Reykjavik Energy, Veitur Utilities, ON Power and the Reykjavik Fibre Network are responsible for ensuring public access to the water supply, sewerage system, electricity supply, district heating and the fibre network. The reliability of these basic services and customer satisfaction are among our main corporate social responsibility priorities.
Reykjavik Energy wants to create a workplace that inspires and thrives. A happy, skilled, engaged and productive team is the only way to achieve this goal. The Reykjavik Energy group is large, by Icelandic standards, and our working practices can have a widespread impact on the community. Integrity is important to us, and striving for excellence and continuous improvement reflects our unwavering commitment to corporate social responsibility.
Companies inside the Group closely monitor customer satisfaction by conducting regular customer satisfaction surveys. The results of these form the index, shown here, for each of the three subsidiaries. Reykjavík Fibre Network modified their survey in 2019. Nearly 100 customers are now contacted every week and asked if they are satisfied with the quality of service. A total of 4,804 calls were made in 2019. The results showed that 96.6% of the customers were satisfied, 2.6% were neutral and 0.8% were dissatisfied.
The company was awarded first place by the Icelandic Customer Satisfaction in 2019, despite a slight decrease in customer satisfaction when compared with previous figures. The Index provides organisations with coordinated measurements of customer satisfaction.
We have used a tried and tested method for measuring the continuity of supply for many years. The total disruption time for each customer is divided between all the customers in each utility area. Veitur Utlilities adopted this method for the heating utility in 2015 and the water utility in 2016.
Reykjavík Energy and its subsidiaries have undergone considerable changes in recent years which have resulted in significant improvements in job satisfaction. We measure job satisfaction by conducting regular surveys. We detected a slight dip in 2019, but a satisfied workforce is still counted as one of our strengths.
The Board of Directors of Reykjavik Energy appoints the CEO and his duties, responsibilities and terms of employment are decided by the Board . The Board of Directors takes into the account the provisions of the ownership policy of Reykjavik Energy, which stipulates that the CEO's salary should be comparable to the wage for comparable jobs, but also take into account the fact that the company is a public entity. The Compensation Committee reviews the CEO salaries on an annual basis.
Compensation to BoD's and CEO's within the OR Group are published in the notes of OR's Consolidated Financial Statements. The CEO pay-ratio is measured as CEO's total salaries divided by the median salaries of permanent staff within the group.
Early in 2019, Reykjavík Energy's CEO left the post of chairman for two of the company's subsidiaries, thus lowering the rate year-on-year.
My carbon footprint
Víðir Ragnarsson
Business intelligence specialist, Reykjavik Energy
It didn’t surprise me that the carbon footprint is below average when it comes to travel and food. I prefer using an eco-friendly car or bus and my family’s eating habits have shifted towards less meat consumption. Nevertheless, I have to work on my consumption, since it is higher than the average Icelander’s. The most important factor there I think is to be organised in what I buy.
Reykjavik Energy places a great emphasis on gender equality. We received an Equal Rights Award from the Equal Rights Council in 2014 and a Motivation Award from the Confederation of Icelandic Employers in 2015. Reykjavik Energy is a member of the United Nations Convention on Gender Equality. In 2017, Reykjavik Energy adopted a new model which analyses the impact of every single wage decision on gender wage differences. This enabled the Group to eliminate unexplained gender pay gaps by 2017.
Reykjavik Energy’s equal wage system received wage equality certification in 2018 which confirms that the model/system used by the company fulfils the provisions of Act No. 56/2017 on gender wage equality. The system is used to ensure that there are no gender-based wage discrepancies.
In the graph above: Numbers higher than 0 represent wage differences in favour of men and numbers lower than 0 wage differences in favour of women. Reykjavik Energy started to conduct monthly measurements of unexplained gender wage gaps in the company in 2017.
Reykjavik Energy monitors staff turnover in the Group according to factors such as age and gender. There is a correlation between the economic situation and staff turnover. Fewer employees left their positions in 2019. Several older employees left the company in 2019 which mostly explains an increase in employee-turnover in 2019. A small share of employees are in part-time jobs. The turn-over ratio of that group is therefore calculated separately.
Reykjavik Energy has traditionally been a male dominated workplace. Efforts are being made to increase the number of female technicians and specialists.
According to a study conducted by Ernst & Young for the association Women in Energy, published in May 2019, the influence of women in the energy sector is greatest within the Reykjavik Energy Group.
My carbon footprint
Fríða Rakel Linnet
Specialist in electricity utility investment projects, Veitur Utilities
I knew I had to make improvements and these results will help me to roll up my sleeves. I try to buy less and choose eco-friendly options but there is still room for improvement. I am not surprised that my eating habits are more eco-friendly than the average person, since I have familiarised myself with the vegan diet very thoroughly. We drive quite a lot and only have a gasoline-fuelled car, but not taking any trips abroad last year obviously helped. I think my next big personal step will be to switch over to an electric vehicle.
There is a long-established tradition among utility companies to hire young adults for summer jobs and they make up the majority of temporary appointments. In 2018 there was a significant increase in the appointment of staff to other part-time jobs. Reykjavik Energy and its subsidiaries buy a lot of labour from big companies such as engineering companies and building contractors. Some of the staff of large and small contractors work substantially for Reykjavik Energy or a subsidiary. That group has not been analysed and Reykjavik Energy does not possess any numerical data on the composition of that group.
