integrated community intervention based on 3 pillars: identifying the barriers in using electricity safely; engaging with the community and understanding their problems; contributing to solving some of the problems of common concern for the community and Enel.
Thanks to the bi-weekly energy themed sessions at the local Mothers’ Club (a civic group), it became obvious how difficult it can sometimes be to deal with a large utility like Enel and how small changes in our procedures can have a tremendous impact in the life of customers, particularly the ones who already have to face so many challenges in their daily lives.
In order to make the process of dealing with our company more accessible, an “energy mediator” from the community has been identified. With the help and tremendous work of the colleagues in Customer Care department, solutions were found to help clients whose issues seemed unresolvable, such as preventing disconnection through flexible installments plans customized to the clients income.
Having an energy mediator from the community can be of great help, especially when dealing with vulnerable clients (in terms of age, health, literacy rate, etc), checking the history of the place of consumption can help in connecting people who do not have property rights, etc.
Also, the initiative became the starting point of our broader efforts of raising awareness on the subject of vulnerable consumer and energy poverty.
The pilot findings will be used in order to improve our internal processes to suit the needs of vulnerable consumers & to make policy and regulatory recommendations that could lead to systematic solutions for the various problems this category of people face in Romania.
Enel Romania – Look, a Stork! app
To better ensure the protection of storks that use electricity pillars as supports for their nests, improving the quality of our distribution service by reducing the number of accidents due to bird electrocution.
The Romanian Ornithological Society and Enel launched this summer the first mobile app at European level dedicated to white storks census. The App, available to all smartphone users, has helped to collect data about storks’ localization, numbers, but also about the state of electric pillars and nests.
The stork census campaign carried out with the help of Uite Barza! app lasted less than one month (July,6th–31st) before birds migration, but its results exceeded the initial expectations: more than 2,800 nests were identified, out of which 1,070 new nests unrecorded at the previous census. The vast majority of recorded stork nests were identified on electric pillars out of which 1.567 nests on pillars without supports and 1.208 nests on pillars with supports. Based on the information gathered from the app users, Enel electricity distribution companies in Romania, and also the other distribution companies, will be able to mitigate potential risks and reduce network interruptions due to bird related accidents, increase clients’ loyalty by improving services, protect the biodiversity in the area while decreasing maintenance costs, engaging employees in volunteering and raising their sustainability awareness and digital literacy.
Since 2010, Enel distribution companies in Romania have installed more than 654 support platforms for stork nests and over 3800 insulating sheaths on the electricity grids, in order to avoid the electrocution of birds and prevent damages to the grids.
ENGIE – Energy for a chance to life
Health is an area of intervention that has an impact on all Romanians. Statistics show that in Romania, 1 in 2 children with cancer die; in Europe, 80% live. We wanted that, besides our partnership with UNTOLD, to join a cause of social responsibility, together with our traditional partner, Asociaţia “Dăruieşte viaţă”, with which we invested more than one million euros in the endowment of medical units in Romania.
ENGIE Romania, the official partner of UNTOLD 2017, offered the chance to participants of the biggest music festival in Romania to give their energy to those who really needed it through a social responsibility initiative that responded to a double objective: to encourage the festival participants to move and to help improve the conditions of hospitalization and treatment of children with cancer.
For this purpose, ENGIE and UNTOLD have developed the “Energy Counter” feature in the mobile application dedicated to the festival, by which each step of the users was counted, as well as the average distance traveled daily by its active users. At the end of the four days of the festival, Energy Counter by ENGIE recorded about 45,000 kilometers traveled by the 3,400 active users of the application. In other words, they have walked the distance between Cluj-Napoca and Bucharest 100 times. ENGIE donated 30 lei for each kilometer registered in the application and thus the energy of the participants was converted into a donation of 300,000 euros to the Association “Dăruieşte Viaţă” in order to finance the construction of the pediatric oncology clinic at the Marie S. Curie Children’s Hospital in Bucharest. The section will have a capacity of 80 seats and will benefit from a radiotherapy compartment, four sterile rooms, a cinema room, recreation, play and educational facilities.
OMV Petrom – Vocational Romania
OMV Petrom started in 2015 Vocational Romania, as a one-time project responding to a business need, and we have reached to a wide program of support for the vocational and technical education in Romania. Vocational Romania is a complex program that aims to produce a systemic change in vocational education through a comprehensive approach: research in the field; developing scalable pilot programs at the national level (the Oilman School and the Vocational Camp) and bringing together the main actors around this national cause to look for relevant solutions and proposals for public policy measures. From 2016, Romania Craftsmanship is part of the Presidency program, “Educated Romania”.
In 2017, the pilot projects of 2015 became established programs – as we launched the second generation in the Oilmen School project, creating three more professional classes with specializations in the field of oil and gas (in total, we are educating 167 students). In the Vocational Camp we have formed more than 280 students with 5 specializations and we have involved 50 teachers. Students have learnt alongside mentors, they participated in personal development workshops and practical workshops, and have prepared practical projects. Two of the largest electrical (ENEL) and hospitality (City Grill) companies have become strategic partners in the project. The general public has become part of the transformation, supporting our initiatives. Among these, the donation of more than 120 used bicycles (repaired by mechanical students in the Vocational Camp and donated to family centers) in the #BicicletaMeseriasa campaign.
Also as part of the efforts to support professional education, Sandwich Meseriaş – a product designed for fundraising for the benefit of future craftsmen, was sold at the OMV Petrom stations. 11,000 euros were collected after selling 20,000 sandwiches, and OMV Petrom doubled the amount. The 22,000 euros were directed for equipment of the Traian Vuia College, in Tirgu Jiu, where more than 200 students study every year.
Romgaz – Support communities to access a healthy life through education and sport
Communities converge and co-operate around activities that improve their life quality. Education and sport are necessary ingredients for a healthy life.
This initiative aims at Romgaz’s cooperation with the educational and sport environment and is based on an active dialogue, with a focus on personal development and preparing of the present generations for being able to respond to the socio-economic, demographic, environmental or technological challenges.
The quality of a community’s life grows through lifelong learning and the development of each person’s ability to adapt and promote ethical values. Sport encourages fair play and offers the chance for a healthy life. Romgaz supports initiatives to improve the chances of a better life for all generations, thus meeting the concepts of harmonizing what is learned with the principles of a the interdisciplinary education society, concepts that stimulate the desire for self-improvement and harmonious self- development, both intellectually and physically, for a healthy life in a healthy environment.
The decision to involve Romgaz in certain projects by supporting them has been and remains the perceptible and real impact on communities, especially on younger generations, by stimulating their motivation for learning, knowledge and movement. In this respect, more than 620,000 euros have been allocated to various communities at national level to support educational and sports projects.
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