14 Our Company Responsibility To produce and market energy we need resources. Material resources like fuel and capital. And non- material resources like trust. The trust of the people who live near our facilities. And also the trust of our customers, our employees, the companies we do business with, the general public, policymakers, and government agencies. We can only earn this trust by taking our stakeholders' expectations into account as we meet our significant economic, environmental, and social responsibilities. We do this implementing appropriate projects at our facilities and offices. The challenge for the upcoming decade is for our industry to improve its credibility and engender greater trust. They are the prerequisites for us to be able to produce and distribute energy affordably, safely, and with a minimum of environmental impact. As one of the world's largest energy com- panies, E.ON has a responsibility--and an interest-- in playing a big role in earning and retaining the public's trust. The energy world is undergoing profound change. It needs to. Because the challenges it faces are of global magnitude. First, people around the world are consuming more and more energy. Second, the fossil resources commonly used to meet this demand are finite and carbon-intensive. Third, the use of fossil fuels is causing the climate to change, and all of us--people, companies, and governments--need to take action to slow this process and ultimately stop it. This transformation process will involve huge economic, environmental, and social challenges. So huge, in fact, that no single company or govern- ment can deliver the necessary solutions. These challenges will require new partnerships, significant changes in consumer behavior, and a magnitude and speed of technological innovation unprec- edented in the energy industry. Responsible procurement--along our entire supply chain We use a lot of resources. To fuel our power plants, to maintain our assets, and to give our over 88,000 employees the tools they need--from hard hats to note pads--to do their jobs. Our responsibility begins long before these resources arrive at our facilities. It begins in the countries and communities where they're produced. To meet this truly global responsi- bility, we've instituted a Group-wide responsible procurement policy ("RPP"). It helps us to ensure that the uranium we procure is extracted and enriched under safe conditions and that the coal we buy is mined with minimum of environmental impact and without harm- ing the health of mine employees. In 2009, we defined a new responsible-biomass policy under which we'll only use certified products and products that don't endanger food secu- rity in other parts of the world. More generally, we make every effort to ensure that all the products we source--no matter where they're from--are produced in accordance with our RPP's minimum standards for human rights, workers' rights, environmental protection, and business ethics. Without people's trust, we can't do our job.