Our Non-Discrimination Policy represents our commitment to improving in equal rights issues. Our Policy is based on the definition of human rights found in the Icelandic Constitution. Each subsidiary of the Group has an active equal rights committee. Each committee operates according to an implementation plan and the highest ranking executive in each subsidiary is responsible for ensuring compliance with the Policy, which is approved by the Board of Directors.
We continued our support for the industry and technology project at the Árbær elementary school in 2019. We held various consultation meetings and all our employees participated in workshops to prepare a formal communication compact for Reykjavík Energy.
The H-figure is an international measurement unit for the rate of occupational injuries. It is calculated as the number of injuries per each million working hours. The term injury is used if the person is absent from work for at least one day. There were six injuries at the Reykjavik Energy Group in 2019 and working hours were 1,057,601.
Reykjavik Energy’s Safety and Health Policy is regularly reviewed by the Board of Directors within the group. The goal is to achieve an accident-free workplace. That goal was not met in 2019. Reykjavik Energy sets clear safety requirements in all its tenders to ensure that contractors comply with safety regulations. Reykjavik Energy has also issued a Safety Handbook which is available to all employees and contractors. All contractor employees are required to take certified safety courses.
Reykjavik Energy operates a notification database where staff can register hazards. These registered hazards provide the basis for the review of health and safety issues and have increased from year to year. Each notification is reviewed and its resolution has to be confirmed. The increased number of notifications is a sign of increased awareness of safety issues and improved safety-culture within the group.
My carbon footprint
Lea Steinþórsdóttir
IP network specialist, Reykjavik Fibre Network
My family and I are not big spenders, apart from the mortgage, and I'm surprised to see what a big carbon footprint we have. I realise that my driving pollutes a lot, but in Iceland public transport is not a very viable option. I think the authorities could examine all the pollution caused by the cruise ships entering Iceland. I once heard that a single ship pollutes as much as the country’s entire car fleet.
Reykjavik Energy has a Health and Safety Policy, which is regularly examined and reviewed by its Board of Directors. One of the Group's targets for 2019 was to reduce staff absences, due to accidents or illnesses, to 3.6% of total hours worked by 2023.
Staff absences decreased from 4.1% to 3.6% in 2019 which is a good result. This can be attributed to fewer absence-related accidents and a less severe wave of influenza than in previous years. We want to maintain this success and explore ways to do even better. We encourage employees to exercise during work hours and look after their health. Employees can exercise for two hours a week on a full wage. We offer scheduled crossfit, yoga and dance fitness sessions the gym at our headquarters. We give regular talks on health-related issues, conduct health surveys and offer influenza vaccinations. We encourage participation in health-related sporting events such as the Life Run and Bicycle at Work.
Reykjavik Energy endeavours to operate in accordance with Icelandic labour law and the Group’s policy in Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) issues. We are not only responsible for protecting the rights of our own employees; we are also responsible for contractor and sub-contractor employees. We impose stricter regulations than those required to ensure compliance with the law:
No violations occurred in 2019.
Reykjavik Energy's Non-Discrimination Policy of is based on human rights definitions from the Icelandic constitution. The company's Code of Conduct also contains a special chapter dedicated to human rights and non-discrimination. We held workshops in 2018 to discuss the #metoo movement and its significance for Reykjavik Energy Group’s workplace culture. All employees were expected to attend. Employees also attended workshops held in 2019 to focus on the development of a formal communication compact for the OR-Group, which will be published in 2020.
Reykjavík Energy's stipulates its human rights policy in all tendering and contract documents.
My carbon footprint
Jón Sævarsson
Analysis specialist, Reykjavik Energy
I have a similar carbon footprint to the average Icelander, which comes as no big surprise to me. We consider ourselves aware, but we sometimes lose track of our carbon footprint. I still need to do more to help keep global warming within 1.5 °C. I need to radically change my diet and particularly reduce meat consumption, electrify the family car and preferably shift towards a car-free life style.
Our commitment to continuous improvement creates expertise and knowledge which can be of use to others. This can be attributed to:
Reykjavik Energy believes that knowledge dissemination that can benefit others is one of the Group's key responsibilities.
Every year the Reykjavik Energy Group hosts a Science Day where various development projects are presented. Several employees of the Group regularly teach at the university and the School for Renewable Energy Science (RES) in Iceland and deliver lectures at specialised conferences, both domestically and abroad.
The most widely used knowledge from our collaboration with many other scientists is the sequestration of geothermal gas emissions in basalt. A broad variety of media outlets around the globe have covered Reykjavik Energy and ON Power’s project in the Hellisheidi Geothermal Power Plant, which is considered unique.
In 2019, about 140 thousand queries were logged at the joint service desk of Reykjavik Energy, Veitur Utilities, ON Power and the Reykjavik Fiber Network. Most of them were from customers who were submitting meter readings themselves and others were queries or other issues concerning bills. The pie chart shows the breakdown of queries per category and the attachment below focuses specifically on notifications and complaints related to environmental issues. There is also an overview of notifications to licensing authorities. Our collaboration with licensing authorities, stakeholders and customers is important to us because it helps us to understand what matters most to people. Examples of this include regular meetings with licensing authorities and knowledge dissemination via social networks.
