CR Report 20077MB - Essent

2007 CSR Report Essent N.V.
Being sustainable together.
Sharing dilemma’s.

2007 CSR Report

TABLE
OF CONTENTS
Business is something that involves us all 4
We are society
Profile 6
01 Retrospective and outlook
Retrospective 10
Outlook 18
02 Corporate governance of CSR 20
03 Structure of the report and accountability 24
04 Essent as a business operator
Tomorrow’s energy 26
Interviews
Paymon Aliabadi, Gerard Hirs
Johan van de Gronden, Richard Schmölzer
06 Essent as an employer
Diversity in development 50
Interviews
Monic Bührs, Marie-Christine Osterop
Anouk Rasenberg, Margo van Berkel
07 Essent as a corporate citizen
Committed to the community 62
Interviews
Marco Grob, René Savelsberg
Annemarie Moons, Gijsje van Honk
08 Measuring sustainability 74
09 Assurance Report 78
05 Essent as a market player
Weighting sustainability 38
Interviews
Johan Maris, Helma Kip
Kornelis Blok, Nico Roozen
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> Business is something
that involves us all
We are society
This was the guiding principle in 2007 that helped us to even
deeper entrench Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in
our corporate policies and our business practices. The Business
Plan, which defines a number of explicit CSR targets,
was an important tool in that regard. In 2008 we will continue
to translate these targets into concrete measures for each
business unit, including key performance indicators (KPIs)
and target values.
Announcing new policies is not enough, not when it comes
to CSR either. An enterprise also has a responsibility to report
on the degree to which its policies have been executed.
For this reason, we published our first separate CSR Report
(for 2006) in 2007. This explicit report on our CSR efforts
allowed us to initiate highly concrete discussions with our
internal and external stakeholders about our ambitions. In
addition, the publication of the report resulted in a gratifying
rise of Essent’s position in the annual Transparency Benchmark
of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Our CSR policy is continually gaining momentum thanks to
our dialogue with stakeholders. We try to align our policies
to their expectations as much as we can by listening carefully
to their recommendations and criticisms. In this report,
sixteen internal and external stakeholders present their
opinions on topics that matter to Essent, including energy
technology, the use of bio fuels, staff diversity and our regional
anchorage. We will take their comments to heart
where possible when planning any future steps.
Staff commitment is an absolute prerequisite for the success
of our CSR policy. After all, it is our collective staff
who help us achieve our ambitions. In 2008 we will launch
an internal campaign with a view to bolstering our staff’s
inspiration and motivation. Spurred on by the campaign
motto ‘How on Earth’, every staff member will be asked to
join in on activities to literally improve the social climate
both in and outside our company.
2008 is promising to be an earth-shakingly dynamic year!
Arnhem, the Netherlands, 27 February 2008
Michiel Boersma
Chairman of the Executive Board
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> Profile
Essent is a Dutch energy company that supplies electricity,
gas and heat to private and business customers. While
regarding the Netherlands as our home market, we are also
increasingly active in Germany and Belgium.
Essent’s operations cover the entire energy chain, from the
generation of energy – excluding exploration and extraction –
to supplying products and services to end-users: large and
small businesses, and private consumers. We also supply a
Energy chain
generation
trade infrastructure sales
electricity
gas
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variety of products and services, such as equipment
maintenance, energy advice, heat, operating sustainable
energy facilities and micro-cogenerators. We are also
engaged in three waste management activities:
waste incineration, waste composting and landfill management.
On 1 February 2007, Essent Kabelcom, a supplier
of cablecom and telecom products, ceased to be a part of
the company.
The 2007 figures show that in the Netherlands Essent is:
■ the market leader, with revenue of EUR 7.4 billion;
■ the leading producer and supplier of sustainable energy;
■ owner of Energie:Direct, one of the country’s fastest
growing energy start-ups;
■ leading with its waste management operation, processing
approximately 2.9 million tonnes of waste a year.
Essent is a non-listed public company with limited liability.
It was incorporated in 1999 and has its head office in Arnhem.
Its shareholders are Dutch provincial and municipal authorities.
The company comprises 10 business units, 7 of them
forming the Energy Value Chain for the Netherlands, Germany
and Belgium. The remaining operations in Germany are conducted
by swb. The network operation is financially, organisationally
and legally separate from the other activities of the
company. At year-end 2007, the size of Essent’s workforce
was over ten thousand.
Essent N.V. organogram
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> Profile
Revenue per segment - continuing operations
2007
2006
2005
7,377.5
5,671.8
1,216.8
378.0
1,001.6
(890.7)
6,441.6
4,588.4
1,241.6
380.2
1,055.6
(824.2)
5,889.6
3,543.8
1,276.2
362.4
993.0
(285.8)
Revenue per country - continuing operations
2007
2006
2005
7,372.7
5,826.5
1,190.5
355.7
6,431.4
4,954.8
1,316.5
160.1
5,875.9
4,621.7
1,133.0
121.2
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People 2007 2006
Number of employees 1 10,223 9,832
% of women 27 27
% of women in management positions 14 14
% absenteeism rate due to illness 4.3 4.2
DART-rate 0.97 1.09
Planet 2007 2006
Number of suppliers who have signed Supplier Code of Conduct 88 15
Donations (in euros) 300,000 300,000
Prot 2007 2006
in millions of euros
Revenue 7,378 6,442
Profit attributable to equity holders of Essent 2,594 761
Total equity 5,175 3,414
Total interest-bearing liabilities 724 1,620
Capital employed 8,204 6,559
Power 2007 2006
Total sustainable generating capacity (MW) 1,042 1,065
% of sustainable energy in total generation 10.0 15.2
Number of green electricity customers in the Netherlands 927,000 936,000
Number of green for gas customers in the Netherlands 25,000 15,300
CO ² -emissions (Ktonnes) 2 14,625 14,496
% of solid biomass bearing EGGS label 48 33
1
In FTes excluding Essent Kabelcom
2
Emission orginating from electricity and heat generation according to Essentownership
share, excluding emissions from Essent Milieu and Essent Networks
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>1Retrospective and outlook
Retrospective
the first results are in
After a thorough exploration in 2006, 2007 was our first
real policy year in terms of Corporate Social Responsibility.
People, Planet, Profit and the fourth P for Power, which we
added ourselves, became serious business. CSR was firmly
cascaded throughout the organisation, on the shop floor and
in the Boardroom. Our Business Plan for 2007 was the first
of its kind to include a chapter on CSR policy.
Two major steps were taken immediately at the beginning of
the year: the introduction of the CSR Advisory Board and the
appointment of CSR Ambassadors to the various business
units. These steps set the stage for the implementation of
our CSR Policy Plan 2007-2010. The Plan identifies three key
policy areas: energy conservation, innovation and employability.
It is encouraging to see that already good progress
was made in all three areas in 2007. Examples included the
Essent Energy Conservation Plan launched in cooperation
with our shareholders, the approval of our innovation strategy,
and the willingness on the part of Essent – traditionally
a male-dominated company – to introduce measures to ‘get
women to the top’.
These are but a few remarkable milestones that we will discuss
elsewhere in this report.
international benchmark
The road map towards achieving our CSR goals is based on
the following seven strategic principles, which were defined
in 2006:
■ promoting sustainable development and limiting
climate change
■ strengthening our competitiveness in the countries
in which we operate
■ ensuring that our suppliers observe internationally
agreed human rights
■ raising the rate of labour participation for groups that
are currently underrepresented within Essent
■ raising the quality of work at Essent
■ raising the quality of life in our environment/surroundings
■ improving safety.
In June 2007 we conducted a review of these strategic principles.
We were interested to find out whether they sufficiently
underpinned Essent’s ambition to be a leading sustainable
energy company. The conclusion was that, in order to allow
for a useful comparison with peer businesses, we needed to
model our CSR strategy on international standards. For this
reason, we transformed our seven strategic principles into
the following nine key policy areas, which now make up the
core of our CSR policy:
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■ emissions reduction
■ share of renewable energy in the fuel mix
■ energy conservation, including efficient use
of base materials and fuels
■ innovation and knowledge management
■ customer satisfaction and quality labels
■ good employership
■ human rights
■ corporate citizenship
■ occupational health and safety.
Late in 2007 Essent was benchmarked against other large
energy companies in Europe based on the Dow Jones
Sustainability Index (DJSI), the leading global index tracking
the sustainability performance of listed companies. Essent
is the first Dutch energy company to have its sustainability
performance benchmarked based on the DJSI criteria.
The outcome, which will lay the groundwork for our policy in
2008, provided a mixed picture. The most important conclusions
were that Essent could stand the comparison with
other European energy companies where the economic and
social dimensions are concerned, but that there is room for
improvement in respect of the environmental dimension. Our
climate strategy, in particular, is an area where fine-tuning is
in order (for further details, see chapter 8).
pursuing the best options together:
nationally and globally
We are keen to opt for sustainability, and our choice to do so
is a conscious and deliberate one. This is not to say, however,
that we intend to map out each and every route on our own.
Because the challenges are so substantial, we need to join
forces. What is more, if we team up with others, we can
send a strong signal to the market, influence developments,
and show society what we stand for.
The Schokland Agreement was an important milestone in
this regard. On 5 July 2007 Michiel Boersma, the Chairman of
the Executive Board, signed this agreement with the Dutch
government on behalf of a consortium of twenty companies,
centres of excellence and non-governmental organisations
in Schokland, a former island in the IJsselmeer. The parties
to the agreement pledged to develop sustainability criteria
for biomass imports, including a certification system. What is
important is that we can offer the guarantee that the biomass
we use at our plants is sustainably produced and traded in
its country of origin. This allows us to make a contribution of
our own towards eradicating extreme poverty and hunger.
And we are promoting a sustainable living environment and
fair trade at the same time.
The Schokland Agreement is part of Project 2015, a project
launched by the Dutch government to make up for the delays
encountered in achieving the eight Millennium Development
Goals. The parties to the agreement have pledged to put in
place an adequate certification system within six years.
During that time, pilot projects will also be carried out in exporting
countries to promote local knowledge of sustainable
biomass production.
regional base, regional responsibilities
Essent has traditionally had regional roots and the provincial
authorities and town councils in our original area of operation
are still our shareholders. We owe it to this region to
take responsibility, preferably in cooperation with our shareholders.
Early in 2007, working with our shareholders, we developed
the Essent Shareholders Energy Conservation Plan. Its aim is
twofold: to curb carbon emissions by conserving energy and
moving towards sustainability, and to reduce our customers’
monthly bill through energy conservation. The Plan focuses
on three target groups: households, our shareholders (with
their buildings, facilities and related non-profit institutions),
and the corporate market.
We work with each shareholder to draw up a personalised
Conservation Plan, but we also offer them the possibility of
shared implementation to achieve economies of scale.
We have earmarked a multi-year budget for the Plan:
EUR 5 million in 2007 and EUR 10 million in 2008. The budget
for 2009 will be set after an evaluation is conducted in 2008
(for further details, see chapter 7).
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Poster sent to all staff
together with Al Gore’s film
‘An inconvenient truth’.
Poster announcing the
introduction of fair trade coffee
within Essent.
Een ongemakkelijke waarheid.
Maar ook een uitdagende.
Maatschappelijk Verantwoord Ondernemen
staff commitment
A CSR policy can only thrive in a company whose management
leads the way and whose staff feel engaged with the
policy objectives. CSR warrants debate, about the need for
sustainable operations and about the choices to be made in
the process. In March 2007, to stir up the debate, we sent all
of our staff a DVD of Al Gore’s film ‘An inconvenient truth’.
The film triggered lively discussions within the company
and awareness grew that – as an energy company – we find
ourselves at the heart of an unprecedented change process.
And that is a process that we actively need to mould
and shape.
responsible food choices and in-depth debate
about credibility
In order to further entrench CSR in the organisation and our
day-to-day operations, we organised ten lunch meetings
with staff at various Essent sites between 10 May and 25
June 2007.
During these lunches – where, obviously, responsible food
choices were on offer – staff were invited to express their
views on CSR. The most important conclusion drawn from
these meetings was that we have to put our words into action
within the company as well, and ensure that we get our own
CSR house in order. Examples put forward included reducing
car mileage, making our fleet of cars more environmentally
friendly, double-sided printing, and offering fair trade coffee.
Another idea that was raised was for staff to volunteer as
energy conservation ambassadors and promote sustainability
in their respective communities.
The enthusiasm among our staff justified a number of
follow-up actions. First of all, we analysed the results of the
meetings and broadly communicated our findings throughout
the organisation. We also decided to develop two programmes,
more specifically: ‘Sustainability inside’
(Binnengoed, covering CSR in our offices) and ‘Essent
carbon-neutral’ (Essent CO 2 -neutraal, aimed at our own
energy consumption and mobility).
sustainability, inside and out
The Binnengoed programme, which is intended to get our
CSR house in order, proposes a two-step approach.
The first step was to implement a quick-win programme
aimed at raising awareness and delivering relatively easyto-achieve
results. September, October and November
2007 were campaign months, each with their own individual
theme. September was the month of the hallmarks.
Essent introduced Max Havelaar fair trade coffee and FSC
paper, among other things. October was recycling month,
with special emphasis being placed on the reuse of com-
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Tamme Wierenga (Essent Manager Information Management),
Marga Edens (Essent Manager CSR) and Olivier Vanden Eynde
(General Manager of Close the Gap) present the 50,000 th
computer to Desmond Tutu, the South African bishop.
puters, mobile telephones, office furniture and suchlike.
Vitality was the theme of the month in November. In a pilot
carried out at a large Essent facility in Den Bosch, we gained
experience with healthy foods and a company workout plan.
The second step is more strategically oriented and consists
of four stages. First of all, we will take stock of the current
situation (which products and operations do we have), and
explore the savings potential (both with regard to environmental
and cost aspects). Next, we will look at the possibilities
of replacing existing products with sustainable ones and,
finally, we will decide what items qualify for recycling. The
entire programme runs from 2007 to 2009 and is designed to
deliver maximum environmental benefits in combination with
cost savings.
In 2007, aside from introducing fair trade coffee, we
achieved several other notable results. We made a start with
double-sided and black-and-white printing. Another highlight
was our offer of used computers to Desmond Tutu, the
South African bishop, in the autumn of 2007 as part of the
Close the Gap project to tackle poverty by bridging the digital
divide with developing countries.
Looking ahead to 2008 we will work to make our catering
and cleaning product groups more sustainable.
CO 2 neutrality, a responsibility that comes
with our position
If, at Essent, we want to be recognised as leading the way in
making our communities more sustainable, we will have to
put our own affairs in order first. CO 2 reductions and carbon
offsetting are key issues in terms of the environment and
our reputation as a company. If we work hard to offset the
carbon emissions caused by our car fleet and buildings, we
can bring home our message of sustainability to our customers
and raise their awareness. Our staff also expect us to set
a good example. It is a matter of credibility.
That is why we have launched two action plans. The first one
is aimed at offsetting the carbon emissions caused by our car
fleet, and the second at reducing energy consumption in our
buildings.
towards a CO 2 -neutral car fleet
In 2007 the Essent car fleet (industrial vehicles, leased cars
and charged business mileage clocked up in private cars)
caused around 16,000 tonnes of CO 2 emissions in total. Our
previously introduced - rather symbolic - policy of planting
a tree for each newly leased company car illustrates that we
are keeping our attention focused on the need for sustainability.
It is now underpinned by a massive carbon-offsetting
scheme involving our entire fleet of cars. In 2007 the decision
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was taken to offset our carbon emissions of 16,000 tonnes
in full. This involved an amount of EUR 350,000 in renewable
energy certificates.
We will, of course, make every effort to reduce car mileage.
We expect further incentives to use train services to reduce
car mileage by 6.5%. Even greater savings would appear to
be feasible by taking additional measures aimed at limiting
business travel through behavioural changes and making
facilities such as video-conferencing available on a larger
scale. Plans are being developed to achieve this.
In 2008 the cost of offsetting carbon emissions caused by
the car fleet will be regarded as ordinary business expenses.
With this, we have incorporated our CSR policy into our
ordinary business activities.
towards CO 2 -neutral business premises
In making our office buildings more sustainable, we are
using the same method as the one applied to the Binnengoed
project. First of all, we take stock of the current situation
at each of our sites (energy consumption, contracts, nature
of the buildings, etc.), and identify the opportunities for
energy conservation and limiting carbon emissions. Next,
we look at where we can use renewable energy instead of
conventional energy. Finally, we offset what carbon emissions
remain.
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In the fourth quarter of 2007, we began implementing the
first and second stages of the plan by introducing an energy
management system. The system enables us to analyse energy
consumption levels in our buildings and identify areas
where savings can be achieved. We expect to be able to
reduce our energy consumption by 10% to 20% and curb carbon
emissions further through additional measures. Further
details will probably be available in the first half of 2008.
It could be argued that stage four of the plan is unnecessary.
After all, if we take stage three of the plan seriously and
use renewable energy across the company, there will be no
CO 2 emissions left to be offset. However, the actual situation
is more complex. Biogas is available only to a very limited
extent, green gas is in itself a form of offsetting and generating
capacity for green electricity in the Netherlands is not
keeping pace with demand. Encouraging even more imports
is not one of our objectives. It seems likely, therefore, that we
will have to offset a residual level of CO 2 emissions.
As with the Binnengoed programme, we aim to achieve
maximum environmental benefits coupled with cost savings.
This is not only good for our wallet, but also provides appealing
examples for external campaigns. Clearly, customers will
more readily invest in environmental care if the measures
taken yield returns.
what others think of us
However hard we try to put in place a sound CSR policy,
we cannot rule out the possibility of overlooking one or two
things, or misinterpreting the expectations of others. That is
why we regularly gauge the opinion of parties operating in
the area of CSR to find out what they think of our policies.
We have placed the dialogue with our stakeholders at the
heart of these feedback efforts. In 2007 we chose to focus on
four issues, i.e. palm oil, emissions reduction, energy conservation
and human rights.
The first step was to commission the Good Company research
and consulting firm to send out questionnaires to
five influential stakeholders: the World Wide Fund for Nature
(WWF), the Dutch National Forest Service, two Dutch
nature conservation and environmental protection groups
(Natuurmonumenten and Natuur & Milieu), and Amnesty
International. To ensure maximum objectivity, it was explained
to the stakeholders that they were asked to give their
opinion on the sustainability policies of power companies.
They did not know that the questions were being asked on
Essent’s behalf.
The findings showed that the four environment-oriented
stakeholders appreciated the greater openness on the part
of the energy industry. They also saw encouraging sustainability
initiatives in a number of companies.
Otherwise, the stakeholders were mostly critical. They commented
that energy companies should invest more of their
substantial profits in innovation, sustainability and energy
conservation, and certainly not in coal-fired power stations.
Using palm oil as a biofuel was considered non-sustainable,
and promoting green gas was referred to as window dressing.
Moreover, they felt that energy companies should take
responsibility for the entire energy chain and channel more
efforts into small-scale power generation and energy conservation
tips. Also, energy companies should go to greater
lengths to fulfil their social role, for example with regard to
payment arrears.
Late in 2007, on the basis of these findings, we initiated a
dialogue with a number of these stakeholders to share and
explain our views, and to explore in what areas we might join
forces in moving forward. More specifically, Essent and the
Dutch National Forest Service will explore ways of expanding
their current alliance through small-scale initiatives designed
to bring sustainability closer to the public. As regards
palm oil, we will use the findings of the Blok Committee,
which considers the phased-in certification of palm oil to be
a feasible option (see chapter 5).
In the dialogue on human rights, Amnesty International
urged power companies to look at issues such as working
conditions on palm oil plantations, planting CO 2 offset forests
in areas where people are forced out of their homes,
and the production of biomass at the expense of food crops.
We believe, however, that our Supplier Code of Conduct
(see chapter 5), which imposes requirements on all of our
suppliers, provides sufficient safeguards. We have, therefore,
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decided not to home in on the issue of human rights for the
time being.
The dialogue with stakeholders about CSR is not, of
course, limited to NGOs. Regular customer surveys (households
and corporate customers) and customer forums keep
us apprised of their opinions. We also liaise with our shareholders;
not only during regular meetings, but certainly also
in connection with the Shareholders Energy Conservation
Plan.
It goes without saying that the views of our employees
count heavily in our CSR policy. Our annual staff survey
consistently features CSR aspects. And we are in constant
dialogue with our staff, at the lunch meetings referred to
earlier and during long-distance walks on the Pieterpad trail.
walking our way to sustainability
The Pieterpad trail, a legendary walking trail from Pieterburen
in the northern province of Groningen to Sint Pietersberg,
a hill near Maastricht in the south, more or less covers
the company’s original area of operation. Because walking
clears the mind and loosens the tongue, we organise walking
trips for groups of employees along the Pieterpad trail (day
walks) to encourage them to speak out on important issues.
In 2007 the walks revolved around the theme of CSR.
To many participants, CSR was initially a very broad and,
hence, somewhat abstract notion. But as the walks went on,
they gradually got to grips with it. It quickly turned out that
there was great willingness to contribute to CSR, and that
many staff underestimated their own potential where CSR
was concerned. Frequently heard comments included:
“I’d like to, but I’m sure my boss thinks it’s nonsense,” and,
most often, “the company’ll have to foot some of the bill
then.” However, our staff proved during these walks that
their influence was greater than they had initially expected.
It has led to several great projects and suggestions for
improvement. On one of the walks, we were joined by Professor
Arjo Klamer, Professor of Cultural Economics at Erasmus
University Rotterdam, who put a philosophical angle on the
relationship between CSR and behaviour. The upshot was
that we perform best if we feel part of a group and are emotionally
involved with issues.
A visit, on one of the walks, to Ben & Jerry’s, a company
known for its sustainability efforts, showed that Essent can
be proud of the progress we are making.
The overall conclusion drawn from the 18 walks in 2007
was that we must, first and foremost, have faith in our own
capabilities.
Our walkers rolled up their sleeves and got down to some
physical work as well, pitching in and making themselves
useful as a group. In the early autumn of 2007, for example,
they built a trail in the Goudplevier nature reserve in the
Province of Drenthe, and in Maastricht the walkers successfully
arranged for high-efficiency boilers to be fitted at the
Toon Hermanshuis (a home for terminally ill cancer patients).
Walkers also took on voluntary obligations. In 2008 one
Five members of Impulse!
an affiliate of
Young Leaders for Nature
group will fit out the Arboretum in Eenrum (in the northern
Province of Groningen) with a solar power system. Another
group will try to set up a small-scale hydropower system
at a restaurant in Denekamp (in the Province of Overijssel).
The walks also produced many useful tips for our in-house
Binnengoed campaign.
once learnt ...
CSR will thrive only if it embraced by everyone at the company.
Impulse!, the association of Essent Management Trainees,
did so whole-heartedly. The young members of Impulse!
joined the Young Leaders for Nature, which was founded
in response to an open letter from the crème de la crème of
the Dutch corporate sector to the newly to be formed Dutch
Cabinet (in December 2006). The open letter was an initiative
of Leaders for Nature and encouraged the Cabinet to pursue
an active government policy on corporate sustainability.
The Young Leaders for Nature subsequently sent an open
letter of their own, saying that they themselves were willing
to make a contribution to their companies’ CSR policy.
The letter was presented to the CEOs of 23 large Dutch companies,
including Essent, in November 2007. Early in January
2008, as a follow-up, the Young Leaders for Nature staged
a forum in Utrecht, where they engaged in a debate with
members of the Board of their respective companies. Fifteen
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Essent members of Young Leaders for Nature took the
opportunity to make four solid agreements with the
Executive Board, represented by Rinse de Jong, and with
CSR Manager Marga Edens.
Under the first agreement, the Essent Young Leaders for
Nature will help raise CSR awareness throughout the
company (People). The second agreement involves the
introduction of a CSR funnel that will help to translate ideas
suggested by Essent staff into concrete decisions and
actions (Planet). Under the third agreement, Essent will
review its investments against CSR criteria as well as against
profitability goals (Profit). The fourth agreement will see
the Essent Young Leaders for Nature work towards bringing
Essent at the forefront by having the car of the future
power ed by green electricity (Power).
These actions have led to the firm anchoring of CSR in our
formal organisational structure and its integration into our
standard planning & control cycle. CSR is no longer a
maverick policy proposition. Instead, it has become part and
parcel of our day-to-day ideas, actions and reporting
practices.
CSR is business as usual
2007 was our first true CSR policy year, which is also
evidenced by the fact that CSR has now become a permanent
feature in our business plans. In the overall Essent Business
Plan 2008 we have, for the first time, included a chapter on
CSR policy and our business units, for their part, were invited
to include a CSR chapter in their respective business plans,
showing what policy and practical input they plan to con–
tribute to our joint CSR policy.
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1Retrospective
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and outlook
Outlook
more challenges ahead
Although we are very pleased that CSR has become a fully
fledged part of Essent policies and the day-to-day activities
of our staff, we cannot afford to rest on our laurels. The challenges
– at local, national and global level – are increasing.
Moreover, our ambitions in the area of CSR extend beyond
what we have accomplished so far. There is still much to be
achieved in 2008.
spearhead CSR efforts. In practical terms, this strategy
is reflected in the CSR Department’s plan of action:
energy market
■ 43% of customers will start to use green electricity
(Groene Stroom)
■ 35,000 customers will start to use green for gas
(Groen voor Gas)
strategy fine-tuning
In 2008 the main aim of our CSR strategy will be to strengthen
CSR as a guiding principle in our strategy, business
policies and day-to-day operations, so as to ensure that
Essent becomes a sustainable energy company.
In all of this, we will continue to adhere to the nine strategic
principles defined at the beginning of this chapter. The CSR
Department’s role is to inspire, initiate and coordinate, and
to cascade CSR throughout the organisation by:
■ raising awareness and actively involving our staff and;
■ encouraging the business units to develop commercial
products and services in line with our CSR policy.
sustainability
■ encourage torrefaction* and prepare Essent
for the use of torrefied biomass
■ set up new offset projects for green gas
awareness
■ launch a CSR campaign targeting our employees
Key projects include improving the internal and external visibility
of our CSR policy, gaining acceptance among different
stakeholders, and launching internal and external projects to
18 Essent N.V. 2007 CSR Report
* see figure at page 36

