Workplace safety and the environment, modern terms of employment and encouraging innovation are an integral part of Repower's corporate philosophy. Added to this, the strategic alignment means the company's electricity generation will in future be 100 per cent renewable.

Environmental and workplace safety

When staff are working on power plants, electricity pylons and switching stations, safety standards have to be even more stringent than usual. For this reason Repower places great emphasis on ensuring the appropriate preventive measures are in place. This includes regular training (for example an annual safety day), appropriate clothing and equipment, internal safety controls, and external audits. Repower has OHSAS 18001:2007 certification for its occupational health and safety management systems. Thanks to a variety of measures, Repower has managed to reduce the number of accidents at work by 46 per cent over the last ten years.

Repower also has a certified environmental management system (ISO 14001:2004). Here too, the company is working hard to increase employee awareness and continually improve its environmental footprint. A good example is the fact that the entire electricity requirements of Repower's administrative buildings in Switzerland are covered by Purepower green power. Only heat pumps are used to heat Repower's office buildings. Other measures involve the systematic use of video conferencing to avoid unnecessary car journeys between company offices, and efforts to optimise the company's fleet management: between the start of 2012 and the end of 2015, Repower reduced its fleet of vehicles by 30 cars. Recently the company has also started to use electric vehicles, and is running a project aimed at finding further ways of optimising in this area.

Employees

Repower is well aware of its important role as an employer to more than 650 people. The company strives for fair and competitive conditions of employment through systematic management development, an appropriate pay policy, modern tools and comprehensive internal communications. Repower offers young professionals 30 apprenticeships in seven trades spread over different areas of Canton Graubünden.

In 2015 Repower conducted its biennial group-wide employee survey. The response rate was very good indeed (80 per cent), and all in all, considering the challenging market environment, the results can be viewed as satisfactory. According to the survey, Repower's strengths include good customer focus, job content, information, plus tools and the workplace. Staff see room for improvement in terms of pay, cross-departmental collaboration and dealing with change.

Compliance

Repower has a compliance function to ensure compliance with laws and internal regulations. The emphasis is on fair market behaviour, data protection, avoiding insider trading, dealing with conflicts of interest, and true and fair accounting. Every year a compliance report is produced and the compliance risks are identified and assessed. Repower's compliance function acts in a preventive, advisory role, but is also the first point of contact in the event of concerns or violations. In this capacity the compliance officer received a total of six reports, two of which were pursued in more depth.

Products and generation

Customers of Repower Switzerland who do not actively opt for another product are supplied with Aquapower, 100 per cent Swiss hydropower, as standard. Repower also offers other green power products: Purepower, 100 per cent generated from resources in Graubünden, and Solarpower, 100 per cent Graubünden solar energy. At the beginning of 2015 Repower launched the country's first TÜV Rheinland-certified green power product.

At the beginning of 2016 Repower in Switzerland brought its innovative Smartpower tariff to market, initially on a trial basis. This makes it the first Swiss grid operator to introduce a purely output-dependent tariff for grid use by private households. Customers choosing Smartpower can help shape the energy transition by using energy intelligently.

Electric vehicles are playing an increasingly prominent role at Repower in both Italy and Switzerland. In Italy, since 2012 Repower has been successfully offering Verde Dentro, a package including electric vehicle services in addition to supplying green power. Depending on the package, Verde Dentro customers can opt for an electric bike, scooter or car. While electric cars still only account for a very modest share of road users, growth rates are considerable, and use will continue to increase rapidly in the future. In Canton Graubünden Repower currently operates a good 20 charging stations for electric vehicles, and is working hard to expand the network all over Switzerland. To this purpose it developed offerings for commercial, private and municipal customers, hotels and restaurants in 2015. These services are bundled in the form of a subscription covering the installation, operation and maintenance of a charging station plus access to the charging network. The service is easy and convenient to use: people running electric vehicles have access to charging stations via an RFID card or an app on their smartphone.

Under the new strategic alignment announced by Repower in December 2015, in the future the company will generate all its power from 100 per cent renewable resources (hydro, wind and photovoltaic). In this connection Repower is currently looking into the sale of its nuclear power interests and its combined-cycle gas turbine plant in Teverola in Italy.