Teaching the children.

What we have noticed through researching energy providers is most of them actively talk to and educate kids in some way.

-British Gas has 'Green Generation'
-N-Power has 'Green SOS competition'
-EDF has 'The Pod'

In our opinion they do this for a few reasons, firstly to instill the green values in children at such an early age is beneficial to the future of the planet in general, furthermore if the children grown up relating that particular brand to these values it will pay off when they become bill paying customers, in other words they are investing in them long term.
Secondly, if these children learn these values away from there parents (at school, on the tv/internet etc) it could have an effect on the kids parents by proxy, changing the way existing potential customers view E.ON (not just any electricity company, but one that teaches there children positive values).

BUT, what we have noticed is E.ON have no such initiative, they seem to talk very technically and efficiently (being German) and only in a very adult voice, maybe they need a softer, more caring image.

E.ON: A case study

E.ON are a HUGE german electricity provider. You may know them as the official sponsor of the FA cup, or you may remember them from this advert.



On there website E.ON goes into detail about there green intentions. It seems they are really into green products and green advice, however they aren't exactly shouting this from the rooftops, maybe they should be?
There content seems to be serious and technical, focusing on environmental tactics, witch is great. They do this with great success with there 'interactive house' web page.

You can explore round the house, room-by-room, learning about the different ways you can save energy, reducing your bill AND helping the environment. Win-Win for the customer.


Interestingly though, whats in it for E.ON? what do they gain from telling there customers to reduce there bills, from the stockholders point of view, not a lot really. Or is there...
What if its short term pain, long term gain. If they sacrificed large bills now for long term loyalty and volume of customers in the future, in business its always better to have a lot of customers paying you a little, then a few paying you a lot.

n-power : green adverts

These green related adverts for n-power lack creativity and rely on the clichéd green aspect. The commercials are not as engaging or thought provoking as the EDF ones, however they are still showing they employ CSR into their business model. This is a good sign, we will keep looking for an energy company who's corporate social responsibilities are low on the agenda.

n-power : the children

n-power have set up an SOS Green campaign. This initiative allows children to get involved with the environment and find out ways to be more eco friendly. This scheme is run through schools and outdoor activity schemes. This is a growing trend in energy suppliers (targeting children). By doing so these companies are educating the children at an early age so the practices are installed into their every day life. Check out the website here:

n-power : going green

As well as offering tips and advice on how to save energy they have installed a new service that uses green sources to supply their energy. This is a constant theme with energy suppliers, however its advertised in a small flash banner and isnt very creative. This is another alarming theme.

n-power : A case study

n-power is our fourth major energy supplier that we have studied. Like many other energy companies they have installed a green aspect into their company. Although n-power isn't as creative in their preaching as EDF they still have a constant green presence.
Although they haven't had a large campaign as of yet to show this, it still exists mainly on their website.

British Gas: 'Generation Green'

This is an initiative Created by British Gas for schools to get involved with the green movement. It uses: lesson plans, rewards, games, reports, videos etc to educate kids about all the factors of being green. But the main focus is to gain 'Leaf points', the school does this by completing said activities and reaching goals of lowering: electricity levels, rubbish levels and emission levels. To bring a competitive edge in the website tallies the scores of the different schools to keep the kids interested. As we can see there is definitely a positive reason for involving and educating the youth of today to instill an attitude towards the consumption of energy that may be lacking in our generation, it may even rub off on us through them.

British Gas, changing there image.

They are undoubtedly changing how there are perceived (by 'going green'), using it as a selling tool, no different from an advertising campaign, its great PR.

Check out:
British Gas goes green to win new customers (Telegraph)
British Gas launches green energy unit (Guardian)

This perception is great for sales, but does it provide anything 'good' for the future. British Gas clearly understand the value of being green, or (more to the point) being seen to be being green. But in 5 years, 10 years, 50 years will this have helped the company or the world, hopefully both.

A Case Study: 'British Gas'.

British Gas has a long list of initiatives when it comes to CSR, check it out here. It seems to be an important part of there company philosophy on there website, but do we hear much from them otherwise? Do they actually live up to what they say on there site? They have areas on there site about:
- Caring for the environment
- Customer Commitment
- Helping Communities
- Valuing Employees

As we can see they are very interested in letting everyone know they are 'responsible'.
But they do let them selves down in other areas.
Thanks to ethicalcorp.com for the articles.

Ive gone link mental in this post, sorry.

EDF : What they want us to do

Here is the new commercial for EDF 20/20. We have researched this new campaign and found out that its totally free advice that they are offering. We have just signed up to this initiative and will let you know what information EDF provides us with.

This campaign is a clear indication that EDF is high up the chain when it come to CSR. Well done EDF! If this is the case then this company is going in the right direction and does not need our creative genius to help them out. We will research other companies on what they are doing and see if we can help them instead. In the meantime we would like to thank EDF for giving us some key insights and good ideas into how we can help struggling energy companies when it comes to CSR.

EDF : Targeting children

EDF have started an interesting initiative by teaching children how to save energy in schools. This is a great idea. We feel strongly that children play a key factor in the climate change scenario and catching them young to install eco views is a great idea.

EDF : Save today, save tomorrow

This EDF Energy commercial is great. Its a great idea and great execution using existing clips a a nice touch. However the main issue that this commercial states is that EDF Energy rewards customers for using less of their product. How do they do this? We shall investigate.

EDF Energy : A case study

EDF Energy arre one of the leading energy compaines that encourage their consumers to be more eco friendly. An example of this is a list of bullet points below that enables you to cut down on your carbon footprint.
(by turning off the electricity that they provide you with and charge you for.)

• At night, close the curtains to stop heat being lost through the windows
  
• Have a shower instead of a bath and you’ll save time, money and water
  
• Remember to turn off lights when you leave a room for long periods
  
• Defrost fridges and freezers regularly to keep them running efficiently
  
• Where possible, wait until you have a full load before using your washing machine
  
• Use the low-temperature dishwasher programme unless you have very dirty dishes
  
• Use a toaster rather than the grill to make toast
  

These are just a simple list of options that you can take to reduce your carbon footprint. EDF energy have recently used far more creative ways to publish their views. (this will be in the next post.)

Why we have chose not to focus on ecotricity.

Although ecotricity is the number one eco friendly energy supplier, we have decided not to choose this company as our main area of study. Ecotricity have already shown us that they have invested allot of time in making their brand the number one social responsible company in its field. For this reason we have decided that we should study a energy supplier that could improve its CSR. Our next task is to choose what energy supplier needs our help the most.

The winner is...

The ironically named 'ecotricity.' Congratulations. 'ecotricity' was the first company in the world to supply green energy and continue to invest exclusively in building new wind farms. The company began in 1996 and remains the UK's largest independent green energy generator and supplier. With their largest wind park project to date currently under construction, the company continue to belie their status as a small supplier by competing with the Big 6 in terms of total investment on renewables each year.

Who is the 'greenest'?

Here is a chart compiled by researchers at 'whichgreen.com' that puts energy suppliers in order of greenest to least green.

What companies to study?

Okay, so now we have defined 'Corporate, Social, Responsibility', the next step is to decide on what company we want to research.
We find it interesting how just to include CSR into their brand awareness so many companies are willing to cut their income. Companies such as Starbucks do this by using ethical coffee beans. These beans cost the company more than the usual coffee beans, but by using these beans it gives the brand an ethical, greener image and will last longer in the memories of the customers when they next buy a Starbucks product.
Another example of this form of CSR is being used by Energy Suppliers. Therefore Energy suppliers will the be the focus of our research.