placing the world centre-stage
After the summer of 2008 we will launch a major in-house
campaign. Our aim will be to encourage greater awareness
among staff in terms of sustainability, and promote Essent’s
newly defined core values. We will need to attribute meaning
to these core values – Pro Active, Accountable, Cooperative
and Delivering – in order for them to be put into practice.
Our core values should guide us and set us on the right track
in everything we do and what we believe in. If we are as
committed to sustainability as we say we are, we must have
the courage to ‘sustainabilise’ our core values as well. Only
then can we expect to be able to fully appreciate the value of
the sustainability pillars underpinning our strategy and will
we be better equipped to act accordingly.
The campaign we have in mind will place the world centrestage.
The overriding question is what we are going to do
to stop climate change. That is why we have named the
staff campaign ‘How on Earth.’ It revolves around two main
themes: energy consumption and mobility.
We will start by sharing knowledge and then move on to
changing people’s behaviour. Things are bound to get
serious at times, but we have no doubt that the campaign will
make for some enjoyable and festive activities as well. Let us
move forward with fresh spirits and build a shared future.
‘How on
earth’
19 Essent N.V. 2007 CSR Report › Retrospective and outlook › Outlook

2
www.essent.eu
Corporate governance
of CSR
A number of the about
70 CSR ambassadors
We regard CSR as business as usual, which is why we apply
the same corporate governance practices as we do to Essent
in general. Our corporate governance policies are enshrined
in legislation and the Dutch Corporate Governance Code;
for details on our corporate governance, we refer to our
financial annual report.
Sound corporate governance is rooted in good business
practices and good governance. At Essent, we take it one
step further, claiming that good business practices are
socially responsible business practices.
And: good governance is socially responsible governance.
These are our principles.
Code of Conduct
The Essent Code of Conduct, which gives guidelines for
our daily actions, is based on our views of good governance
and CSR.
Our responsibilities:
1 Our customers can always depend on us
2 We provide optimum value growth for our shareholders
3 Our employees can count on respect and trust
4 We live up to our social responsibility
Our approach:
5 We operate with integrity
6 We ensure a healthy and safe working environment
7 We ensure that the company adheres to well-defined
corporate governance practices
8 We stand for free enterprise and fair competition
9 We set the same standards for our business partners
that we set for ourselves
In our business dealings, we adhere to a set of CSR-related
conditions of purchase, which we refer to as the Supplier
Code of Conduct. With this Code, we seek to guarantee that
our suppliers’ operations are socially responsible as well.
whistleblowers’ arrangement
The whistleblowers’ arrangement offers employees who
suspect irregularities the opportunity to report their suspicions
without this affecting their employment situation.
Counsellors have been appointed to protect employees who
have reported a suspected irregularity by not disclosing
their identity and overseeing that they do not experience any
adverse consequences in their employment situation.
No reports under the whistleblowers’ arrangement were
filed in 2007.
20 Essent N.V. 2007 CSR Report

new positioning, new core values
In the autumn of 2007, after the merger talks with Nuon had
failed, we considered our positioning in the market. One of
our key findings was that we need to raise our profile in the
market as an enterprise that is truly concerned with sustainability
and innovation. This has shifted the Essent core values
more towards our corporate social responsibility and the
practical aspects that go with it.
In order to allow ourselves to tackle the new challenges,
we have fine-tuned the Essent core values to Pro Active,
Accountable, Cooperative and Delivering. These core values
form a daily source of inspiration for our staff and all our
partners. How do we operate Well, this is how!
anchoring CSR
As indicated, we want to position Essent as a leading and
sustainable energy company by using our CSR policy as
a leverage. Obviously, it is the Executive Board that has a
policy-defining role, but their efforts would be wasted if their
policies were not broadly anchored in our operations. That is
why two actions were taken.
First of all, we formed a CSR Advisory Board early in 2007.
This Board, on which business unit directors, heads of
corporate services departments and specialists are seated,
is chaired by the Chairman of the Executive Board.
The Advisory Board assists the Executive Board by offering
recommendations about CSR policies and policy execution.
Key topics addressed by the Advisory Board in 2007 were the
CSR controls that are in place, the dialogue with our stakeholders,
the extent to which Essent wants to be involved in
projects in developing countries and Essent’s position on the
CO 2 emissions market.
Secondly, we appointed CSR Ambassadors early in 2007.
The some 70 Ambassadors, volunteers from all echelons of
the organisation, are the vanguard of CSR within Essent.
They are the first point of contact for CSR in the organisation.
In addition, their job is to identify and inspire. All 70 Ambassadors
meet four times per year to exchange information and
make recommendations. They also serve as panel chairs for
the Pieterpad walks. In the spring of 2007 they were closely
involved in organising the CSR lunches.
The result of these two actions is that CSR has already
been pretty firmly anchored in our operations. CSR is starting
to become our ‘green’ leitmotiv.
CSR in the Essent Business Plan
We have included a separate CSR chapter containing
company-wide targets in our Business Plan 2008 – which
was drafted in the autumn of 2007 – in order to allow CSR to
take further root in our organisation. In addition, all business
21 Essent N.V. 2007 CSR Report › Corporate governance of CSR

www.essent.eu
units were asked to include CSR targets in their individual
business plans for 2008. These were based on a conversion
of the nine CSR policy spearheads into the activities of the
separate business units.
We will keep close track of the execution of the plan in
2008 and fine-tune it where necessary.
Thanks to its broad positioning within Essent, CSR is increasingly
becoming a regular aspect of our business, including
the planning & control cycle. It is becoming ‘business as
usual’.
CSR in the Corporate State of the Risk
Essent prepares the Corporate State of the Risk a number of
times per year. It is an aspect of our risk management policy
that gives us an understanding of the key risks to which our
business is exposed and the options that we have to mitigate
them.
All business units and corporate services departments assess
their risk potential and the related implications, if any.
This includes operational risks, occupational health and
safety (HSE) risks, economic risks, risks due to changes in
legislation and reputational risks.
In line with the idea that CSR is an integral part of our ordinary
activities, we started to introduce CSR aspects to this
risk assessment in 2007. In doing so, we made allowance for
elements in our operations where CSR plays a role and where
risk exposures might exist. One of the conclusions was
that the embedding of CSR in our ordinary activities helps
to identify, understand and reduce potential risks. There is
much to be gained from well-defined targets and putting
in place internal process controls.
international alliance
Although it does not come under corporate governance,
a step that ties Essent even closer to CSR is our membership
of UN Global Compact, an international initiative that brings
companies together with the United Nations, labour and civil
society to support ten universal principles in the areas of
human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption.
Soon after it was established, we have entered in 2007 the
Dutch Chapter of Global Compact. So far, Essent is the only
Dutch energy distribution company to become a member of
Global Compact.
The CSR report for 2008 will be Essent’s first ‘Communication
on Progress’ report, a CSR report in accordance with the
Global Compact methodology.
22 Essent N.V. 2007 CSR Report

3Structure of the report
www.essent.eu
and accountability
structure
accountability
The lay-out of this report reflects the progress Essent has This CSR Report was prepared in accordance with the
made in anchoring CSR in the organisation. Whilst the report principles of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). We have
for 2006 was principally a broad and in-depth overview modelled our report on the G3 Guideline for the definition
of overall CSR aspects, this report for 2007 is much more of the key GRI indicators. We refer to our website for a list
attuned to material issues and the resulting dilemmas. of indicators used and details on the application of the GRI
In this report, we have maintained the approach based on Application Level Criteria. In defining the scope of this report,
the four roles that characterise Essent’s position in society: we relied on the GRI Boundary Protocol – a reference document
for establishing the boundaries of a social responsibility
a business operator, a market player, an employer and a
corporate citizen. We have foregrounded the most urgent report. For the purposes of describing our performance and
dilemma that comes with each role.
disclosing the required information, we reviewed the relevance
of our operations, the degree of control exercised by
the business operator
Essent and the materiality of the information.
tomorrow’s energy
what do we do and what don’t we do
scope
Our report addresses the CSR activities of Essent N.V. in
the market player
2007. The fact that we are an energy company takes centrestage.
For this reason, the activities of Essent Waste Man-
measuring sustainability
how sustainable is palm oil
agement – a business unit specialising in waste processing
– have only been included to a limited extent. We have not
the employer
included our minority interests (of 50% or less) in this report
diversity in development
either. Although we concentrate mainly on the Netherlands,
where are those women
we do partially report on our German associate swb AG,
a 51% participation. We have also included disclosures on our
the corporate citizen
wind-related activities in Germany.
regional involvement
The summarised financial information relates to the Essent
sugar daddy or partner
organisation as a whole, including associates and activities in
the countries where we operate. Obviously, there are exceptions.
Being an energy company, we report on energy. That
In addition, this report addresses a number of remarkable
trends and looks ahead to 2008 where this is relevant. is why we have taken account of the electricity production of
Where the format is concerned, we have basically opted our associates, in proportion to our shareholdings. The same
to publish two reports, a print and an online version. After goes for Essent Waste Management, which also generates
all, the Internet allows us to elaborate on developments in energy from waste.
our performance throughout the year and leaves more room We will also highlight our 50% interest in EPZ NV, operator
for background information. We post all information about of the Borssele nuclear power station among other plants,
Essent, our power stations, wind farms and activities on our because of its exceptional nature.
website, including the related figures. These figures ultimately
demonstrate our ambitions, the progress we make contains the most important – CO 2 – emissions data of all our
Energy production causes emissions. Therefore, our report
and the level of our success. This print report is a summary associates. Not included are the (limited) emissions caused
of key issues. For more detailed information, please log on to by Essent Networks due to the transport of gas or the offset of
www.essent.eu.
resistor losses due to the transport of electricity. The emissions
caused by waste incineration and waste storage by
Essent Waste Management are not included either. Safety is
24 Essent N.V. 2007 CSR Report

www.essent.eu
a concern for everyone at Essent. Our safety performance,
which is expressed in the DART rate, comprises all Essent
business units and swb AG. It does not include the financial
minority interests where Essent has no control over the dayto-day
operations.
Our staff base is perhaps our most important source of
energy. In addition to the number of people (in FTes) that
Essent employs, we also look specifically at age composition,
absenteeism, the ratio of male to female employees and a
range of other issues. Our analyses pertain to our own workforce,
but to temporary workers as well. Staff employed by
swb AG in Germany, Essent Belgium en Energie:Direct (both
of which are divisions of the business unit Service & Sales),
the newly acquired Westland Energie Services, our minority
interests and interns are not included in these analyses.
data collection
Our report describes the efforts that we put forth in 2007.
Most of the information contained in this report deals with
the way in which we have embedded CSR in our business
and the dilemmas that we faced in the process. We hosted
a range of consultative talks between all echelons of the
organisation and with various stakeholders; open interviews
give an impression of our stakeholders’ opinions on our approach
to these dilemmas. And on policy-related matters, we
consulted with our workforce, specialist corporate services
staff, business unit directors and the Executive Board. Our
findings from these consultations make up the more qualitative
section of the report.
We have also included figures and trends, as well as, in
many instances, comparative data. The more quantitative
information originates from standard sources and reporting
systems. The summary of the financial information is based
on our financial annual report, which is published separately.
external validation
It is of the essence that the information contained in this
report is complete, accurate and transparent. That is why
we have asked Ernst & Young Accountants to issue an
Assurance Report on this report. It is currently being
reviewed whether (parts of) the online report could also
be certified.
Choice of data inclusion for each business unit
1 Safety data relate to Essent’s own staff and contracted third parties.
2 Energy generation by the Essent Group, carbon emissions, exclusive of emissions by Essent Networks and Essent Waste Management.
Associates included proportionate to Essent share.
3 Staff employed by associates are not included unless equity interest exceeds 50%.
4 Socially relevant activities are attributable to a limited extent only to individual business units. Activities undertaken by swb AG are not included.
5 Relates to CO 2
caused by energy-generating emissions by associates whose interests are represented for Essent by the Business Development business unit.
6 Relates to the wind energy activities in the Netherlands and Germany only.
7 Includes the operations of Essent Belgium and Energie:Direct. Relates to the green electricity, Business green electricity and green for gas products.
8 Included in total number of FTes employed by Essent. Not included in other staff data.
25 Essent N.V. 2007 CSR Report › Structure of the report and accountability

www.essent.eu
4Essent as a business operator
TOMORROW’S
energy
each
in continuous operation
Power stations and wind farms appeal to our imagination.
They are impressive structures and masterly examples of
engineering skills. But they are also the source of power for
society; the place where electricity originates, from where
four-inch thick cables bring electricity to people’s homes.
the place of Power
The power to switch on lights, ignite engines, run computers;
the power to keep things affordable, and the power to do so
as sustainably as possible.
In the Netherlands, Essent is at the vanguard of renewable
energy generation. We intend to carefully build on this
position. After all, our overall objective is to be a leading and
sustainable energy company. This will involve hard work as
it imposes great demands on the way we operate. We need
to make existing power stations more sustainable. We must
build new power stations using technology that places less
of a burden on the climate. And we will have to achieve maximum
yields from our wind farms, while, at the same time,
guaranteeing the energy supply and keeping it affordable
for our customers.
power station is a one-off
However impressive and complicated it may seem, electricity
generation is basically a simple process. In fact, every power
station or wind turbine operates like a bicycle dynamo, only
it is bigger. A power station becomes special because of the
fuels it uses and the environmental controls that are in place.
At Essent, we operate three types of large power plants:
conventional coal-fired and gas-fired stations, and highly
efficient combined heat and power plants (CHPs).
The Amer power station and Claus power station were
designed as conventional plants, but we have since substantially
improved their sustainability performance. The Amer
power station near Geertruidenberg, for example, co-fires
a considerable quantity of solid biomass (wood) with coal.
Moreover, a substantial part of the residual heat is used to
heat homes and businesses. The plant is also being fitted
with a DeNOx system. This filters harmful nitrogen oxides
(NOx) from flue gasses. The Amer power station has a power
generation capacity of 1,240 MW and heat generation
capacity of 600 MW. The Claus power station in Maasbracht
is a gas-fired plant made suitable to co-fire bio-oils. Its maximum
output is 1,280 MW.
26 Essent N.V. 2007 CSR Report

