In the spirit of living these values, we organized a series of eight stakeholder meetings in 2007 and 2008 in order to hear different points of view on issues such as environmental performance and discussions about work force planning and mountaintop mining. We reached out to customers, regulators, employees, community leaders, environmental groups, labor, conservationists, educators, investors and neighbors of our power plants. Through this process, we learned about what we are doing well and received constructive suggestions for improvement. This section reflects some of what we heard and how this report was influenced by our stakeholder engagement.
To foster neutrality, AEP engaged SustainAbility, a London-based firm, to facilitate six of the meetings. Stakeholders and AEP management, including power plant managers, senior executives and operating company presidents, had wide-ranging discussions on issues of mutual concern. These discussions will serve as a foundation for integrating stakeholder engagement as an ongoing process within our companies and at our power plants.
Among those we met with were representatives of the Indiana Consumer Counsel, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA), the Environmental Defense Fund, Arkansas Sierra Club, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Oklahoma Sustainability Network, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), Ceres, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Kimberly Clark Corp., Texas Public Utilities Commission, Ohio University, Whirlpool Corp., Appalachian Trail Conservancy, Small Farm Institute of Ohio, AllianceBernstein Investments, Lord Abbett & Co., a neighbor of our Rockport Plant, University of Arkansas and many of our employees.
Many stakeholders were surprised that we invited them to participate in this process and welcomed the openness it signaled. We asked them to be candid and assured them we were listening with an open mind. We learned a lot about how we are perceived, how we can improve, and how to forge relationships we never expected to have.
Through this process we were able to identify gaps in our reporting, such as a lack of information on mercury issues. Our employees expressed concerns about aging work force issues and related them to safety risks for inexperienced workers. Some employees did not understand our approach to carbon offsets; one employee said it sounded like "we can't live up to all the expectations so let's buy some mulligans."
One investor told us his clients are increasingly asking what companies are doing to be good stewards and recommended we reach out more to socially responsible investors.
The language and terminology we use came into question at times. One stakeholder asked if we are opposed to mandates we don't like when we say "reasonable and voluntary" in talking about regulations. Others asked us to stop using the term "clean coal" because coal is not clean in their eyes. Nearly everyone who participated in these discussions agreed AEP must do more to educate customers, policymakers and the general public about the true value of electricity and the impact that unreasonable carbon regulations will have on prices and on the economy. We were also questioned why there were not more young people involved because they will be living with and paying for the decisions made today for a sustainable energy future.
"Do not underestimate how literate college students are on energy issues. They are quite savvy."
-Sonia Marcus, Sustainability Coordinator, Ohio University
"Pushing the envelope can be more challenging in a regulated utility environment. However, utilities that do can drive innovation and creativity throughout the industry."
-Kevin Christ, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
"The way we talk about cost recovery for environmental performance comes across as an excuse. It adds to the public mistrust of the company."
-Dave Pinson, unit operator, Big Sandy Plant
"This section of the report is very positive; of all of them, this is the one that demonstrates corporate responsibility, ethical behavior and concern for society where AEP operates."
-J.D. Strong, chief of staff, Secretary of Environment, State of Oklahoma, talking about Stakeholder Engagement section
"People really want to know how we are connecting with and giving back to our communities and how we treat our employees. This is a good start but we need to see more of it in future reports."
-Judy Litherland, administrator, Rockport Plant
"It seems odd that we talked about celebrating a year with no AEP employee fatality when we did have contractor and public fatalities."
-Janet Smith, manager, Economic Development, Public Service Company of Oklahoma
"We have to be responsible for our share and do something about what we can control and be responsible. If the world doesn't survive, we won't either."
-Margarete Burch, technician, Utility Operations–West, talking about climate change