the thoroughbred of power stations
CHP plants are a special type of power station. We own a
number of CHP plants, the largest of which is in Moerdijk.
Generating heat as well as power, CHP plants are gentle on
the environment. They deliver high energy efficiency and CO 2
emissions are low. Given the current state of the art, CHP
plants are by far the most effective option for large-scale
electricity generation. However, in order for a CHP plant to be
cost-effective, gas prices must compare favourably to other
fuels. And that has not always been the case over the past
few years.
Our current overall output from CHP plants is 1,560 MW.
When it comes to CHP plants, Essent occupies the number
one position in North-West Europe. Our knowledge of, and
experience with, this technology will become crucial over the
next few years as we face the difficult transition to renewable
energy and further measures will be implemented in the way
of energy conservation.
every little helps
Obviously, we also engage in small-scale power generation.
Our dedicated biomass plant in Cuijk has a capacity of
25 MW. The plant fires solid biomass in the shape of wood
cuttings and wood pellets.
Co-generation plants are important. They are, in fact, small
combined heat and power stations. We are pleased to operate
a large number of them because, like their big cousins,
they have a very low impact on the environment. That is why
we intend to considerably expand our presence in this market.
Early in 2007 we took a major step in this direction by
acquiring Westland Energie Services, which specialises in
supplying energy to the glasshouse industry. Co-generation
plants are a very attractive proposition in this market because
greenhouses not only need heating and power (lighting),
but also require CO 2 for their crops to grow. Between
them, our co-generation plants put out 160 MW overall.
Another development in this field is the micro-cogeneration
plant, a central heating boiler that generates electricity as
well as heat in homes. Micro-cogeneration plants are mostly
still being piloted.
Electricity is also generated at our waste incineration
plant in Wijster and waste fermentation plant in Groningen.
The joint capacity is 60 MW. The waste incineration plant of
Afvalverbranding Zuid-Nederland (AZN) delivers high pressure
steam to the Moerdijk CHP plant. After all, we would
waste a valuable opportunity if we did not make the best
possible use of the heat that is generated by incinerating
household refuse.
27 Essent N.V. 2007 CSR Report › Essent as a business operator › Tomorrow’s energy

www.essent.eu
a little water and ...
Flat as it is, the Netherlands does not offer too many possibilities
for hydropower. Essent operates two small hydropower
plants: an 11.5 MW plant on the river Meuse near Linne and
a tiny one (100 kW) on the river Vecht near Gramsbergen.
But our motto is: ‘take care of the pence…’. They also, of
course, allow us to gain experience in this field.
... a lot of wind
In contrast, wind power is a major force in terms of our
overall electricity output. In order to concentrate as much
knowledge and experience as possible in one place, we
have combined our Dutch and German wind power operations
into a single entity, Essent Wind.
In 2007 we successfully added 42 MW to our existing capacity.
At the same time, we sold existing wind farms in Germany
with a total capacity of just under 65 MW. We also demolished
one of our two wind farms at Eemshaven to clear the
way for a new one. The 40 small wind turbines put out a total
capacity of 10 MW and will be replaced by larger, state-ofthe-art
turbines. In total, we now put out nearly 424 MW in
wind power in the Netherlands and Germany, a respectable
amount, but slightly less than last year, so we need to ‘up the
ante’. Over the next few years, we plan to add 250 MW
in onshore projects in the Netherlands, and are counting
on as much as 1,150 MW in Germany.
As for offshore projects, we expect to achieve a capacity
of 400 MW in Germany. One of the new projects involves
replacing 134 wind turbines at Eemshaven by 52 newly
built 3 MW turbines, nearly quadrupling our output there
to 156 MW.
In 2008 we expect to increase wind capacity by 70 MW,
around 44 MW of which will be for own usage. The remaining
part will be sold to others. That is how we can put our experience
to use.
wind power is not a fix-all
Wind power may be important and successful, but it also
has a downside. The more wind turbines are built, the more
difficult they are to fit into the landscape. And, what is more,
offshore wind farms are rather costly. In addition, there is the
general problem of having to maintain near-equivalent backup
capacity for each megawatt of wind power. After all, the
wind does not always blow, but people always need electricity.
Conversely, if during exceptionally stormy nights an electricity
surplus arises in off-peak hours, combined heat and
power stations might have to be shut down. And that comes
at the expense of energy conservation and heat supply.
biomass under fire
It was for these reasons that we decided, quite a while ago,
that we should not rely solely on wind power if we were
serious in wanting to shift to renewable energy resources.
We needed to develop at least one other form of sustainable
energy generation. Something that had growth potential.
With a view to making our operations more sustainable, we
have therefore invested heavily in biomass as a fuel for our
power stations.
CO 2 emissions caused by energy generation
2007
2006
2005
14,625
5,320
1,715
589
1,782
5,218
14,496
5,495
1,435
525
1,582
5,458
14,706
5,915
1,262
648
1,631
5,250
28 Essent N.V. 2007 CSR Report

www.essent.eu
Solid biomass in the shape of wood chips and wood pellets
is used as a fuel by a dedicated power station near Cuijk,
and co-fired at the Amer power station near Geertruidenberg.
Liquid biomass in the shape of bio-oils and fatty acids
is co-fired at the Claus power station near Maasbracht.
Unfortunately, after a number of highly successful years,
in-house production of renewable energy dropped in 2007.
The underlying causes are explained in greater detail in
chapter 5.
be organised first to look at whether or not the public believe
nuclear power is an acceptable option. In the interim, we
will continue to focus on technological and safety issues so
as to prevent a knowledge lag.
and then there is nuclear power
Essent has a 50% interest in the nuclear power station at
Borssele. The other shareholder is Delta Nutsbedrijven,
a power company based in the Province of Zeeland. The
station’s capacity is 485 MW.
In 2006 Essent and Delta signed a covenant with the Dutch
government. Under the covenant, the Dutch government
allows the nuclear power plant, which technically still has
quite a few years of useful life left in it, to continue to operate
until 2033, thereby preventing capital losses. In exchange,
Essent and Delta will each contribute EUR 125 million to
enable the transition to a sustainable energy management
in the Netherlands. The government will double this amount
and donate EUR 250 million. Essent and Delta will put some
of this amount towards a separate fund. For details, we refer
to chapter 7.
We regard nuclear energy as one of many intermediate solutions
on the road towards a fully sustainable energy supply.
We do feel, however, that a nation-wide public debate should
CO 2 developments in key Essent power stations
2007
2006
2005
738
521
320
760
340
330
743
355
343
29 Essent N.V. 2007 CSR Report › Essent as a business operator › Tomorrow’s energy

4
www.essent.eu
O 2

DILEMMA [ 4:1 ]
But here is our
dilemma as
a business operator
We need to weigh sustainability, affordability
and availability as the priorities of our stakeholders
differ. Can we nonetheless make
a useful contribution to tomorrow’s energy
Business operator/Power
[ 30/31 ]

how green are we as an investor
Power stations do not have eternal life. Upgrading considerably
extends their useful lives. The Claus power station
in Maasbracht and CHP plant in Moerdijk are examples in
point. That said, power stations are like cars. However much
you polish and tinker with them, there comes a time when
their technology is definitely outdated and their fuel efficiency
is no longer acceptable.
Before that time comes, you need to have thought about
replacement. And about adding capacity, because energy
consumption is likely to continue to rise in the future. Clearly,
we will go all out to conserve energy. If it were up to us, we
would meet the Cabinet’s ambitious target of conserving 2%
per year.
Expectations are, however, that the demand for energy will
increase by at least 1% per year over the next ten years. Add
to that the fact that the Dutch power supply scores poorly
on targets such as reliability, affordability and sustainability
compared with other European countries, or so the Dutch
Energy Council concluded in a recently published report on
achieving a balanced fuel mix. The main cause lies in the excess
number of gas-fired power stations (which is, of course,
to do with the Dutch gas fields in Slochteren), with coal-fired
stations adding to the problem. And we have little access to
hydropower and nuclear energy.
Reasons enough, then, to think long and hard about the
question of how we intend to resolve this capacity issue
when it arises.
imports
It does not seem feasible or advisable to us to substantially
increase our imports. All countries on the North-West European
energy market are effectively facing the same challenge.
They all have old power stations that are scheduled
for decommissioning shortly. Germany will be shutting down
nuclear power plants as well. Norway has banned any further
hydropower plants. And long-term contracts to secure international
transmission capacity are prohibited under EU law.
Imports are also a less attractive option because they create
dependency, as well as hampering us in our efforts to conserve
energy and improve sustainability. In order to ensure
security and sustainability of the energy supply, we will have
to expand production capacity in the Netherlands.
renewable energy
Solar power is too expensive and too uncertain for the time
being to play a key role. A break-through in the development
of affordable solar cells seems likely, but is not expected in
the short term.
And as for biomass, with which we already gained so much
32 Essent N.V. 2007 CSR Report

experience Sustainability along the supply chain becomes
of ever increasing importance. The rising demand for biomass
should not result in additional logging or impact the
production of local foodstuffs. Biomass will therefore continue
to be used mainly as a co-firing fuel. We will certainly
continue to use it, although in a supporting role, rather than
in a leading one.
Wind power is an altogether different matter. We could
conceivably use wind power to generate all of the capacity
required. There is great potential in wind energy, especially
at sea. But wind energy comes with a few drawbacks that we
cannot resolve until we have the ability to store energy. One
of the problems is the volatility of wind supplies. In times of
high winds, we should be able to store electricity away for
calm days. The other problem is wind energy output at night.
Because we cannot store electricity at the moment, all of
it must be conveyed directly to the power grid, also during
windy nights. However, people use considerably less energy
at night. As a result, wind power could well eliminate the
demand for combined heat and power during such nights,
despite the fact that CHP plants require steady, round-theclock
operation to supply heat and as such conserve energy.
This is also known as running on ‘base load’. Generating
extra power for daytime uses is referred to as running on
‘peak load’. This leaves us with two conclusions. The first
one is that any further development of renewable energy
would benefit greatly from an energy storage system. We
will need to work hard to achieve this in the Netherlands.
The second conclusion is that we will continue to need a mix
of different types of energy production in the Netherlands
for the time being. Channelling all efforts into renewable
energy will push energy conservation and energy efficiency
into the background. This might also come at the expense
of combined heat and power plants and smaller-scale cogeneration
plants. But in the long run, conserving energy is
the most sustainable solution.
need for energy storage
At Essent, we devote many of our innovation efforts to developing
an energy storage system. We are involved, for
instance, in exploring the idea of constructing an energy
storage island in the North Sea, a variation on civil engineer
Lievense’s old plans for the IJsselmeer lake. In the Province
of Limburg, in the south of the Netherlands, we are studying
the possibility of storing energy in subterranean reservoirs
(pumping up water using cheap electricity at night and
letting it run down again – passing through several turbines
– at the more expensive peak periods during the day). Still,
it will be a while before we can put in place a reliable and affordable
energy storage system.
33 Essent N.V. 2007 CSR Report › Essent as a business operator › Tomorrow’s energy

need for base load in particular
At Essent, our gas-fired output is relatively high. That should
not come as a surprise. As a Dutch company, we were sitting
right on top of the Dutch gas fields at the time.
Gas-fired power stations are by far the best suited to meet
peak demand during the day because they can be precisely
calibrated to demand. They are like gas cookers. You turn
up the heat a little as needed and bring it back to simmering
point seconds later. However, research has shown that base
load capacity, in particular, is what we need in the future,
especially if we want to ensure a reliable and affordable
power supply.
It goes without saying that we will continue to pursue our
successful combined heat and power policy. This is necessary
to help achieve much-needed energy efficiency. But it
will not be enough. Combined heat and power requires the
simultaneous release of heat, which is not always possible.
Moreover, gas prices substantially affect the feasibility of
combined heat and power generation.
hybrid power station
That is where our plans come in to build a hybrid power
station that uses biomass and pulverised coal, which is an
excellent way of combining our knowledge of biomass and
state-of-the-art coal technology. A hybrid power plant is
designed particularly to provide a continuous power supply
34
Essent N.V. 2007 CSR Report

www.essent.eu
and, hence, is a perfect solution to meeting base load demand.
We are planning for an output of around 800 MW.
Black coal is available in abundance and is extracted in
politically stable areas so prices are fairly stable as well.
Alternatively, we considered building a coal gasification
plant, but this is now proving to be more expensive to build
and less reliable than a pulverised coal-fired plant, while
output and CO 2 emissions are more or less the same.
The new plant will have an efficiency ratio of around 46%
– compared with up to about 40% for existing coal-fired
plants – reducing CO 2 emissions by around 20%. Because
biomass will account for at least 30% of the fuel mix used by
the plant, carbon emissions will be further reduced by that
same percentage. Moreover, NOx, SO 2 and fine particles will
be removed from flue gases.
We intend to create the technical conditions necessary for
preparing the plant for future capture and storage of CO 2
emissions and conduct a study of available options. We will
also investigate ways for even further increasing the share of
biomass in the fuel mix.
The new hybrid power plant will be located in Geertruidenberg,
as part of the existing Amer-cluster. The site already
has the infrastructure in place to process black coal and
biomass. The transmission capacity needed to sell the electricity
generated is also available. In addition, there is a district
heating network (connected to homes and businesses in
the wide vicinity), which will be able to absorb residual heat
generated by the plant. This will further improve the plant’s
efficiency.
follow-up action
Although we will initially focus on meeting base load demand
as a first priority, we will certainly address the challenge of
peak load demand in the future. This could be achieved, for
instance, by developing a new gas-fired power station in
Moerdijk. We will take all of these issues into consideration.
The next step will be to see whether a new power station is
a viable option. Because we are not the only company in the
energy market that is planning to expand its production capacity,
the situation has not become any easier. The number
of power plant construction companies is limited and prices
are rising sharply, mainly driven by rapid developments in
China. This may have a knock-on effect on the affordability
of the energy supply. This is also an issue which we will factor
into our decision-making. Should we not then be thinking
about nuclear energy after all Base load! Affordable, reliable
and clean where emissions are concerned. Although the
debate about nuclear energy is slowly regaining momentum
in the Netherlands, it definitely still is a controversial issue.
Environmental pressure groups regard nuclear power as an
unsustainable source of energy and are drawing attention to
safety issues such as the storage of nuclear waste and nonproliferation.
At Essent, we do not outright dismiss nuclear
energy. It might lead to a better balanced fuel mix. But it also
requires substantial investments. That is why we believe
political and public debates should be held first.
When looking at the energy supply of the future, the challenges
that lie ahead are huge. Therefore we and society at
large should put in maximum effort to meet these challenges.
35
Essent N.V. 2007 CSR Report › Essent as a business operator › Tomorrow’s energy

Torrefaction and biomass
Improvement potential for biomass deployment
air
fuel
biomass
drying
drying ue gas
Business operator/Power

Torrefaction
Torrefaction is a thermal process
value chain. The input of bio mass
designed to increase the energy
density of solid biomass, such as
wood, waste and resi dual flows
from the timber-processing and
agricultural industries, and to
reduce its chemical pollution.
In its pro cessing – supply and
incineration – in a power station,
it compares best to coal. This
makes torrefaction an important
potential link in the biomass
as a substitute fuel for coal can
thus be increased sharply,
allowing hybrid power stations
to fire even more biomass.
This results in further reductions
in carbon emissions from hybrid
power stations. It should come
as no surprise, therefore,that
Essent is actively investigating
the practical feasibility
of torrefaction.

Interviews
Paymon
Aliabadi
director Essent Trading
Genève
Gerard
Hirs
retired Professor of Energy Technology
University of Twente

Paymon Aliabadi
“ESSENT IS MARKET LEADER IN DEVELOPING RENEWABLE FUELS, AND INVESTS IN TECHNOLOGY
utilising these fuels. Trends on the energy markets affect each investment decision that we
take. Unfortunately, we are currently seeing an accumulation of market distortions at regional,
national and global level. These developments have an adverse effect on the opportunities that
we have to increase our renewable energy production. Let’s just mention a few issues we
encounter in developing a hybrid coal- and biomass-fired power station. Emissions and biofuels
are especially important in making such an investment.
THE CURRENT MARKET FOR CARBON EMISSIONS TRADING HAS FAILED IN A NUMBER OF AREAS
since the introduction of the allocation system for emissions rights by the European Union.
Based on this system, industrial sectors have been allocated a number of carbon emissions
rights. If they emit more carbon dioxide than they have been allocated, they need to purchase
additional rights on the market. I would prefer a system of auctioning off these rights instead of
allocating them, because an auction does not work to the advantage of the traditional emitters
of large quantities of CO 2 . This would truly create a market price for carbon emissions. Even if
such a system can’t be introduced overnight on a global scale – due, for instance, to extension
of the mechanisms resulting from the Kyoto Protocol – the European Union should nonetheless
seek to implement it!
IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING THAT THE COSTS OF CARBON EMISSIONS WILL INCREASINGLY BE
incorporated into consumer energy pricing. Until now, no international consensus has been
reached, however, about the extent of these costs. The second problem here is that our sector
doesn’t have a clear view of the market after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. Given the
investment required for a hybrid power plant, we need to know how the costs of carbon emissions
will develop, not only in the coming years, but also in the next few decades.
SINCE THE USE OF BIOFUELS REQUIRES THE DEPLOYMENT OF DEVELOPING TECHNOLOGIES,
start-up subsidies are vital. This also applies to other large renewable energy technologies,
such as wind and solar power. All these applications offer economies of scale, thereby lowering
costs, if only the technology is sufficiently broad-based. Until then, inconsistent subsidy
policies of the different national governments form an impediment that is not easily overcome.
In the US and Europe, local political interests or pressures from lobby groups seem to have
triumphed over common ecologic and economic sense. The result is a patchwork of different
subsidy regimes and legislation that stands in the way of free market forces. And that’s what’s
disheartening investors.
I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO SEE NATIONAL GOVERNMENTS COLLABORATE IN DEVELOPING A SUBSIDY
system that is applied consistently and has specific regard for the long term. Emerging biofuel
technologies are like young plants; they need care and a certain protection against the discipline
of the international energy market. The enormous volatility we see in the price of conventional,
fossil fuels can change a project from a successful undertaking to a reckless, loss-making
activity overnight. As a trader, you can sort of control this market volatility, but it can be
disastrous for long-term investments in renewable value chains. Subsidies should make allowance
for this market volatility and have longer effective periods. At present, the lack of consistency
in subsidy systems for biofuels and renewable technology forms the largest threat to
private-sector investments. And that uncertainty also affects us when we take decisions about
long-term investments that are supposed to benefit our shareholders and the environment.
ESSENT IS FIRMLY COMMITTED TO SUSTAINABILITY. BUT WE CAN’T OFFER ECONOMICALLY
responsible solutions under our own steam. We need to forge alliances with governments and
address inconsistent legislation and subsidy policies. That will allow us to do so much more in
the way of renewable energy. To start, these alliances are needed to rally support for investments
in a hybrid power station.”

Gerard Hirs
“WHEN A DECISION IS TAKEN TO BUILD A NEW POWER STATION, THE TYPE OF FUEL AND THE
method of power generation are two major considerations. Coal has come in for a lot of public
criticism of late, despite the fact that there are enough stocks to last for around 1,000 years.
The fact is that coal is in plentiful supply, its price is stable and it requires only a small amount
of energy to mine and transport. Coal has the added advantage of a fairly constant basis of
comparison for energy-saving and reducing carbon emissions. In other words, you don’t have
to work harder and harder at the business of mining coal. In that sense, coal is developing in
the opposite direction to that taken by other fuels: coal-mining has gradually become easier,
not harder, in the course of time.
LOCATING NEW SOURCES OF OTHER FUELS, ON THE OTHER HAND, IS SOMETHING THAT REQUIRES
more and more energy. The problem here is that new sources are proving more and more
difficult to find. In the case of oil and natural gas, for example, the amount of energy absorbed
by production and transport is on the rise. More and more energy is lost per unit of product
during the journey from the source to the consumer. Dutch households, for example, will no
longer get their gas from local gas fields in the future. Rather, supplies may well come in the
form of liquefied gas transported from the Barents Sea or Qatar. Producing, compressing and
transporting gas are all high-energy activities, resulting in up to 30% of output being lost
before it gets here in the first place. Anyway, in the future, gas from the local gas fields will no
longer come to the surface just like that; electricity consumption is rising. Even in the
Schoonebeek oilfield in the Netherlands, 30% of the output is needed just to get the oil to the
surface. The comparative figure for coal is less than 10%.
In other words, all the savings you make by using a high-efficiency gas-fired central heating
system and setting your thermostat at a lower temperature are immediately undone by the
energy you need simply to produce the gas. As a result, producing gas and oil from new
sources will save much less energy and make much less of a difference to CO 2 emissions than
politicians and policy-makers are hoping. In fact, the difference between the environmental
impact of oil and natural gas on the one hand and coal on the other, is only small. These are all
factors that you’ve got to take into account when selecting a fuel for a new power station.
BIOMASS IS A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT STORY. BIOMASS ABSORBS CO 2 BY A PROCESS OF PHOTOsynthesis,
thus keeping it out of the atmosphere. Provided it remains under the ground for long
enough, it can turn into coal of its own accord. In other words, natural gas, oil and coal are all
part of a CO 2 cycle lasting many millions of years. When biomass degrades on the earth’s
surface or is used as a fuel, the CO 2 stored inside it is immediately released. So allowing wood
in a forest to rot away is a dreadful waste. Deliberately composting rotting wood is in fact even
worse. It would be better to keep the biomass and hence ensure that the CO 2 stored in the
biomass stays where it is.
USING BIOMASS AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR FOSSIL FUELS MEANS, THEREFORE, THAT THE CO 2 STORED
in the biomass is released back into the air. The use of biomass as a fuel is still very much in an
embryonic stage. Gasification has not been successful to date, and power stations like the one
in Cuijk that fire exclusively on biomass have only a very low energy efficiency, at around 20%.
In fact, all you’re doing is setting off a sort of controlled forest fire! In that case, it’s better to
store the biomass and use coal as a fuel, as it’s more efficient. The only way in which biomass
can be used efficiently is by co-firing it in a large, modern coal-fired power station. This is
twice as efficient as the process used in the power station in Cuijk. Although CO 2 is still
released into the atmosphere, the good news is that the power station makes much better use
of the energy value represented by the biomass. And this is why Amer 10 is such a good idea.
PAYMON ALIABADI
GERARD HIRS
HOWEVER, FUEL IS NOT THE SOLE CONSIDERATION. THE GENERATION TECHNIQUE USED IS ALSO
a big factor. We have now gained a great deal of experience with coal gasification, a technique
that was first used in the 1990s. Although there were certain teething troubles, the method is
now working well. The staff of Essent have played a big part in this success. I can imagine that
another option alongside coal gasification would be combustion in modern coal-fired power
stations. Although both methods would have to comply with environmental laws and regulations,
I would expect coal gasification to be more efficient and also to do better from a compliance
aspect. These are both points one has to weigh up, of course, against the cost of construction.
However, a higher energy efficiency would theoretically justify a larger investment.”

JOHAN VAN DE GRONDEN
RICHARD SCHMÖLZER
“THE WORLD WIDE FUND FOR NATURE (WWF) STANDS FOR BIODIVERSITY AND VARIETY OF LIFE.
Johan van de Gronden
Biodiversity has come under tremendous pressure due to climate change. Although climate
change is caused by human activity, the good news is that we can change our actions, for
instance by reconsidering our behavioural patterns and using technology sensibly.
OUR ALLIANCE WITH ESSENT IS ROOTED IN A NUMBER OF STRATEGIC TARGETS. WE AGREE
that the average temperature should not rise by more than 2 degrees this century. We also
subscribe to the ambitious European and Dutch climate goals, i.e. a 20% reduction in CO 2
emissions in 2020. But obviously, we would like to see more. Here’s where friction comes in.
Businesses should not let short-term gains prevail over what society needs to do to resolve
the climate issue. WWF plays a role in that debate, trying to encourage authorities, citizens,
businesses and shareholders to take balanced and sensible decisions together.
THE ENERGY ISSUE IS CLOSELY INTERWOVEN WITH THE CLIMATE ISSUE. AND ALTHOUGH WWF
doesn’t know about energy generation, we are experts in biodiversity. That’s why we need to
find solutions together and develop an ambitious climate strategy. If we look at technology,
we need a proper assessment framework. Unfortunately, we are still highly dependent on
fossil fuels in the Netherlands. Just think: if we take emissions produced by an efficient
gas-fired power station as the norm, it doesn’t really matter how you shape the energy
supply of the future, as long as we stay below the norm and our carbon footprint becomes
smaller.
It would have to be investigated whether a hybrid power station meets this norm. But we
can’t imagine Essent building a conventional coal-fired power station. That would knock the
wind right out of the government’s green policy. And I don’t think this meshes with the
responsibilities of Essent and its shareholders.
BUILDING CONVENTIONAL COAL-FIRED POWER PLANTS IS A BIT LIKE PLAYING FINANCIAL
russian roulette. The price of coal might be low now, but we also have to make assumptions
about the future cost of carbon emissions. That’s why WWF is in favour of emissions trading.
The real environmental damage can be assessed by attaching a price to CO 2 . This is perhaps
more important than the price of coal. Looking at the cost of energy, you need to consider
the big picture.
WE ALSO HAVE TO WIDEN OUR HORIZONS BEYOND THE NETHERLANDS WHEN IT COMES TO
thinking about the energy supply of the future. There are much bigger environmental gains
to be achieved outside the Netherlands! Over the next few years, hundreds of simple coalfired
power stations will be built in emerging economies such as China and India, without
facilities for the capture and storage of CO 2 . So we have a double motive for critically
reviewing the technical options. Our innovations also need to be of value outside this country,
so we have to be able to export our knowledge. We have that responsibility as a rich
nation. At the climate change conference in Bali, the adage was: don’t lay down the law for
other countries, but help them find solutions.
THE STORAGE OF CARBON EMISSIONS IS ONE SUCH SOLUTION. OF COURSE THERE ARE MANY
questions surrounding the capture and storage of CO 2 ; we have to critically look at the
availability of this technology, its degree of sustainability, safety issues and costs. I feel that
the right know-how for the technical feasibility is available in the Netherlands. But a single
enterprise can’t be expected to deal with this alone. It requires consultations between businesses,
the government and societal organisations, such as WWF. It goes without saying
that WWF does not set the rules or choose a technology, but we do need to engage in
debate about how to achieve the climate goals.
ULTIMATELY, CO 2 STORAGE IS A TRANSITION TECHNOLOGY ON THE ROAD TO A TRULY
sustainable energy supply. Unfortunately, the one perfect solution has not presented itself
yet, so that we need to continue to experiment with technologies. We should keep from
being dogmatic and not outright dismiss any technical options. It doesn’t matter how we
achieve a reduction in carbon emissions, whether through co-firing biomass in a hybrid
power station, through heat regeneration or storage of CO 2 , as long as we achieve that goal.
In my opinion, wind, biomass and solar energy are ultimately the only truly sustainable
energy sources.”

Richard Schmölzer
“AT OUR FELLOW SUBSIDIARY KOLLO SILICON CARBIDE IN DELFZIJL, WE MANUFACTURE SILICON
carbide (SiC), a material with a high breakdown strength that is used in particulate filters,
abradants and incinerators. Silicon carbide is formed by heating a mixture of sand and coke
to more than 1,700 degrees Celsius. This process is extremely energy-consuming; we’re in the
Top 20 of bulk consumers. The increase in energy cost would have got us into trouble in 2006
if we hadn’t changed our working methods. Because we can’t survive using peak-price
electricity during the day, we now start the reaction process during cheaper off-peak hours.
At the end of 2007 Kollo Energie signed a suitable bespoke contract with Essent for this purpose:
up to and including 2018 we will be supplied with three million MWh worth of electricity.
At Kollo, we’re more than happy with this.
WE’RE TALKING ABOUT CONVENTIONAL ELECTRICITY. OF COURSE WE WOULD PREFER GREEN
electricity, although we’re already the cleanest and most energy-efficient silicon carbide plant
in the world. We’re aware that our large-scale use adds to greenhouse gas emissions, but
green electricity is simply too costly for us at this time. It’s one to two euros per MWh, and
our competitors are located in countries such as South Africa, Ukraine and China. I hope and
expect that we’ll be able to start using green electricity after all within five years’ time.
IN MY OPINION, ESSENT COULD BE EVEN MORE ACTIVE IN PIONEERING SUSTAINABILITY
initiatives. True, Essent already offers consumers green electricity for the price of conventional
power and that’s a good thing, but what a true statement it would be if they were to switch all
their customers to green electricity as a standard – although I don’t know whether enough
sustainably produced electricity is available to do that.
I FEEL THAT THE PLANS FOR A NEW COAL-FIRED POWER PLANT DON’T MESH WITH SUSTAIN -
ability ambitions. Opting for coal is opting for money. I understand the dilemma facing energy
companies, but they have to ask themselves what’s more important: sustainability or affordability
Personally, I prefer to see a wind farm on the horizon rather than smog from carbon
emissions. What’s more, affordability is a relative notion: instead of complaining, as a business,
that energy costs have gone up, you could try to reduce your energy consumption or
change your production process. And that’s exactly what the Kollo Group has done.
I DON’T THINK THAT AFFORDABILITY SHOULD PREVAIL OVER SUSTAINABILITY. WE CAN’T SELL
that to future generations. We will have to find a mix where we utilise natural sources of
energy such as the sun, water, wind and biomass to their full potential, even though renewable
energy is currently more expensive per MWh than coal-generated electricity. Nuclear energy
is also a cheap and carbon-neutral alternative, but it has negative connotations in this country.
Be that as it may, I would prefer a nuclear power plant in this country, under Dutch control,
to one in a country with some sort of dubious regime.
ULTIMATELY, WE CAN’T ESCAPE HAVING TO EMBRACE SUSTAINABILITY. I SEE GREAT POTENTIAL
in the cradle-to-cradle principle where all material outputs and inputs are seen as technical
or biological nutrients (waste = food). We should take the same approach to energy. Customer
and supplier should both accept responsibility. This is quite a challenge for the energy sector:
do they have to wait for the demand or create it themselves No one wants to pay more – nor
do we. I believe that Essent – as the largest producer of green electricity in the Netherlands –
should take the country by the hand. And we will follow where they lead us.”

Johan
van de Gronden
general director of WNF, the Dutch chapter of WWF
Zeist
Richard
Schmölzer
managing director Kollo Energie B.V.
Appingedam

Essent as a market player
www.essent.eu
profits: do they make you rich or green
Energy companies have a duty to offer consumers a reliable
and affordable supply of energy. At the same time, they must
also operate in a sustainable manner. Not doing so means
not taking your social responsibility seriously enough.
These objectives are all valid enough, but are they also
compatible with each other The answer is: yes, they most
definitely are! The fact is that a good energy company is a
profitable energy company. Making a profit allows it to offer
its customers a reliable, affordable and sustainable supply
of energy. Profits are good news for everyone, including
our (public-sector) shareholders, who receive half of these
profits in the form of dividend each year. In short, a business
needs to make a profit in order to achieve its aims.
But does this mean scrutinising every step you take in terms
of its effect on corporate profits Yes, actually, it does. The
point is that a company should not take action that does
not help it to make a profit. That’s why it’s so important for a
business to develop a good nose for activities that are intrinsically
profitable. Here at Essent, this is an aspect to which
we devote a great deal of attention. Indeed, we have already
made a number of vital discoveries in this connection. One of
these is that satisfied customers are good for profits. Another
is that dedicated staff are also good for profits. Clearly, you
do not make much money from dissatisfied customers who
take their custom elsewhere, or from unmotivated staff with
a rulebook mentality. In other words, two basic conditions
for making a healthy profit are the presence of satisfied
customers and staff who are committed to your cause.
The problem is that no two people are the same: different
people have different desires, and this applies just as much
to our own customers and staff as it does to people in general.
Some people set great store by reliability, whereas others
regard affordability as the most important consideration. Yet
others cite sustainability as the main factor in the equation.
And there is an ever-expanding group of people who reckon
we should do equally well on all three aspects.
Which brings us back to where we started. In order to earn
enough income to provide our customers with a reliable,
affordable and sustainable supply of energy, we need to do
our very best in all these various areas. That is how it works
when you are a market player. In fact, it is pretty simple when
you think about it.
So do reliable, affordable and sustainable automatically go
hand in hand with each other
No, not necessarily. It is something you need to work on.
In some cases, you need a bit of help to get you there.
38 Essent N.V. 2007 CSR Report

www.essent.eu
HOW GREEN ARE WE
green electricity
We are the people who invented green electricity (Groene
Stroom) over ten years ago. This we did in collaboration with
the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Green electricity is
the name given to electricity generated from natural sources
such as wind, water, the sun and clean biomass. Green electricity
is CO 2 -neutral, which means that it does not contribute
to climate change. Consumers do not pay any extra for our
green electricity.
At the end of 2007, we had 872,000 consumers of green
electricity on our books, representing an impressive 43% of
all our electricity consumers. The number of green electricity
users remained stable in 2007 compared with 2006.
Our Groen Zakelijk electricity is green electricity for businesses
that are serious about their social responsibility. We
had registered 55,000 business green electricity users by the
end of 2007.
Right from the outset, our guiding principle has been that
we should produce as much green electricity as possible in
our home country. The problem is that imports do very little
to reduce CO 2 emissions, given that they rarely lead to any
extra production of sustainable electricity in the countries
of origin. We can help to build a sustainable future only by
effectively reducing our consumption of fossil fuels.
We guarantee that green electricity is produced from fully
renewable energy sources, i.e. wind, water, landfill gas and
clean biomass. The latter is taken to mean wood cuttings
from forests and municipal green spaces, untreated wood
residues from the timber processing industry, and palm oil.
In other words, green electricity does not include power
generated from relatively dirty products, such as kitchen and
garden waste and sewage sludge. As a further consideration,
we do not sell more green electricity than we can produce
ourselves or purchase from other sources. This is an aspect
that we watch very closely: after all, we want to be sure that
we can obtain the necessary Guarantees of Origin in relation
to the green electricity we sell to our customers.
In November 2007, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil
(RSPO) adopted a set of criteria for the sustainable production
of palm oil. These criteria are now being used as the
basis for a system of certification. At the end of 2007, we decided
to use only 100% certified palm oil residues as biomass
for the production of renewable energy.
green for gas
Green for gas (Groen voor Gas) is the name of the environmentally
friendly alternative to natural gas that we devised in
collaboration with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
Using their own gas consumption figures, we can compute
for each of our customers exactly how many kilos of CO 2 they
emit into the atmosphere through their chimney. For a small
fee, we can help the customer in question to fully offset his
or her CO 2 emissions. This they can do by planting trees, for
example, as trees convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. The
trees are planted in plantations with the Forest Stewardship
Council (FSC) stamp of approval.
Green electricity contracts
31-12-2007
31-12-2006
872,004
881,253
Business green electricity contracts
31-12-2007
31-12-2006
55,100
53,292
39 Essent N.V. 2007 CSR Report › Essent as a market player › Weighting sustainability

www.essent.eu
Another way of offsetting CO 2 emissions is by investing in
more efficient and renewable power-generation technology,
such as a new wind farm in New Zealand.
All these projects comply with UN guidelines and the
WWF’s Gold Standard. Every year, an independent auditor
checks whether consumers’ aggregate CO 2 emissions have
been fully offset.
Green for gas is proving a popular product, and the number
of users rose by 9,600 in 2007 to 25,000. Early in 2007, we
launched business green for gas especially for the business
market.
Double Green
Double Green (DubbelGroen) is the logical result of teaming
up green electricity with green for gas. It is a way of offering
our customers an opportunity to keep all their energy consumption
CO 2 -neutral.
feed-in tariffs for consumers
Some of our customers are themselves pioneers – those
who use solar panels to produce their own renewable power
providing a case in point. It is with these people in mind that
we devised a special feed-in tariff, in the knowledge that
there are times when they produce more electricity than they
actually need. The surplus is returned to the power grid, and
we pay them a fee for this. This is a good way of encouraging
small-scale use of sustainable power generation.
energy conservation
Energy conservation is another priority, alongside sustainable
energy production. After all, the less energy you use
in the first place, the less you need to replace by energy
produced from renewable sources. After all, let’s get real:
it is not exactly going to be easy to meet the government’s
target of ensuring that 20% of all the energy consumed in
the Netherlands is produced from renewable sources within
the next 12 years, especially if the general trend is for people
to use more and more power. A recent report published by
the Energy Council (on the fuel mix) again also stresses the
urgent need for energy conservation.
In order to encourage our customers to save energy, we
have devised a special Energy Conservation Plan for private
consumers and an Energy Conservation Service for corporate
clients. The idea behind the Energy Conservation Plan is
that it should act as a big incentive for customers to reduce
their energy consumption. It is not just about saving the environment;
it is also about saving money. Remember: affordability
is one of our objectives.
We help our customers find ways of being economical with
energy. The first step involves finding out exactly how much
energy they use. Once the figures are available, we then
make a series of suggestions for conserving energy. Where
necessary, we remove certain obstacles preventing consumers
from investing in energy-saving techniques, and we
supply handy tools that they can use to monitor their energy
Green for gas contracts
31-12-2007
31-12-2006
24,944
15,345
40 Essent N.V. 2007 CSR Report

www.essent.eu
consumption once they have implemented our recommendations.
In other words, the Essent Energy Conservation Plan is
good news both for the environment and for our customers’
wallets.
The Energy Conservation Service works in a similar way, but
is targeted at corporate customers.
In 2007, we mounted a number of campaigns in the consumer
and small-firms markets highlighting the importance of
conserving energy. One resounding success was the ‘socket
module’, which shows just how much energy various household
appliances use when they are left on stand-by.
together with partners
Like the WWF, the Dutch National Forest Service is a key
partner of ours. They are also very useful people to work
with: after all, it is all very well talking about biomass, but it
has to be available in the first place. In partnership with the
Dutch National Forest Service, we are pioneering the use of
wood cuttings and residues as a sustainable fuel. The Dutch
National Forest Service wishes to promote the use of Dutch
wood as a renewable fuel. We worked together in designing
an itinerant exhibition called ‘Fascinating Forests’, which
shows the whole production chain from tree to green electricity,
highlighting the environmental benefits.
and what is the government up to in the meantime
The government announced at the end of 2005 that it was
planning to review the MEP grant scheme (set up under the
Electricity Production Environmental Quality Act). It was
clear from the announcement that grants awarded for biomass
projects would be subjected to particularly close scrutiny.
In the summer of 2006, the government subsequently
decided to reduce the value of certain grants. There were big
cuts in the government grants formerly paid for the co-firing
of vegetable oil and non-wood agricultural residues. As a
result, new projects using this type of biofuel are no longer
viable (as we have already reported elsewhere in this report).
This is a shame, as the decision has put the lid on a promising
new development that was still in an embryonic stage
and on which a great deal of further research still needed to
be performed. Moreover, we have been trying for some time
to draw public attention to the value of agricultural residues
as a fuel. We believe that the government should in fact be
stimulating their use as a biofuel, particularly as they come
with very few drawbacks worth mentioning. After all, we are
talking about genuine waste products that are not grown for
their own sake and which do not therefore displace other,
more important crops. This is a completely different situation
from that applying to the production of corn for use as biodiesel,
as this takes up large tracts of land previously given
over to potatoes, wheat or rice, and may even pose a threat to
supplies of animal feed.
The fact is that agricultural residues complement rather
than compete with food production. Coffee husks are a good
example: if they are not used as a biofuel, they’re simply
thrown away. This is a tremendous shame.
Obviously, we were able to continue work on other projects
that remained eligible for MEP grants. However, with no
sign of the plans for a new grant scheme for encouraging
investment in renewable energy production materialising
in the near future, research into new sustainable biomass
flows came to a halt. We are now expecting the Minister of
Economic Affairs to present new plans during the first few
months of 2008. In the meantime, the energy companies and
other parties involved in the use of biomass have continued
to press hard for the adoption of sustainability criteria
(such as the criteria for the production of sustainable palm
oil, which were ratified by the Roundtable on Sustainable
Palm Oil in November 2007).
decline in output of green electricity
We were hit hard by the decision to end the MEP grant
scheme. Grants are needed in order to identify and test new
forms of biomass, to enable researchers to discover cleaner
or alternative technologies, and also to support sustainable
electricity production. The ending of the grant scheme
accounted for half the decline in the production of green
electricity in 2007. In fact, the decline was so marked that
we were actually compelled to import green electricity in
order to meet our customers’ needs. And as we have already
41 Essent N.V. 2007 CSR Report

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explained, imported green electricity does little to further the
cause of sustainable power generation.
The other half of the decline stemmed from our decision
(pending the results of the study performed by the Blok
Committee) not to co-fire palm oil in the Claus power station.
This is a point on which we will be elaborating later on in this
chapter. Against this background, it is clear that the development
of sustainable energy production requires consistency
in government policy, i.e. government policies on sustainable
energy production need to remain stable for a number of
years.
Businesses will be reluctant to invest if policies and grant
schemes change every few years.
sustainable energy production: what and how much
We produce sustainable energy from a variety of sources.
The bulk of the output (alongside wind farm production)
comes from our power stations, which are fired by various
forms of biomass.
The Amer power station, for example, co-fired no less than
half a million tonnes of biomass in 2007, producing around
935 GWh of green electricity in the process. This is enough
to meet the energy needs of over 265,000 households. The
greater part of the biomass used by the Amer power station
consisted of wood pellets (made from compressed cuttings)
and sawdust.
Of the solid biomass, i.e. all the mentioned forms of biomass
apart from bio-oil, 48% is Green Gold Standard Label-certified
(see figure on page 48).
tireless search
We are constantly on the lookout for ways and means of
boosting the efficiency of the biomass we use. For example,
technological research has shown that we can raise the
calorific value of biomass by subjecting it to thermal preprocessing
(a process known as torrefaction). This means
greater efficiency and hence more green electricity.
Another aspect of the use of biomass is the doubts that have
been expressed in recent times about the security of future
supplies. We are likely to see a surge in demand from around
the world, whereas supplies are likely to remain broadly
stable. In other words, there are limits to the future growth
in biomass use. It is against this background that we are
continuing our tireless search for new renewable fuels. The
need to place our energy production and consumption on
a sustainable footing represents a huge challenge. At the
same time, the amount of time and resources available to us
for quickly locating large sources of sustainable energy are
relatively limited. We clearly need to investigate every possible
avenue and to be resourceful and innovative. We need to
try out every available option, and retain only those that are
genuinely viable. One of the possible sources of energy we
are currently looking at, for example, is algae. It is all still very
much in the exploratory stage, but looks as though it could
be an attractive option.
coffee, anyone
Another option, and one that is now in a more advanced
stage, is the use of coffee husks as a fuel. Husks are the
in GWh 2007 2006 2005
Sustainable energy generation by the Essent Group
Wind energy 753 696 672
Hydropower 34 33 29
Solar power 0.01 0.05 0.05
Landfill gas and biogas 48 50 65
Stand-alone clean biomass 158 162 174
Fossil replaced by clean biomass 1,135 2,476 2,525
Of which
Solid biomass 1,069 946 1,236
Liquid biomass 66 1,530 1,290
Other biomass (e.g. waste incineration) 386 341 285
Total 2,514 3,757 3,750
Please note: Associates included proportionate to Essent share
42 Essent N.V. 2007 CSR Report

www.essent.eu
Essent biomass portfolio
2007
2006
1,432,132
68,440
37,051
260,404
1,065,180
1,057
2,601,491
1,496,040
60,227
172,144
750,680
112,400
outer shells of coffee beans, and are a waste product of
coffee production. They offer great potential as a means of
replacing fossil fuels in power stations. There is no downside
to this particular biomass flow: no trees need to be felled to
produce them, the husks are produced in a responsible
manner and do not form part of the food chain. In other
words, they are biological waste pure and simple, but with
a high calorific value. Working in partnership with a development
organisation called Solidaridad, we have now started
trials with the use of coffee husks as biomass. We buy the
husks from Brazilian farmers, who are paid a fair price for
them, based on the Fair Trade principles. Following an intensive
period of preparations in 2007, the first shipload of coffee
husks arrived in the Netherlands early in 2008. The husks
will be used in the Amer power station as a co-firing fuel in
the production of sustainable energy. Exactly how great a
proportion of the fuel intake they will be able to account for
should become clear during the course of 2008.
responsibility for the entire supply chain
CSR is all about accountability, about reporting on everything
we do and do not do, on all our products and services,
from the first to the last step. In other words, CSR covers
the entire supply chain. We cannot afford to bury our head
in the sand. By implication, we must be ready to account
to our customers, our staff, our shareholders, as well as to
interest groups and government organisations, at any time.
We must be ready to report on origins, environmental impact,
affordability, reliability, safety and the potential side-effects
of our products and services.
Because we are serious about our responsibility, we expect
our suppliers to meet high standards in turn. It is with good
reason that one of the provisions of our Code of Conduct
states that we expect our business partners to meet the same
standards we set for ourselves. The criteria our suppliers are
expected to meet are set out in detail in our Supplier Code
of Conduct. The main ingredients of this code are compliance
with laws, regulations and human rights, environmental
protection, integrity and transparency. This responsibility
for the entire supply chain applies across the board to all our
activities in relation to sustainability.
Our Supplier Code of Conduct (SCoC) has now become a
standard feature of all contracts with suppliers. We are planning
to publish a revised version of the code in 2008, which
will be aligned even more closely with our corporate policies.
The new version will include additional provisions on the
reduction of CO 2 emissions and energy conservation measures.
It will also include a compliance provision, under which
we will be entitled to check whether suppliers are indeed
operating in accordance with the code.
43 Essent N.V. 2007 CSR Report › Essent as a market player › Weighting sustainability

5
www.essent.eu

DILEMMA [ 5:1 ]
CSR means resolving
dilemmas
Given our responsibility for the entire
supply chain, what is our view, as a market
player, about the use of palm oil as biomass
In essence, it’s all about striking a balance
between financial and environmental
considerations.
Market player/Prot
[ 44/45 ]

www.essent.eu
palm oil: a special case
When we first started using biomass – mainly wood residues
at first – for producing green electricity at the end of the
previous century, we immediately designed a track-andtrace
system, not just to provide guarantees about the origins
of the biomass, but also to enable us to set specific sustainability
requirements. It was this system that formed the basis
for our Green Gold Standard Label.
The public response was enthusiastic. The new technology
appealed to the popular imagination, and the dedicated
biomass power station in Cuijk was hailed as a model of good
future practice.
The mood swung, however, when we started using palm oil
in the Claus power station to generate green electricity.
Palm oil was an excellent biofuel that was sold relatively
cheaply on the world market. We believed it would help us in
our mission to deliver green electricity for the price of conventional
power. In some quarters, however, concern was
expressed at the use of vegetable oil as a biofuel for cars and
power stations. Some commentators were against the use of
edible biomass, such as peanut, soybean and palm oil, in energy
production. In their view, such oils were part of the food
chain and should be used exclusively for eradicating famine
among the world’s poor. Other observers felt that the critical
question was where palm oil would cause the most lasting
damage: to society, nature or the environment Among the
topics debated in this connection were the felling of primeval
forests, the appropriation of vast tracts of land for palm-tree
plantations, the planting of trees in peat bogs, child labour
and the low wages paid to labourers.
We felt that these were valid arguments. Clearly, the biomass
imported by Western countries must be produced in
a sustainable manner. Whether it is used for the production
of drugs, shampoo, food, animal feed, chemicals or fuel, its
production may on no account be at the expense of people,
flora and fauna, and the environment in its country of origin.
Unilever already understood the problem. For many years
now, it has been importing large quantities of oils and fats
from a variety of countries. Together with the WWF, Unilever
therefore launched a forum known as the Roundtable on
Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) a few years ago. We joined the
Roundtable when we started using large quantities of palm
oil as biomass. We should point out that, in all cases, we still
prefer using waste products such as husks, shells, pulp residues,
skins, sawdust, wood cuttings and so on. These are all
waste products from existing agricultural production chains.
Apart from being cheaper, they do not compete with highervalue
chains such as the food production chain.
At the end of 2006, we stopped buying palm oil products
for co-firing in the Claus power station. There were two immediate
reasons for taking this decision: first, it was difficult
to find evidence to bear out the claim that palm-oil production
was indeed sustainable. Second, the chances of the
Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil reaching a successful
46 Essent N.V. 2007 CSR Report

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conclusion were beginning to look increasingly remote.
At the same time, we were loath to abandon palm oil entirely.
After all, the opportunities for moving further down the
road towards a sustainable energy supply are pretty few and
far between, so there is every reason for closely investigating
any opportunities that present themselves. We therefore
asked an external committee chaired by Professor Blok of
Utrecht University to resolve the deadlock by advising us on
the best course of action to take.
Professor Blok’s Committee presented its findings in June
2007. The Committee advised us not to abandon palm oil as
a fuel, as we were one of those who were in an ideal position
to press for the adoption of certification procedures for
sustainable palm oil. The Committee believed that a full certification
system could be put in place within five years. During
the intervening period, Essent could gradually start buying
larger and larger quantities of sustainable palm oil and palmoil
derivatives. The Committee suggested that we should buy
certified palm oil in increasingly large supplies, starting with
a minimum percentage of 20% in 2008 and gradually raising
this by 20% each year, enabling us to reach 100% in 2012.
We recently resolved to go one step further, however. We
have decided that, during the transition to 100% certification,
we will not be making use of uncertified palm oil. We will only
buy fully certified palm-oil products.
The findings of the Blok Committee pushed the debate on
palm oil in a new direction. Suddenly, things started moving
quickly, and the RSPO adopted a set of certification
criteria in November 2007. Various bodies are now working
on a worldwide certification and inspection system, and we
expect that the first RSPO-based certificates will be issued
during the course of 2008.
As a result, although we will not be co-firing any palm oil
in the Claus power plant for the time being, it is possible that
we may be able gradually to start buying RSPO-certified
palm-oil products in the autumn of 2008.
Palm oil is only the first form of liquid biomass flow for
which a certification system is now being designed. Similar
systems of sustainability certification have yet to be devised
for other oils, such as soybean oil, rapeseed oil, sunflower oil,
as well as other energy sources such as sugar cane and corn.
We are working hard in partnership with various other companies
to change this situation, and intend to open up our
Green Gold Standard Label to other suppliers in the future.
In addition, we have joined forces with other energy companies
and oil companies to devise a system of certification
of various other biomass flows. This is no easy task: whilst
we would much prefer to see the adoption of an international
standard, for the present there are not even any European
standards, let alone globally accepted guidelines. Recognising
the value of sustainable biomass, the Dutch government
is supporting us in this process.
As a result of the controversy surrounding the use of palm
oil (and also the ending of palm-oil grants, as we have
already mentioned elsewhere in this report), we were not
able to produce as much green electricity in 2007 as we were
in the previous year. We decided to import green electricity
to make up for the deficit and hence meet market demand.
However, this is not an option we like using, as imports do
very little to ‘green’ electricity production. A huge amount
still needs to be done if we are to produce 20% of our power
from sustainable sources in 12 years’ time. We will need to
investigate and test a large number of new technologies,
assessing not just their energy efficiency, but also their technical
feasibility, their sustainability and their affordability.
But energy production has also got to be financially viable.
We need to earn a profit so that we can operate on a sustainable
footing. After all, if part of your body is moving towards
sustainability, the rest of your body has to move in the same
direction, too.
47 Essent N.V. 2007 CSR Report › Essent as a market player › Weighting sustainability

Green Gold Standard Label
Monitoring sustainability in the value chain of agricultural/forestry products
Source
Agriculture/forestry
transport
Biomass producer
Processing
transport
Certicates
Sustainable source and production
checklist(s)
For overall shipment/lot: all checklists for
transport
sustainable source and production approved
as Green Gold Standard Label.
Storage
Port of loading
Cargo vessel
[yes]
Storage in country of origin
Loading onto cargo vessel
Seacrossing
Tracking & tracing
Sustainable transport checklist
Was the contracted cargo shipped and
received in good and clean order
[yes]
Are the samples of corresponding chemical
composition
[yes]
Market player/Prot

In 2002 Essent designed the
Green Gold Standard Label,
a method to guarantee the
sustainable origins of solid
biomass – such as wood, waste
and residual flows from the timber-processing
and agricultural
industries. With this, Essent
wants to prevent the biomass
that is required for the generation
of green electricity from
contributing to the destruction
of forests or damaging the
living environment. 48% of the
biomass used by Essent in 2007
was certified. The Green Gold
Standard Label is comparable to
other sustainability certificates
such as the Forest Stewardship
Council (FSC) quality mark.
In order to raise the label’s
profile among other users of
biomass, even more enterprises
will be invited to use it.
Unloading in the Netherlands
Transfer to power station
Green Gold Standard Label-certificate
awarded
[yes]
Generation of green electricity
Use of green electricity

Interviews
Johan
Maris
managing director of Control Union Certifications
Zwolle
Helma
Kip
Sustainable Energy Manager at Essent
Arnhem

Johan Maris
“CONTROL UNION IS A DUTCH CERTIFICATION FIRM, WHICH HAS RISEN TO PROMINENCE WITH
certification of organic farming. We are currently more focused on product certification,
including that of palm oil, which is why we are involved in the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm
Oil (RSPO). This is a set of principles and criteria for sustainable palm oil production adopted
by producers, distributors and users of palm oil. We are one of the certifying agencies assessing
whether the members of the Round Table comply with the principles and criteria. Now that
the first assessments are underway, we can expect the first sustainable palm oil shortly.
OBVIOUSLY, CERTIFICATION IS AN IMPORTANT TOOL TO FIND OUT WHETHER A PRODUCT IS TRULY
sustainably produced. And the energy sector plays a distinct role in this respect. The carbon
balance is a key factor in corroborating the sustainability claim of biofuels. Do the use of the
land and the production method, for instance, not create more carbon emissions than are
saved by firing biomass instead of coal An example: the use of peat land for palm oil plantations
did not initially play a role. But it is precisely the use of this land that produces more
carbon emissions than are saved. Now, the type of soil has become a criterion in sustainability
certification. Such questions are entirely irrelevant to other users of palm oil, such as the food
industry. We have the energy sector to thank for contributing to the scope of the sustainability
criteria.
MANY CERTIFICATION PROGRAMMES ARE PRODUCT-ORIENTED AND DO NOT FOCUS SPECIFICALLY
on sustainability throughout the chain. Local farmers look at their fields and not at the application
of their product; how can I earn the best living using my land Sustainability is less of
an issue for them. There are a lot of middlemen and many potential applications before a
product reaches the end user. Their product can be used as a biofuel, but is just as easily
applied in cosmetics or in the food industry. That’s why you can’t just say that demand for
biofuel pushes out food production. By certifying the entire chain you gain an understanding
of where products come from, who produces them and which middlemen do what.
IT WAS INEVITABLE THAT QUESTIONS WOULD ARISE ABOUT THE SUSTAINABILITY OF PALM OIL.
The world is a global village, so we know all about working methods in countries such as
Indonesia or Malaysia. If you cause damage to the environment by what you buy, you need to
change your buying habits. And you will be held accountable for what you do. This is a
responsibility that businesses will have to accept; they can manipulate producers by laying
down criteria for suppliers, thereby influencing sustainability throughout the chain. Businesses
are often better placed than governments to do that, so they have to accept this
responsibility. The same question involving sustainability also came into play with respect to
solid biomass such as wood. Thanks to the Green Gold label, we now know what’s sustainable
and what’s not. Essent pioneered this quality label. Without Essent, certification procedures
for biofuels in the Netherlands would have been far less developed than they are now.
I’M PLEASED THAT ESSENT IS WILLING TO FURTHER EXPLORE THE ISSUE OF SUSTAINABILITY.
The report published by the Blok Committee also lists a number of actions that go beyond the
RSPO criteria. In my opinion, Essent gives off an excellent signal by having decided of its own
accord to source 100% sustainably produced palm oil only from now on. But we have to
remember that no producer can satisfy this requirement at the present time. And there is great
demand for palm oil. In other words, you have to ask yourself whether you can rally the support
of the producers by demanding that palm oil should be 100% sustainable. Sustainable
production methods are not implemented overnight and require collaboration. It might be
more effective to gradually move towards sustainable production than to demand that all palm
oil be 100% sustainably produced from now on. This excludes parties that are still in the startup
phase. After all, producers need to be given the opportunity to comply with the new
requirements!”

Helma Kip
“ESSENT WAS ONE OF THE FIRST ENERGY COMPANIES TO START USING BIOMASS ON A LARGER
scale. We began to use it in the nineties. And we were quick to evaluate whether its origins
also satisfied our sustainability requirements. In doing so, we not only assessed the quality of
the biofuel, but we also, and more particularly, addressed the question of whether its cultivation,
extraction and transport were deserving of the label ‘sustainable’. With this in mind,
we launched the Essent Green Gold Standard Label in 2002. This label is highly suitable for
traceable solid biomass such as wood residues. The system allows us to trace this biomass
throughout the value chain: from its source to the power station. An independent inspectorate
monitors this process; this is how we know, on an ongoing basis, that our biomass is truly
sustainable and from ethical origins.
OUR BIOMASS CONSISTS PRIMARILY OF RESIDUAL MATTER, SUCH AS WOOD CUTTINGS, SAWDUST
and residual matter from agricultural production. A telling example is a recently started pilot
with coffee husks, a residual product from coffee cultivation. We will supply our first green
electricity from coffee husks in 2008. The use of residual matter reduces the burden on other
applications, but whether you use biomass to produce electricity, food, medicines or cosmetics,
you always need to ask yourself whether the biomass you import and use does not have an
adverse impact on the sustainability situation elsewhere. And in this context, sustainability not
only involves ecological assurances such as protecting primeval forests, but also respecting
human rights, preventing child labour and creating favourable social circumstances.
IN 2006, THESE ISSUES CAME RUSHING TO THE SURFACE WHERE PALM OIL WAS CONCERNED.
And now we see that biofuels are increasingly being scrutinised. We ceased our electricity
production from palm oil products when we were called to account for this sustainability issue
and felt we couldn’t come up with a satisfactory answer, despite the fact that we mostly used
residual products of the oil palm (fatty acids). Obviously, we’re not the only company using
palm oil and we already contacted other users at an early stage in hopes of finding a quick
answer to the question of how sustainable the use of palm oil products actually is.
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is a forum where large users of vegetable
fats, such as Unilever, come together to discuss this issue. Essent is a member of the RSPO
as well. Unfortunately, the sustainability of palm oil proved not as easy to demonstrate as we
had hoped. As an energy company, we have to be able to guarantee, however, that the carbon
reductions we claim to achieve are not being cancelled out elsewhere in the chain, e.g. due
to logging or cultivation of peatlands.
TO EXPEDITE A SOLUTION, WE DECIDED TO HAVE A SURVEY OF OUR OWN CONDUCTED IN 2007,
reviewing the question of whether palm oil could be certified. Although this proved to be
possible, it will be some time before certification is realistically feasible.
At the end of 2007, we decided to use only 100% sustainable palm oil products for generating
electricity. Since such certified palm oil is not available at present as producers have yet to
adjust to the different sustainability criteria, we’re currently no longer sourcing any palm oil
products for our sustainable electricity production. I expect the first sustainable palm oil to
become available at the end of 2008.
IN THE INTERIM, WE’RE WORKING HARD, IN TANDEM WITH OTHER ENERGY AND TRADING
companies, to allow the application of sustainability criteria to other biomass flows as well.”
JOHAN MARIS
HELMA KIP

particularly to those companies that are interested in making the transition to a sustain -
able energy supply. They’ve got to make sure, after all, that the change is permanent.
Biofuels like palm oil have vital roles to play in this process. The main reason for using
biofuels is their ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, this does not of
course justify any damage they cause to the environment or the appropriation of land that
would otherwise be used for food production. These are factors that any company using
palm oil for energy production purposes needs to take into account. The same applies,
incidentally, to other users of palm oil, even though these may not immediately spring to
mind – such as manufacturers of shampoo, cosmetics or food fats. They, too, have a
KORNELIS BLOK
NICO ROOZEN
Kornelis Blok
“ANY COMPANY THAT USES BIOMASS HAS A SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY. THIS APPLIES
responsibility to ensure that their raw materials have been produced in a sustainable
manner.
WHILST COMPANIES THEMSELVES ARE PRIMARILY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MATERIALS THEY
use, the government does of course have a role to play, too. The government, after all, can
do things that firms can’t. For example, the damage caused to food supplies, the felling of
forests and poor working conditions are all important issues in relation to palm oil. This is
not a matter of checking whether individual suppliers are good employers or whether a new
plantation of young trees is planted after a forest has been felled. No, these are issues
that need to be addressed at a regional – or even global – level. A regional or global system
for monitoring biofuels, for example, could track the impact of palm oil production on the
environment and food supplies. Clearly, this is beyond the reach of an individual company.
The government has a role to play here, both as a coordinator and in reining in those companies
that do not wish to submit themselves to voluntary monitoring.
THE DUTCH GOVERNMENT HAS TRADITIONALLY PLAYED A PRO-ACTIVE ROLE IN SETTING UP
certification systems for sustainability. The Cramer Committee, for example, has done a
tremendous amount of good work in this connection. However, it’s important to harmonise
systems with other countries, and not to make things too complicated. We need to prevent a
situation from arising in which ten different certification systems are in operation in Europe.
Europe already has a whole raft of grant schemes, but sustainability criteria for biomass do
not play a part in these. They have been incorporated, however, in the new grant scheme
recently adopted in the Netherlands. Grant schemes should not be designed in such a way
as to preclude the use of biofuels. Assuming that there is a broad set of sustainability criteria
and a good certification system, and that biofuels can offer a high energy efficiency per
hectare, there’s every reason for taking a long, hard look at them. Palm oil is just such a
fuel. Apart from coming with a good environmental record, it can also satisfy sustainability
criteria applying to the entire production chain.
WHILST WE RECOGNISE THE TREMENDOUS VALUE OF THE ROUNDTABLE ON SUSTAINABLE
Palm Oil (RSPO) as a system for guaranteeing the sustainability of palm oil, our own report
goes a step further in its recommendations. The fact is that you need to take account of the
CO 2 balance and the impact of palm oil on food production. You’ve also got to guarantee
that any rise in the demand for palm oil will not lead to a further loss of tropical rainforest
for the purpose of planting new plantations. Clearly, it is not easy to keep track of this
aspect. It’s important to build up close contacts with trading partners. Producers can also
raise their output by making use of land that’s lying fallow or by boosting the output of
existing plantations. These two options still have a huge amount of mileage in them, which
is why we have advised Essent to look closely at them.
ESSENT’S DECISION TO SWITCH IMMEDIATELY TO SUSTAINABLY PRODUCED PALM OIL IS
entirely understandable, in the light both of the company’s social responsibility and of the
controversy that has surrounded the use of palm oil. Having said that, it would have been
entirely reasonable for Essent to switch gradually to sustainably produced palm oil. After
all, for the present only a very small amount of palm oil has actually been certified as having
been sustainably produced. With hindsight, Essent should perhaps have acted more
quickly, learning from past experience with the certification of solid biomass such as wood.
There’s only one option if there are doubts about the sustainability of biofuel in the value
chain, and that’s certification. Although Essent is now pioneering the certification of palm
oil and leading the way in terms of the demands it requires suppliers to meet, it must remain
on the alert whenever new fuels appear on the market.”

Nico Roozen
“IF A FIRM CLAIMS TO BE ACTING IN A SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE WAY IN RELATION TO THE
sustainability of a particular product, for example, it must be able to substantiate this claim
to the satisfaction of society at large. In other words, there has got to be a set of impartial
standards, resulting in a clearly defined code of conduct. The next step is transparency
throughout the production chain, so that an independent third party can assess sustainability
at all points of the chain.
A code of conduct may be described as impartial if it is the result of a process of dialogue with
all the stakeholders, i.e. producers, customers, lobby groups and, where appropriate, government
bodies.
SOME FIRMS MAY NEED TO ACT AS PIONEERS, AS ESSENT DID WHEN IT INTRODUCED THE
Essent Green Gold Standard (EGGS) for solid biomass. The problem was that no system of
certification was in operation when Essent decided to start using solid biomass. The company
then took a calculated risk by formulating a standard of its own. That’s what pioneering is all
about. Whilst we welcome this move, Essent must be willing to open up its standard to others
and also to contemplate the possibility of the standard being subsumed in a new national or
international code. It’s gratifying to see that this is indeed the attitude taken by Essent. It
would be great to see the EGGS being incorporated into a generally accepted set of standards
in a few years’ time.
THE ROUNDTABLE ON SUSTAINABLE PALM OIL (RSPO) IS A GOOD EXAMPLE OF THE WAY
in which a certification system could come about. Essent is an active member of the RSPO,
together with other palm oil users and products, as well as NGOs.
IT’S ABSOLUTELY VITAL THAT THE VARIOUS STAKEHOLDERS TAKE EACH OTHER SERIOUSLY
and show understanding for each other’s views. Companies should not regard sustainability
simply as a form of window-dressing, whilst lobby groups must in turn recognise that
compliance with a code of conduct has got to be commercially viable. After all, any company’s
primary aim is to make a profit and hence safeguard its own future. Although this is something
we respect, we do believe at the same time that the word ‘profit’ has more than just a
financial meaning. We prefer to use the term ‘social profit’, as it allows us to take account of
the actual social and ecological cost. In other words, the aim of certification should be to
match the maximum social profit with the minimum system cost.
THE PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN OUR TWO ORGANISATIONS, ESSENT AND SOLIDARIDAD, HAS BEEN
highly constructive. This applies, for example, to Essent’s decision to use coffee husks
imported from Brazil: we worked together in formulating the relevant standards and Solidaridad
paved the way for Essent to purchase the husks it needs in a way that will also give local
producers a fair price for their produce.”

Kornelis
Blok
chairman of the Blok Committee and
Professor of Science, Technology and Society
Utrecht University
Nico
Roozen
director of Solidaridad
Utrecht

www.essent.eu
Essent as an employer
a dedicated workforce
Firms that mean business about their corporate social responsibility
also mean business about the health, safety and
welfare of their staff. There are simply no two ways about it.
And it is not just because staff are entitled to good working
conditions, a pleasant working atmosphere and plentiful
career opportunities. Nor is it because companies that have
a reputation for taking good care of their staff make a better
impression on their customers. It is also because the People
who bear the brunt of a company’s social responsibility are of
course its staff.
Our workforce of over 10,000 people in the Netherlands,
Belgium and Germany represent an equal number of potential
ambassadors. If we include their friends and relatives in
the equation, the sum total is an army of supporters and wellwishers
that would not even fit in the three largest football
stadiums in the country. This is an opportunity we would
very much like to seize. But we can do so only if we have a
dedicated workforce that backs us up everywhere they go:
at work, in the street, in pubs, at parties, at sports clubs and
wherever else they may find themselves.
Dedication hinges on the quality of work, development
opportunities, leadership styles, the way in which people
are remunerated and good, safe working conditions. Every
year, we improve our performance in each of these respects.
Judging by the findings of the Essent employee survey held
at the end of 2007, we are now scoring above the Dutch
national average. Having said this, given that we aspire to
become one of the leading players on the market, there is no
time to sit around and rest on our laurels.
more diversity needed
In order to wield influence in the world around us, we ourselves
need to reflect the composition of the society in which
we operate. Unfortunately, this is not something we have
achieved yet. We are keen to employ more young people,
more people from ethnic backgrounds and more women. In
other words, we would like our workforce to be more diverse.
Having said that, things are steadily changing. Step by step,
we are moving towards a better balance in the composition
of our workforce. Women are our first target. Recognising
that change does not happen of its own accord, we are
now taking action to recruit more women and increase the
number of women in managerial positions. This also means
getting more women into senior management.
At the same time, we continue of course to do all we can
to recruit and retain highly qualified technical and IT staff.
Similarly, our skills development and training programmes
continue unabated, as do our attempts to promote a healthy,
safe working environment. However, we can only make rapid
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Main Essent business locations
in the Netherlands,
including number of employees
Groningen 620
Wijster 288
Provincial Essent shareholders
Zwolle 724
Hengelo OV 236
Arnhem 294
’s-Hertogenbosch 2,577
Geertruidenberg 380
Weert 362
Roermond 365
Landgraaf 207
progress by setting certain priorities. And diversity is one of
them. This chapter examines the opportunities and threats
facing us in this connection, both internal and external.
workforce at a glance
At Essent 10,223 people are employed (FTes, excluding
Essent Kabelcom) Essent was formed by the amalgamation
of a large number of local and provincial utility companies in
the northern, eastern and southern parts of the Netherlands.
These origins are still reflected by the towns in which our
offices are located and the places where the bulk of our
staff live. During the period since our inception, however,
our market has extended to cover the whole of the country,
as well as Germany, Belgium and even Switzerland (since
2007). Our five largest places of business are in the towns
of Den Bosch (2,577 FTes), Zwolle (724 FTes), Groningen
(620 FTes), Geertruidenberg (380 FTes) and Roermond
(365 FTes). We have 294 people working in our head office
in Arnhem. Essent staff live all over the country. Some 68%
of our staff do not live in the town where they work.
staff inflow and outflow
In 2007 the inflow rate of our own staff was 11.3%, compared
with 13.0% in 2006. This slight decrease is due in part to the
recruitment freeze affecting certain jobs that was announced
at the time of the merger talks with Nuon. The outflow rate
of ‘own staff’ was 6.3% in 2007, compared with 5.4% in 2006.
The slight rise was caused primarily by staff leaving of their
own accord. Some were unwilling to await the outcome of
the merger talks with Nuon (fearing a reorganisation and a
redeployment of company staff) and decided to pursue their
careers with another employer.
average age
There was a slight rise in the average age of Essent staff,
which went from 40 in 2006 to 41 in 2007. By way of comparison,
the average age of the working population in the
Netherlands is 39 (CPB, 2002).
Incidentally, there are wide differences in average ages
between the various business units. For example, the
average age of staff employed in Production is 47, whereas
the average age at Service & Sales and also at Essent
Trading is 35.
loyalty
Staff tend to remain with us for a long time, the length of
service averaging 14.5 years. In fact, 25% of our staff have
been with us for more than 25 years. These figures place us
well above the national average of 9 years (CBS, 2001).
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diversity
Although, on average, 27% of our workforce are women,
the figures vary considerably from one business unit to
another. The more technically oriented business units have
traditionally been male-dominated domains, with the
proportion of female staff being well below the average
(i.e. 4% at Production and 17% at Essent Networks). The
work performed by Service & Sales is of a more clerical and
commercial nature, and the percentage of female staff employed
there is higher than average, at 52%. The percentage
of managerial posts held by women is 14%.
Women are represented most prominently in the under-30
age bracket at Essent, and are actually in the majority in
the 20-25 age bracket. The proportion of women gradually
declines as from the age of 30, with only a handful of women
in the 55-plus age bracket. Only 12% of our male staff work
part-time, compared to 46% of our female staff.
permanent and temporary contracts
Ninety percent of our own staff are employed on a permanent
basis, i.e. under contracts of indefinite duration. In 2007,
42 people were employed under work-experience contracts
and 131 trainees spent their internships with us.
absenteeism due to illness
The absenteeism rate at Essent was 4.3% in 2007. As the
comparable figure for the previous year was 4.2%, this means
that there was a limited rise in the absenteeism rate in 2007.
The difference is too modest, however, for us to be able to
identify a single cause. The absenteeism rate at Essent
remains lower than the average for the energy industry as
a whole (4.9% - CBS, 2004).
complaints and problems
A total of 15 formal complaints were made to our confidential
staff counsellors in 2007. Four of these were referred to the
Grievance Committee, which subsequently declared one
of them inadmissible. The Grievance Committee reached a
decision on all the cases submitted to it, including a case
instigated in 2006, which meant that rulings were given on a
total of five cases in 2007.
employer of choice
Everyone likes getting a word of praise from time to time.
We do our best to be perceived as an attractive employer and
thankfully our efforts are rewarded with praise. For example,
our management traineeship programme, which has
proved very popular among job-seekers, was ranked second
in the contest for the Best Traineeship Programme in 2007.
An annual survey performed by a weekly magazine called
Intermediair ranked us among the country’s top-20 leading
employers, citing our pay and fringe benefits as being the
16th best in the country. A leading Dutch daily named us as
the Best Employer of 2007, whilst our ICT Department was
proclaimed Top ICT Employer of 2007 by the CRF market
research agency. Naturally, we are extremely proud of all
these titles. Moreover, with a ‘war for talent’ raging on the
job market, they are also extremely useful marketing tools.
Workforce diversity, male/female, at Essent in 2007
Total Essent
Head office
Corporate support departments/
Essent Support Group
Business Development
Projects
Generation
Essent Trading
Service & Sales
Value Added Services
Deutsche Essent
Networks
Waste Management
10,010
1,412
404
43
65
612
209
2,348
331
25
3,951
610
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The DART rate explained DART rate = (number of DART-cases : total number of worked hours) x 200,000
Our safety record is expressed in the form of a DART rate. The word DART is short for Days Away, Restricted or Transferred, i.e. it reflects the
number of accidents or incidents that cause staff to take time off from work or which result in changes in their jobs for every 200,000 hours worked.
The figures cover our own staff as well as staff employed by contractors. The definition originates form the US Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA). We have chosen to adopt the internationally accepted OSHA 18001 standard as the basis for our system of accident
registration and safety management. By taking this approach, we can compare our own safety record with that of other companies. The DART rate
also forms the basis for the targets that our directors and operational managers are required to meet. Alongside the DART rate, we also keep record
of other data giving information on other types of incidents and accidents (such as minor incidents in which first aid is given), as well as reports
of unsafe behaviour and situations.
In fact, things are moving so fast on the job market that the
shortage of certain categories of staff, particularly people
with technical qualifications, is becoming increasingly acute.
Against this background, we are keen to do our very utmost
to match supply and demand, without making any concessions
to quality. We need to attract and retain highly qualified
staff, entice young people to come and work for us and boost
the number of women in our service. In other words, there is
no time for us to sit back and rest on our laurels as we enjoy
the flush of success. We need to work, day in, day out, on our
image in the job market. We need to raise our brand awareness,
make sure we stand out from the competition and
project self-assurance and confidence.
HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORK
safety takes precedence
Our Code of Conduct makes no bones about it: “We guarantee
healthy and safe working conditions for our staff.” There
are no riders, qualifications or promises to try as hard as
we can: It is a guarantee pure and simple. Health and safety
is a corporate responsibility resting on all our shoulders.
Obviously, the Executive Board is responsible for formulating
policy, and equally obviously, the management has to make
sure that this policy is put into effect. However, the policy can
be effective only if we all comply with the rules and regulations
and remain constantly alert – not just at work, but also
on our way to and from work. The mission statement formulated
for our HSE policy (Health, Safety and the Environment)
represents a full endorsement of this principle: “Every member
of staff should return home safe and healthy at the end of
the day.” Although there is a great deal the company can do
in this respect by pursuing effective policies, at the end
of the day it is individual members of staff who get caught up
in traffic congestion on their way home or who make a dash
for a train in a crowded railway station. The same thing
applies to safety helmets: they only work if people actually
put them on. In other words, an effective HSE policy is the
joint responsibility of management and all individual members
of staff, irrespective of their organisational roles. The
overriding aim is, in fact, very simple: we want to prevent all
industrial accidents. This we wish to achieve by becoming
one of the leading energy companies in terms of staff safety.
An added benefit of an effective HSE policy is that it helps
staff to work better and more effectively. It boosts staff
efficiency, and that’s good news, for both us and our staff.
the figures speak for themselves
Our aim is to become one of the best-performing energy
companies in northwest Europe by the end of 2008, with
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a DART rate of 0.80. The results of a European safety baseline
survey performed by a firm of outside auditors (Det Norske
Veritas) in 2007 show that we are well on the way to achieving
our aim.
Our DART rate for 2007 (based on approximately 31 million
hours worked) was 0.97. This includes hours worked by
outside contractors. We have devoted considerable attention
to the latter aspect, given that our contractors’ safety record
in 2006 was not as good as ours. The target we had set ourselves
for 2007 was a DART rate of 1.0. As in the year before,
we scored better than the target and, again as in 2006, we are
pleased to report that no fatal accidents took place in 2007.
HIGHLIGHTS OF 2007
HSE Award
We founded the HSE Award in 2006 as a means of raising
safety-awareness among our staff. The award comes with a
cheque for 5,000 euros, which the winner is required
to spend on a good cause. In 2007, the HSE Award was presented
to the Production business unit, for a new type of
risk analysis performed prior to starting up power stations.
HSE and Mobility Campaign
The aim of this ongoing campaign is to reduce the amount
of time spent on meetings and travel, and to encourage staff
to make greater use of public transport and to drive safely.
‘pump up those tyres’
The aim of this pilot project is to sensitise staff to the consequences
of low tyre pressure: the car uses 2 to 5 percent
more fuel, there is a greater risk of accidents and the tyres
themselves suffer more wear and tear.
winter tyres
All staff were invited to order special winter tyres for their
cars at a discount. The scheme does not cover company cars
(including leased cars), as these have already been fitted
with winter tyres.
Den Bosch Section of A2 Motorway Project
The 15 largest companies in the Den Bosch region, including
Essent, joined forces with the local Chamber of Commerce,
the Ministry of Public Works, local and regional authorities
and employers’ associations to find a solution to the problem
of rampant congestion on the local stretch of the A2 motorway.
The aim is to improve road access to the local region.
safety kits
With effect from 2007, all staff driving leased cars are issued
with safety kits.
Michiel Boersma, Chairman of the Executive Board,
presents the HSE Award 2007 to the winning team of
the Generation business unit. The 5,000 euros were spent
on the restoration of St. Bavo’s Church in Raamsdonk.
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policy on alcohol and drugs
A new code of conduct on alcohol and drugs came into force
on 1 May 2007. Our policy consists not just of strictly regulating
the use of alcohol and drugs, but also emphasises the
individual responsibility of staff in this respect. It is not just a
matter of each person controlling his or her own behaviour,
but also of their being willing to call colleagues to account
for their actions.
WHAT DO OUR STAFF THINK
ABOUT US
annual survey
We have been conducting annual Essent employee surveys
since 2003, with the assistance of a firm called TowersPerrin-
ISR. Staff are asked to complete a questionnaire containing
around 100 questions about the company’s long-term
strategy and management style, their sense of loyalty to the
company, communications, their future expectations, pay
and fringe benefits, team spirit, etc. From the outset, the response
to the survey has been enthusiastic, with the take-up
rate consistently higher than 70%. In 2007, 77% of the workforce
completed the survey.
The survey findings show that, year-on-year since 2003, staff
perceptions of Essent have steadily become more positive.
For the first time this year, the scores awarded for all aspects
surveyed were either equal to or higher than the Dutch
national average. With the exception of the BU Value Added
Services and Essent Trading, all business units returned
significantly improved scores on the previous year. Deutsche
Essent and Essent Belgium both performed very well, too.
For this reason, we are planning to set our sights even
higher next year. In the light of our aspiration to become a
leading company, our benchmark will no longer be the Dutch
national average, but the average score for ‘leading Dutch
companies’. The 2007 survey findings make crystal-clear
where improvements are needed in order to score on a par
with leading Dutch companies. This is in areas such as staff
loyalty, identification with the company’s long-term strategy
and management style, reputation, trust and integrity. Each
year, the survey findings are used to set the following year’s
targets. The target set for 2007 was to enhance staff development
opportunities (in terms of training) throughout the
entire company.
The main topic of debate in 2007 was of course the plans announced
by the Minister of Economic Affairs to separate the
networks from the energy companies. Frequent and lengthy
meetings were held with the Central Works Council on this
threat, and on the impact it would have both on the energy
supply industry in general, and on Essent in particular.
The Central Works Council decided to take action of its own,
joining a campaign mounted by the National Platform of
Energy Company Works Councils to oppose the Minister’s
plans. In the end, sadly, we were unable to persuade the
Minister to shelve her plans. The question of the separation
of the networks from the energy companies will be a topic of
further debate in 2008, as this is when preparations will need
to be made for what is set to be a massive operation.
lots of meetings last year
At the beginning of the year, we presented the Central Works
Council with our plans for the takeover of Westland Energie
Services BV. The Council advised us to go ahead with the
acquisition. During the same period, plans were also announced
for a merger with Nuon and the Council was asked
for its opinion on the merger. Frequent, intensive consultations
were held with all the various staff consultative bodies
here at Essent, and these continued until the talks with Nuon
were broken off.
Other topics of debate with the Central Works Council included
the company’s HSE policy, the corporate strategy,
the relocation of certain parts of Essent Trading to Geneva,
the reorganisation of the BU Service & Sales, and the sale of
Essent Domestiq Services BV.
STAFF PARTICIPATION
IN DECISION-MAKING
constructive dialogue
Staff participation at Essent is all about having a say in decisions
and representing staff interests in decisions affecting
the organisation as a whole. It is all about ensuring that our
staff are closely involved in all major developments affecting
the company, and feel free to say what they think in an
atmosphere of constructive dialogue.
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6
www.essent.eu

DILEMMA [ 6:1 ]
But here is
our dilemma as
an employer:
Women are seriously underrepresented at
management level. How can we change this
situation such that the composition of our
management is a more accurate reflection
of the society to which we supply energy
[ 56/57 ]
Employer/People

www.essent.eu
it is hard to change a centuries-old tradition
For more than 150 years now, the Dutch energy industry
has been a white male bastion. Not that this is particularly
surprising. When the energy companies were founded in
the mid-19th century, working women were a virtually unknown
phenomenon (with the exception of cleaning ladies).
Because of the dominance of engineering and technology
(which continued until the contours of a free energy market
began to emerge), it was ‘jobs for boys only’ throughout this
period. The fact is that there were no women engineers to
employ.
Invariably, energy companies were controlled and run by
engineers, who occupied all the posts, even those that did
not require any specialist technical expertise. The company
managers were engineers: that was the rule. And those engineers
were men, men who wanted their subordinates also
to be engineers, preferably ones who had attended a college
of technical education. Again, they would have been men.
The lowest echelon in the company consisted of young men
from junior technical schools. There may have been one or
two exceptions from the rule, but this, basically, was the
general picture in the industry. It also applied to Essent’s
predecessor companies. Not surprisingly, 150 years of male
domination have left their mark on the company.
Women account for 27% of Essent’s workforce. The percentage
falls to 14% in the case of managerial positions, and
to 12.5% in the case of senior executive posts (both managerial
and non-managerial). These are low figures compared
with other Dutch companies. Vedior, for example, boasts a
58% female participation rate, with Wolters Kluwer following
in its wake on 44%, Fortis on 30% and KPN on 20%. With
a national average of 7%, the Netherlands is not one of the
leading lights in the international arena in terms of the ratio
of senior managerial posts occupied by women. Norway
(32%), Sweden (24%), Bulgaria (21%) and Latvia (21%) all
perform better.
In short, the stats are not good. But how urgent is the need
for change at Essent
greater diversity urgently required
Research shows that diversity fosters a spirit of enterprise,
raises the quality of decision-making and generates higher
profits. More diversity also means a better response to
customer demand and a greater chance of attracting and
retaining talented staff. But why
better performance and a better atmosphere at work
The presence of women in the workforce means decisions
are given more careful consideration, and it also means a
more pleasant atmosphere. Female qualities such as an ability
to listen well, motivate other people and hedge one’s bets
are needed to counterbalance typically male characteristics
such as a desire to dominate, rivalry and pragmatism. As a
further argument, over half of all university graduates these
days are women, and this figure is only likely to rise in the
future. On average, women perform better than men in higher
education. In other words, greater diversity also means
bringing more talented staff into the workforce. Finally, a
range of studies and investment analyses have also shown
that companies managed by women earn substantially
higher profits than companies with all-male boards.
For Essent in particular, there are two further reasons for
increasing the proportion of women in the workforce. Firstly,
in the majority of households, it is the woman who chooses
the energy supplier. As the proportion of women working for
us grows, so we will acquire a more female outlook, encouraging
female consumers to identify more closely with our
product offering.
Secondly, raising the proportion of women in our workforce
will help us form a better reflection of the society around us.
This should boost public support for our activities in pursuit
of sustainability and place us in a better position to strike the
right balance between People, Planet, Profit and Power.
As a final consideration, more women means more fun and
more excitement. So what are we waiting for
a formidable challenge
Unfortunately, raising the diversity of our staff is not simply
a question of a rubber stamp from the Board. Whilst it is true
that a Board decision is needed to set the whole process in
58 Essent N.V. 2007 CSR Report

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motion, the fact is that senior managers must themselves
be in favour of greater diversity and must be ready to actively
spread the message throughout the company.
The next step is a culture change: diversity has got to become
an issue that exercises the minds of staff throughout
the company. Managers must be prepared to change working
methods in their departments to accommodate the differences
between the sexes. This is not just about differences
in style and attitude, but also about different views on the
work-life balance. It also means accepting the fact that many
female staff are mothers (or want to become mothers) and,
as a consequence, being prepared to alter ingrained habits
and company regulations. Clearly, this is something that
takes both time and goodwill.
a special task force
In order to set the process of change in motion and retain its
momentum, the Executive Board acted on a proposal from
Women’s Energy (WE), the company’s internal women’s
network, and set up a special task force. The task force was
given the job of mustering staff support for diversity, defining
clear, objective targets and formulating a series of permanent
measures.
The first job of the task force, whose membership broadly
reflects the company’s management, including the Executive
Board, will be to formulate a diversity policy and define
a number of measurable objectives. Two possible objectives
might be: the outflow rate for female managers should not
be higher than the comparable figure for male managers,
and women should account for 20% of the top-100 senior
managers at Essent within a period of three to five years.
a long haul
We are keen to learn from successful action already taken by
other companies with a view to bringing about the requisite
culture change. Women’s Energy, the network of female staff
launched in 2006, will play a key role in raising the proportion
of women in our workforce. Other tools we are planning
to use include behavioural training for managers and new
tools for communicating with job-seekers. Creating a sense
of urgency by deploying ambassadors and organising ‘theme
days’ is another important part of the mix.
There are no two ways about it: Essent will be employing
more women in the future. The change will not come
overnight. Instead, it will be a matter of plugging away over a
long period of time. Aware as we are of our male-dominated
history, we realise that it’s going to be a long and difficult
process. At the same time, it will also be a lot of fun – an
interesting, surprising, exciting and colourful ride.
59 Essent N.V. 2007 CSR Report › Essent as an employer › Diversity in development

Essent Employee Survey
Development measured
Better score
2007
2006
2005
2004
2007
2006
2005
2004
than last year
Expectations
for the future
Vision &
Management Style
2007
2006
2005
2004
2007
2006
2005
2004
Role Support
Communications
Same score
as last year
2007
2006
2005
2004
2007
2006
2005
2004
Focus on Customer
and Deliverables
Trust &
Integrity
2007
2006
2005
2004
Salary & Benets
Employer/People

2007
2006
2005
2004
2007
2006
2005
2004
2007
2006
2005
2004
2007
2006
2005
2004
2007
2006
2005
2004
2007
2006
2005
2004
2007
2006
2005
2004
2007
2006
2005
2004
IRS-Dutch National Benchmark
Essent has conducted the taken in previous years, Essent
Essent Employee Survey annually
since 2003. This instrument for the first time since 2003,
beat the National Benchmark
is used to keep the finger on the virtually across the board.
pulse of organisational improvement.
In addition to com-
itself against the Benchmark
Now Essent is ready to measure
paring its own scores throughout
the years, Essent also uses Essent outperforms the national
for Leading Dutch Companies.
the National Benchmark, the average in all areas addressed
average performance of 50 in the Employee Survey, gradually
climbing towards the status
Dutch enterprises, to see how it
measures up. Thanks to a range of top performer.
of improvement measures
than last year

Interviews
Monic
Bührs
author of Stratego for Women
director of In Touch Women Resource Management B.V.
Limmen
Marie-Christine
Osterop
programme manager at Essent Service & Sales
member of the Women’s Energy Essent N.V.
Arnhem

Monic Bührs
“SO WHY ARE THERE SO FEW WOMEN IN MANAGEMENT JOBS IN THE NETHERLANDS WELL,
to a certain extent, it has to do with Dutch culture: ambitious women attract criticism from
other women, particularly when they combine work with a family. This often leaves them
with a sense of guilt. To a certain extent, too, it’s a consequence of the country’s prosperity:
many women simply have no financial need to go out and earn money for themselves.
Another important reason is that women don’t make enough choices. You can’t have everything.
If you consciously decide to give priority to a professional career, you’ve got to realise
that this decision has all sorts of consequences, such as for your private life.
Moreover, because women place a higher value on enjoying their work than men, they tend to
concentrate more on the content-side of their jobs and make more sideways moves than men.
Successful men, on the other hand, tend to follow a more logical, vertical line in their careers.
And because men are often the ones in positions of power, CVs showing a lot of sideways
moves don’t always make a great impression in job interviews.
The fact that many women find it difficult to talk about pay during job interviews is another
disadvantage. Male interviewers may conclude that their interviewee is probably a poor
business negotiator.
ANOTHER FACTOR IS THAT, ALTHOUGH ORGANISATIONS CLAIM TO VALUE ‘TYPICALLY FEMALE’
competences such as good communication skills, empathy and interpersonal skills, when
a woman displays these competences, they are seen as intrinsically female characteristics
rather than as qualities in themselves. For example, a male manager who sends a get-well
card to a member of his staff who is off sick from work is regarded as being considerate.
However, a female manager who does the same thing is simply regarded as displaying ‘normal’
behaviour.
FINALLY, WOMEN ARE GENERALLY LESS GOOD AT RECOGNISING AND OBSERVING THE MANY
rules, both written and unwritten, within organisations. Whether it’s a matter of networking
or putting yourself in the picture, learning how to ‘play the game’ is a genuine competence
that women with ambition need to acquire.
There are, of course, no hard-and-fast rules, but I believe that women will need to occupy at
least 25% of all management posts before they gain sufficient critical mass to be able to alter
the rules of the game in a meaningful way.
IN OTHER WORDS, THERE ARE LOTS OF ‘SOFT’ FACTORS THAT PLAY A ROLE IN RELATION TO THIS
issue and these all require a great deal of thought. This is also why the problem has proved
so hard to resolve.
I WELCOME THE FACT THAT A WOMEN’S NETWORK WAS SET UP IN ESSENT IN 2006 – WITH THE
full support of senior management – and that one of the network’s aims is to foster diversity in
the company. I also applaud Essent’s decision to adopt a strategic policy on diversity as from
2008. At the same time, it is clear from experience in other organisations that have already
done a lot to make life easier for female staff that, in the end, it is up to the women themselves
to make a difference.
WHICH IS WHY I OFTEN SAY: LADIES, LET’S STOP MOANING AND START MAKING CHOICES.
Let’s learn the rules and play the game. We may even enjoy it!”

Marie-Christine Osterop
“TO ME, IT’S IMPORTANT THAT A TEAM’S COMPOSITION IS AS DIVERSE AS POSSIBLE. I’M NOT ONLY
interested in the male/female ratio, but also in aspects such as age and personality profiles.
After all, people tend to want to surround themselves with clones of themselves. Larger diversity
brings out more perspectives, which is good for the decision-making process.
I REGISTERED FOR WOMEN’S ENERGY BECAUSE I FEEL THERE’S SOME WORK TO DO AT ESSENT
with regard to diversity. Women’s Energy has been active since 2006 as a women’s network
within Essent and is intended for women who’ve already taken a number of career steps.
The network currently has about 25 members. Although we’re still toying with the form, my
first experiences with the network are positive. It isn’t a bunch of moaning women, but a club
of colleagues who inspire each other and can learn from each other.
What’s also positive in my opinion is that Essent’s top management offers Women’s Energy the
room to develop as a network and takes us seriously. Early in 2008, for instance, we managed
to convince the Executive Board to place diversity on the executive agenda. One of the resulting
initiatives was the formation of a broadly based task force that will make proposals to
increase diversity within Essent. Essent also decided to become a member of Opportunity in
Bedrijf, an organisation for the promotion of diversity in business. Finally, the Executive Board
promised to focus more on hiring women in managerial positions.
I MUST SAY THAT, BEING A WOMAN, I NEVER FELT TREATED DIFFERENTLY THAN MEN AT ESSENT,
but I do think that women in general operate differently than men. You often see – and
I recognise myself here – that women are mostly concerned with the content of their job and
want to achieve concrete results, and are less agile when it comes to networking and
corporate politics, aspects that do matter at Essent. I, for one, sometimes forget to communicate
a good result that I’ve achieved, not only to my principal, but also in a more organisationwide
context.
Perhaps Essent will become less politically driven in the future, but for the time being our
corporate culture is something that we just have to deal with. If women find this hard to
handle, they should probably take up the glove and do something about it. This applies to a lot
of issues in my opinion: stop complaining, and take constructive action.
THAT’S WHERE THE INITIATIVES OF WOMEN’S ENERGY COME IN: WE HAVE FAITH THAT ESSENT
is serious about increasing the diversity of its staff base, and we are only too happy to help
facilitate and, where possible, accelerate this process.
ESPECIALLY AT ESSENT, WHERE WE HAVE SEEN MANY A REORGANISATION, THERE ARE PLENTY
of ‘right’ moments to change the make-up of teams so that they become more diverse. What it
comes down to now is that we seize these opportunities when they present themselves!”
MONIC BÜHRS
MARIE-CHRISTINE OSTEROP

“UP UNTIL 2007 ESSENT WAS NOT REALLY CONCERNED WITH THE SPECIFIC POSITION OF ITS
ANOUK RASENBERG
Anouk Rasenberg
female staff, although there were some ad hoc initiatives, for instance within the framework
of the War for Talent campaign, when some attention was given, for instance, to providing
more job flexibility, a topic that is relevant to many women because of the work/life balance.
The initiatives included facilitating working from home and introducing flexible work hours.
I WOULD SAY THAT THE LACK OF FOCUS ON WOMEN WAS NOT BECAUSE ESSENT WAS UNWILLING;
it was rather a question of priorities. Essent has undergone so many developments in recent
years (reorganisations, far-reaching merger plans) that diversity never made it to the list of
priorities.
ALL THIS WILL CHANGE FROM 2008 ONWARDS: DIVERSITY WILL BECOME ONE OF OUR
strategic spearheads. Early in 2008 the Executive Board decided to set up a diversity task force
whose objective it is to create awareness and support, and to formulate targets and actions
relating to diversity. Essent has also become a member of Opportunity in Bedrijf, an organisation
that helps to promote diversity in businesses. Finally, we are studying the possibility of
teaming up more with recruitment agencies that target specific groups, such as women.
I DON’T HAVE ANY ILLUSIONS ABOUT ESSENT EVER REACHING THE 50/50 MARK AS FAR AS
men and women in managerial positions are concerned. Much of the business is simply too
technically oriented for that. You can see already that the share of women managers is
considerably higher in our sales and corporate services departments than in the Production
and Networks business units. We have to be realistic in that regard and set ourselves differentiated
targets.
ALTHOUGH THERE WILL BE NO DRASTIC CHANGES OVER THE COURSE OF ONE YEAR, I’M
confident that our planned focus on diversity will pay dividends. This will not only work to the
benefit of women at Essent, but it will also be good for Essent as a business. After all, research
shows that diversity fosters a spirit of enterprise, as well as raising the quality of decisionmaking
and generating higher profits, promoting a better response to customer demand, and
increasing the chance of attracting and retaining talented staff.”
MARGO VAN BERKEL

Margo van Berkel
“WHAT CAN ESSENT DO TO INCREASE THE REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN SENIOR MANAGEMENT
positions At Opportunity in Bedrijf, we have been mounting initiatives since 1996 to promote
diversity in businesses through our network organisation and centre of excellence. Experience
tells us that a firm that’s serious about diversity needs to focus on four main issues: demonstrating
the business case, scrutinising recruitment and assessment procedures, monitoring
internal transfers and promotions, and having a keen eye for corporate culture.
STARTING WITH ISSUE ONE: MAKE SURE THERE’S A CLEAR BUSINESS CASE FOR MORE DIVERSITY.
Why do we need to address diversity Diversity is not a ‘woman’s thing’ or a goal in itself,
but has social relevance as well as being a corporate strategy. After all, diversity demonstrably
leads to better business operations. In addition, a firm can’t afford – in these times of a
candidate-tight market – not to utilise 50% of the available human capital to its full potential.
AS A BUSINESS, YOU ALSO NEED TO SCREEN YOUR RECRUITMENT PROCESSES. AVOID
emphasising merely the hierarchical or technical aspects of a business or a position in job
ads; it is also important to communicate, for instance, that the firm also offers opportunities
for coaching and personal development. These are aspects that are more appealing to women.
THE NEXT THING IS TO FORM AS BROAD A RECRUITMENT COMMITTEE AS POSSIBLE AND BE
honest about preferences, rejections and assessments. Beware of preconceptions: not every
woman wants a part-time job! And if they do, ask yourself whether that’s the end of the world.
A lot of male managers seem to be doing other things one day a week, for instance teach
at a university or college. What’s the difference
ONCE YOU’VE MANAGED TO HIRE WELL-EDUCATED WOMEN, HELP THEM TO MONITOR THEIR
career path. We know from practical experience that diversity does not take care of itself
once you’ve hired enough ambitious women. The organisation needs to make conscious
efforts to nurture diversity. It’s very important, for instance, to invite women to ‘ambition
interviews’. Try to find out why a woman refuses a promotion: what would it take to make the
most of the qualities and talents of this woman – within the restraints of a healthy business
policy Perhaps her interests would be served by more flexibility in working hours and work
stations
THAT BRINGS ME TO THE IMPORTANCE OF THE INFORMAL SIDE TO THE BUSINESS CULTURE.
Things to consider: how do you build a career in this organisation What behaviour is
encouraged and what is not done And how does that affect specific groups A culture where
it’s ‘cool’ to say that you work 60-hour weeks as a minimum is no longer appealing to young
high potentials – women and men! Management by example also counts: people might
remember that Hans Wijers, when he was the Minister of Economic Affairs, cancelled an
important meeting because it was his daughter’s birthday. The leading motto is: ‘practice what
you preach’. Make sure that there are enough role models in the organisation and show that
differences are there to be celebrated. Feature an article in the staff magazine on men in
part-time jobs or show that there are more ways than one to build a career, such as easing up
on your career when there are small children involved, only to go at it full swing when they
grow older.
A FIRM THAT DEALS WITH DIVERSITY IN SUCH A TARGETED WAY WILL DISCOVER THAT
improvements will follow suit. And that they won’t be the worse for it. Because ‘business is
too important to just leave up to men’, as Mr Van der Waaij, CEO of Unilever Netherlands,
so aptly put it.”

Anouk
Rasenberg
People Development manager at Essent N.V.
Arnhem
Margo
van Berkel
senior advisor at Opportunity in Bedrijf
Amstelveen

Essent as a corporate citizen
www.essent.eu
participating in society
As a business, we are at the heart of society. What is more,
we are tied to it hand and foot. Just think about it: our customers
are a cross-section of society. After all, we visit all our
customers at home, if only just to read the meter. Our customers
cannot do without our products, not even for a day.
At times, we cause them some inconvenience, because our
energy supply is not always without failure. People see our
vans at busy intersections. They see us dig holes and repair
pipes or cables.
Our (public-sector) shareholders are elected by society.
Farm lands are teaming with our underground pipes and cables.
And many town’s folk and country people look out onto
our transformer stations. Others live near our power stations
or close to wind turbines. And when you are stopped at a
railway crossing waiting for a train to pass, the next thing you
know, you see a row of Essent freight cars carrying refuse
rolling by. We could go on, but we have made our point:
we matter to society and society matters to us. This raises the
usual mutual obligations, for instance that we duly supply
our products and that society duly pays for them.
duty calls
But we also have special obligations to each other. Together,
we have to try to keep our community a place worth living
and make it better where we can. As members of society,
people role up their sleeves for the community, whether it
means manning the bar at the local football club, handing
out flyers for a political party or mowing a neighbour’s lawn.
It just means making a contribution to the community other
than through work.
Being a corporate citizen – as Essent is –, Essent does exactly
the same. In addition to our ordinary responsibilities,
we want to contribute what we can and help build a better
society. Sometimes our efforts are practically oriented, for
instance when we encourage our employees to start volunteering.
Other times, we focus more on contributing input,
knowledge and ideas to projects where our expertise is valuable.
And that does not mean that we only get involved
in projects that serve our business interests. In many cases,
we offer monetary support. We donate generous sums to
social causes.
Sceptics might say: that is all fine and dandy, but Essent is
not a sugar daddy. It is a commercial business. And donating
money to a cause is not necessarily a measure of ‘social
engagement’. That would be called sponsoring, meaning
that ulterior motives are involved. One might argue about
whether support always qualifies as sponsoring, but we do
not deny that we have ulterior motives.
Why would we Perhaps society even floats on ulterior
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motives. The person manning the bar at the football club
might not have any talent for football, but his volunteering
still lets him share in the club’s championship. And maybe
the woman handing out flyers for a political party is hoping to
become a local councillor one day, which would make her a
shareholder in an energy company. Who knows
However that may be, people want to be appreciated for their
efforts, as does a business. We, for one, mean to take up our
part of the responsibility for the communities that we operate
in. And our ulterior motives are that people know who we are
when choosing their preferred energy supplier.
our home turf
Essent has operations across the Netherlands and in parts of
Germany and Belgium. We regard these areas as our home
market, the target of our socially oriented activities. And then
there is our native district, the place were Essent originated:
the northern, eastern and southern parts of the Netherlands.
This is our parental home, so to speak, because our shareholders,
i.e. provincial and municipal authorities, are located
here. And it is where most of our staff live.
We feel especially connected with local communities in
those areas. Essent’s motto is: with one foot in North-West
Europe and the other in the community. And that is right in
line with our strategy. We are strong enough to be an international
player and committed enough to cherish our roots.
Of course, this is easier said than done. Is our focus on
local communities not diametrically opposed to our interests
in the rapidly developing international energy market
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www.essent.eu
BIESBOSCH 35
GEERTRUIDENBERG ER
RUI
380KV
NAAR
KRIMPEN AAN DE IJSSEL
AMERCENTRALE
'S-HERTOGENBOSCH
WEST 39
WAALWIJK 17
WKC HEINEKE
MOERDIJK 34
GEERTRUIDENBERG 25
ZEVENBERGSCHENHOEK 65
DONGECENTRALE
EER
BREDA 01
OOSTEIND 15
TILBURG NOORD 20
TILBURG WEST 48
PRINCENHAGE 63
ETTEN 29
BEST 36
EIND
ROOSENDAAL 09
TILBURG CENTRUM 18
TILBURG ZUID 38
SDRECHT 12
EINDHOVE
HAPERT 37

OSS 08
'S-HERTOGENBOSCH
NOORD 06
N 52
AARLE-
RIXTEL 32
DE 23
OVEN NOORD 02
E
CSR means resolving
HELMOND
OOST 50
dilemmas
EINDHOVEN OOST 22
WKC HELMON
DILEMMA [ 7:1 ]
WKC HELMOND
HELMOND ZUID 2
We are a corporate citizen.
Our activities are increasingly globalising.
How can we nonetheless guarantee
that we have our feet firmly planted in our local
WKC EINDHOVEN 55
communities
MAARHEEZE 24
WEST 46
EINDHOVEN ZUID 26
BUDEL 33
NAAR
NEDERWEERT
Corporate citizen/Planet
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Sponsoring comes in many shapes
and sizes, from the Museum of Modern Art
in Arnhem (part of the Dealing with reality
exhibition) to speed skating.
sponsoring and support of social causes
There are different ways of showing that you care about society,
one of which is being prepared to invest in activities or
developments that are important to society, and earmarking
sums of money for sponsoring or support to social causes,
no matter what name this is given. What one company calls
sponsoring, another might call a donation, and what one
person would describe as support to social causes, another
would simply refer to as sponsoring.
In any event, the deal nearly always involves money that is
offered to enable another organisation to achieve its goal,
whilst agreeing with that organisation that they will render a
service in return that will help you achieve your goal. This is
the objective of sponsoring, but less so of support to social
causes. The difference lies mainly in the service in return,
which is measurable in either monetary or commercial terms;
this is not our main objective when we make donations.
In 2007 Essent donated approximately EUR 300,000 without
demanding services in return.
As a speed skating sponsor, we demand, for instance, that
our name be printed on the boarding lining the skating
oval, so that it features prominently on television. As a supporter
of a commemorative book about a community, we are
pleased – although we do not demand – that our name is
mentioned on the cover and that the Mayor refers to us in his
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speech when presenting the book. And in exchange for the
money that we contribute to important research projects,
we demand the right to apply the findings of such projects
to our operations.
What is clear is that sponsoring, donations and support are
all branches of the same tree. Let us not complicate matters
and speak of sponsoring from now on.
sponsoring portfolio: a mirror of society
Just like Essent itself, our sponsoring should mirror the
breadth of society. That is why we focus on the areas of sport,
culture, nature and social causes. The same adage applies
to each area: the higher the amount we invest, the more the
cause should be reflective of society as a whole. And when
we say society, we refer first and foremost to a cross-section
of our local communities, because they are our grassroots.
For this reason, we have deliberately opted to sponsor speed
skating. In the Netherlands, speed skating is a widely loved
national sport, as well as being a top-class sport. Our marathon
skaters are diehards, the all-round skaters are our
national treasures, and our sprinters are cool. Speed skating
is a tremendously popular spectator sport and when our national
anthem plays to honour the champion, we collectively
feel immense pride in being Dutch. Speed skating belongs
to all of us.
Smaller projects are often more aimed at specific target
groups. Yet, these target groups tend to be diverse, especially
in our communities. As such we sponsor the children’s
theatre programme of the Odeon/de Spiegel theatre in
Zwolle. We find it important that children are introduced to
various forms of art at an early age. The Essent-kidreporters
write reviews that are shared through the theatre’s website.
Our sponsoring of the Drents Museum in Assen, the Museum
of Modern Art in Arnhem and the Bonnefanten Museum
in Maastricht is intended for anyone who is interested in art,
arts and crafts, and history, or for anyone who might want
to take an interest. Together with the three museums, we
try to lower the threshold as much as we can. Because this
requires our joint efforts, we recently decided to extend the
contracts another three years.
We have also focused intently on young people over the
past years, for instance by organising the Essent Awards,
incentive prizes for talented pop musicians, that have developed
into prestigious Dutch music awards. We introduced
the Essent Awards winners at large pop music festivals,
including Noorderslag and Lowlands. And we saw many
of ‘our musicians’ make it big after they had won an Essent
Award. We also footed the bill for their performances at many
regional festivals.
With the Essent Chess Tournament in Hoogeveen, which has
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developed into the second-largest tournament in the Netherlands
and the fourth-largest in Europe, we focus our attentions,
mainly through the Internet, at the throngs of tactical
sport lovers who learned to play chess at the kitchen table.
And we make the people of Hoogeveen proud by putting
their town on the map (except for the bridal couples who
cannot be married at city hall for a week because the venue
is reserved for top-class chess players).
Our involvement in summer festivals such as the Boulevard
Theatre Festival in Den Bosch, Noorderzon in Groningen
and Cultura Nova in Heerlen lets us reach people of all ages
who like to go out at night, visit the theatre and enjoy lazy
summer nights.
And our support of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)
draws the attention of anyone who cares about nature, the
environment and sustainability. Together with WWF, we
are engaged in many projects and campaigns to promote
sustainability in the Netherlands. And WWF scrutinises our
energy policy by looking over our shoulder. The discussions
that we have with them in this regard keep us on our toes.
Of course we are involved in many more projects, including
many small-scale events and activities in our local communities.
We take special care that we undertake colourful and
exciting projects, so that our efforts reflect a mirror image
of society.
‘sponsor of the year’
On this basis, we have defined and executed a sponsor policy.
We are not doing all that badly, judging from the Sponsor
Ring that was awarded to us in November 2007. The Sponsor
Ring is an award honouring the ‘sponsor of the year’. The
judges’ report praised us for our consistent sponsor policy, in
which we showed ourselves to be a reliable, long-term partner
for our sponsored causes and succeeded in positively
influencing consumer brand preferences.
teaching on the weekend
One of the projects that lies close to our heart is our involvement
in the IMC Weekend School project. This project, which
is undertaken in the cities of Tilburg and Groningen, targets
youngsters between the ages of 10 and 14 from underprivileged
backgrounds. By offering them additional courses
on the weekend we help them improve their career perspectives
and boost their self-confidence. Our support is both
monetary and practical. Essent staff regularly teach weekend
classes also, either as volunteers or specialists.
A large enterprise such as Essent has specialists in all
shapes and sizes.
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< Show from the children’s theatre programme
performed at the Odeon/De Spiegel Theatre in Zwolle.
Rinse de Jong (member of the Executive Board) and
Marga Edens (CSR Manager) meet with the Essent members
of Young Leaders for Nature to work on sustainable solutions
for issues affecting society.
encouraging volunteering
At Essent, we encourage our staff to take up volunteering.
What follows are just a number of examples. In April 2007
Essent employees helped prepare a bandstand in the city of
Zwolle for the festivities of Queen’s Day, the Dutch national
holiday. They also improved the connection to the electricity
grid. And a considerable number of people who walked the
Pieterpad trail – we organise these walks to discuss CSR –
got down to work as well. They cleaned up undergrowth in
nature areas, built trails and suchlike.
starry, starry night
If the community wants us to focus on social issues, we are
only too happy to take up our responsibility. On 27 October
2007 the provincial environmental federations and
Stich ting Natuur en Milieu organised a so-called Dark Night.
This initiative is designed to darken the nights in the
Netherlands, which is one of the most lit-up countries in the
world. And using less electricity is better for our climate.
We switched off the neon Essent logo signs at all our sites.
investing in research and renewable energy
You will not discover uncharted territory if you never stray
from the beaten track. We need to be willing to venture into
new areas in order to secure a sustainable energy supply
in the future. And we need to invest in innovation. The only
certainty that we have is that stagnation will not get us anywhere.
Moving forward is what we want.
Together with Delta, a fellow energy company located in
the Province of Zeeland, Essent has established an investment
fund for financing innovative enterprises and projects
in the area of renewable energy. Investment specialists
Chrysalix Energy and Robeco helped us to set up this Fund.
The Fund goes by the name of Sustainable Energy Technology
Fund, or SET Fund. Essent and Delta have each contributed
EUR 25 million. The Fund plans to double that amount
by involving other investors as well. The Fund will support
young innovative enterprises in particular that are involved in
developing new technologies for renewable energy, alternative
fuels, carbon reductions and energy conservation.
Although Essent and Delta will contribute their expertise and
experience, the Fund is independent of its financiers.
We also work in collaboration with institutes of learning.
We sponsor research conducted at the universities of Groningen,
Twente, Tilburg, Delft, Maastricht and Eindhoven.
These are studies relating to energy supply and sustainability.
In addition, we have forged investment alliances with
many colleges of higher education in our home communities.
We have done this also with a view to rejuvenating our employee
base.
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have exciting installations such as power stations and waste
incineration plants to show them. We also concentrated more
on local communities with our small-scale sponsor activities.
In addition, we took stock of all our stakeholders and started
to visit them or invited them to visit us.
The results for 2007 are so encouraging that we will start
to use this method in other areas as well in 2008. Essent will
gain a greater presence in communities and become more
accessible locally. We hope that this will help us to become a
more close-knit member of local communities in the future.
conserving energy together locally
Our regional roots are also reflected in our collaboration
with our shareholders. As our shareholders are local authorities,
it is not surprising that we mean more to each other
than is usual in a relationship between an enterprise and
its shareholders. That is why we have developed the Essent
Shareholders Energy Conservation Plan as part of the overall
Essent Conservation Plan, which focuses on households and
business customers as well.
The Essent Conservation Plan has also resulted in the ‘Save
Your Energy’ curriculum for primary schools. On 23 November
2007 the curriculum was presented first to a school
by the name of Epemaskoalle in Ysbrechtum, in the northern
Province of Friesland. The curriculum is looking to become
a resounding success, having been ordered by more than
500 Dutch primary schools already.
deeply rooted in the community
You need to be tied up with a community in order to be able
to make a difference there. We will only be regarded as an attractive
partner if our actions demonstrate that we value the
community. This means that we need to be visible and accessible,
to our customers, obviously, but also to authorities and
other decision-makers, to our stakeholders and to influential
organisations. In order to ingrain this in our minds, we have
established the Regional Stakeholders Management. In 2007
we gained experience with the concept in two areas, in the
Provinces of Drenthe and Limburg.
We focused on three core themes: raising our profile in the
community, building a network with our stakeholders and
actively supporting our ambassadors in their respective
communities. We already had regional ambassadors (higher
managers at Essent), but they had mainly applied themselves
to their task on an individual and occasional basis before.
They have now been given a pivotal role in the Regional
Stakeholders Management and are supported by a special
team for each area.
To raise our profile, we started to direct our attention more
at the regional media, asking them to report news and background
information on Essent’s operations in the community.
We also encouraged local people to visit our sites; why not
invite your neighbours every now and then After all, we
shareholders conserving energy
Our shareholders asked us in December 2006 to present
proposals for how we could encourage energy conservation
together. They wanted to give more practical expression to
their position as Essent shareholders, if possible in combination
with their public duties as provincial and municipal
authorities. Accordingly, they started to focus on sustainability
and energy-saving, but also on poverty policy and the
cost of utilities.
This is how the Shareholders Energy Conservation Plan came
about. It was presented to the shareholders in July 2007. The
Plan’s goal is twofold: cutting costs by conserving energy
and reducing CO 2 emissions.
We provide the shareholders with our people and our expertise
to create a bespoke energy conservation plan for each
municipal authority or province, and to help them implement
it, geared to the specific target groups in the area. Shareholders
can also opt for a joint plan, for instance together
with other municipalities, or a provincial plan that covers
every municipality.
Essent has committed itself to this Energy Conservation Plan
for three years, and has also pledged money, i.e. EUR 5 million
in 2007 and EUR 10 million in 2008; the budget for 2009
will be set after the Plan has been evaluated.
The budget is spread over the shareholders proportionate to
their shareholdings. An amount of EUR 15 million is available
for two years. If, for instance, a shareholder holds 10% of
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our shares, it will be allotted EUR 1.5 million from the
Energy Conservation Plan. We would note that provincial
authorities can also spend the money on projects undertaken
in municipalities that do not hold shares in Essent.
An energy conservation plan is made up of a plurality of
component parts. A shareholder can choose from the
following menu to combine options:
■ energy advice within the scope of the Energy
Performance Building Directive (EU label
for the energy performance of residential and
non-residential buildings)
■ energy advice within the scope of the
Dutch Environ mental Protection Act
(consumption, opportunities for energy
conservation and measures)
■ lighting scan of office buildings
■ lighting scan of street lights
■ sustainable energy scans
■ energy utilisation (performance contract)
■ energy management/monitoring (insight into
energy consumption)
■ benchmark of municipal buildings
■ implementation of energy-efficient measures
(Essent can supervise the implementation process)
■ introduction of energy management system
(monitoring that savings are structural)
■ safety certification for electricity and gas
■ micro-cogeneration plants (in pilot setting only
for the time being).
Judging from the number of registrations, our shareholders
are enthusiastic about our initiative. All provincial authorities
and 56 of the 128 municipal authorities have already
registered for the Energy Conservation Plan. Plans for the
Provinces of Limburg and Noord-Brabant have already been
worked out and are ready to go. The other Provinces will
follow early in 2008. The Province of Flevoland will prepare
a plan in collaboration with the municipalities of Urk and
Noordoostpolder. Venray and De Wolden will be the first
municipalities where the plan will be put into effect.
The municipal authorities that have not yet registered will be
approached early in 2008.
The Plan for the Province of Noord-Brabant demonstrates
clearly what an Energy Conservation Plan can do. It centres
around an energy conservation desk: an information point
for home owners about everything to do with energy, energy
conservation and energy-saving subsidies. The same conservation
desk is also being prepared to field questions from
occupants of rented houses. In addition, the Plan involves
a study of the feasibility of energy generation from kitchen
and garden waste, and renewable options for street lighting.
Streamlining opportunities for the district heating systems in
cities such as Tilburg and Breda, and the viability of microcogeneration
plants are also being investigated. The Plan
will ultimately result in an energy saving of 178 TJ, i.e. 25%
of the annual conservation target for urbanised areas in the
Province of Noord-Brabant. CO 2 emissions will be reduced
by 10 Mton per year. A start will be made with the execution
of the Plan early in 2008.
71
Essent N.V. 2007 CSR Report › Essent as a corporate citizen › Committed to the community

Committed to society
Sponsor
of the year
In November 2007 Essent
was awarded the ‘Sponsor
of the Year Award’ for its
consistent sponsoring
policy

Investing
in innovation
for tomorrow’s
energy
Society
Conserving
energy in the area
where you live
and work
Making joint
efforts;
volunteering and
IMC Weekend
School
Essent Shareholder
Conservation Plan
Essent helps local and
provincial authorities achieve
CO 2 reductions and cost
savings locally
Essent Consumer
Essent Business
Energy for the
The energy
Energy Conservation Plan
Energy Conservation
future
you don’t use
Gaining an understanding,
Plan
‘Save your Energy’ curricu-
is your best saving
taking action and monitoring
Energy research, monitor-
lum, teaching children about
energy consumption
ing and scans of climate
sustainable energy, climate
control, lighting and
change and energy
sustainability
conservation
Culture
Museums
Essent Music
Awards
Summer festivals
Theatre

Interviews
Marco
Grob
interim director of the Museum of Modern Art Arnhem
Arnhem
René
Savelsberg
managing director and CEO of SET Venture Partners B.V.
Amsterdam

Marco Grob
“THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OUR MUSEUM AND ESSENT IS INDICATIVE OF A CERTAIN
solidarity. After all, Essent does not traditionally have any customers in Arnhem. Their support
to our museum can be seen as a calling card to the city. I believe that it has truly contributed
to Essent’s image in Arnhem as a locally and culturally oriented enterprise. And it allows us to
partner up with Essent where its cultural policy is concerned, together with the two other
large museums that Essent supports. We effectively act as partners. We offer our advice on art
exhibitions at Essent and regularly organise art shows together. It allows both of us to raise
our profile and demonstrate to the community that locality matters. I feel that it has helped
Essent to develop a positive and modern-day image, as well as a connection with the city
where it’s headquartered.
AN INVOLVEMENT IN ART MAY NOT BE SOMETHING YOU EXPECT FROM AN ENERGY COMPANY.
Creativity is, though. To me, Essent is a creative company that doesn’t shy away from unorthodox
methods. Just think of its solutions for renewable energy. Artists are the kings of unorthodox
methods. That, and sustainability, is what connects us. Our art collection is part of our
cultural heritage, something that we treasure. The same goes for nature: together, we need to
conserve it for future generations.
SOCIAL INVOLVEMENT IS ALSO A LINK THAT CONNECTS US. AS A MUSEUM OF MODERN ART,
we’re constantly exploring reality and forms of realism. This stirs up questions. Art is critical
and we do not only broach issues, but also want to convey a message. What I really enjoy is
the creation of a vision for the future of the company: Essent 2030. The organisation invited
artists to help plot this road. In turn, this creativity in dealing with your place in society and
your own organisation leads to cross-pollination. We support each other in our quest; we help
Essent in Arnhem and Essent helps us with our museum. And that reflects on both of us.
BECAUSE OUR RELATIONSHIP SPANS A NUMBER OF YEARS, ESSENT LETS US LIFT THE MUSEUM
to a higher level, allowing us to organise better exhibitions for our visitors from all over the
country. This is how Essent gives back to people who might also be its customers. Essent truly
gives art a chance. And art stimulates reflection, it encourages people to think and feel. This
affects the lives of people, as does a business through its products, services and workplace.
If businesses take their social role seriously, they should be giving back to society. That’s why
we applaud investments in cultural institutions; they fulfil a valuable role in a city’s living
environment. They cannot exist on municipal or national grants alone. Businesses need to get
involved. That’s simply something you’re willing to do for each other.
OUR LONG-TERM ASSOCIATION OFFERS US MANY OPPORTUNITIES TO DEEPEN OUR RELATIONship,
including more mutual profiling and promoting our partnership. We would also like to
utilise Essent’s knowledge in the areas of sustainability and energy management. How can we
capitalise on each other’s added value in forging relationships with the city and its surroundings,
that continues to be the key question. Art builds bridges between people, businesses
and perhaps even between countries.”

René Savelsberg
“CORPORATE VENTURING IS ESSENTIAL FOR LARGE ENTERPRISES IN ORDER TO KEEP IN TOUCH
with the market for new developments where they are not or not yet active themselves. Essent
has chosen to do that in the best way possible, by participating in an independent fund with
clear objectives. And especially the financial targets of such a fund also justify investments by
the other fund partners. After all, that’s how economically viable innovations that are set to
contribute to the sustainable energy supply of the future originate. But the EUR 25 million
each that Essent and its partner, Delta, have made available for the fund for the next nine
years are not enough. Although these are obviously large sums of money, more is needed to
drive successful innovations. That’s why we also plan to attract other parties, and the chosen
fund structure allows us to do just that.
VENTURING TO INVEST IN INNOVATION IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. IN GENERAL, LARGE
enterprises should take a much more active role in innovations, especially energy companies.
The demand for energy is enormous and will keep on growing. Sustainability issues will also
gain in importance as a result. Corporate venturing is the perfect facilitator for Essent to
contribute its share to the sustainable energy supply of the future. Although I do ask myself
sometimes whether Essent would have made the same fund investments if it hadn’t been
obliged to do so under the Borssele Covenant. At present, most innovations are not allowed to
blossom because they don’t have enough scale or there’s no connection with the consumer;
Essent has both. Scale is a prerequisite for successful innovations. And investing in tomorrow
should be part and parcel of Essent’s place in society. Now’s the time to invest and make your
mark.
OF COURSE THERE ARE ALTERNATIVES TO CORPORATE VENTURING, SUCH AS FUNDING RESEARCH
by a centre of excellence. But the question is whether that’s actually as effective. You should
never underestimate the power of the market in innovations. Making the most of opportunities
in a business setting and undertaking purely technical research are two different things
altogether. Investments also need to be aimed at making a profit in the future. That’s the only
way to develop truly useful technology. Research is not automatically profitable and tends to
be out of touch with the market. What’s more, by investing in early-stage businesses now,
Essent is involved in those technological developments. This allows Essent to prepare for the
application of these new technologies and become an early adopter. You don’t achieve this
through research or donations alone.
THE SET FUND DOES NOT FOCUS ON LOCAL COMMUNITIES OR JUST THE NETHERLANDS.
After all, technology is without boundaries and we need to invest where we see opportunities,
whether they lie in the Netherlands or abroad. We have chosen to focus on Europe. Of course
I understand that the Essent shareholders hope that we will invest in their respective areas,
but I’m sure they’ll understand that we have to go after investments with the most potential.
That’s how they best give expression to their own social responsibility as well. By investing in
sustainable technology, through Essent and SET, the shareholders contribute directly to
sustainability and the technology of tomorrow.”
MARCO GROB
RENÉ SAVELSBERG

“THE SHAREHOLDERS ENERGY CONSERVATION PLAN IS A GOOD EXAMPLE OF EFFECTIVE AND
ANNEMARIE MOONS
GIJSJE VAN HONK
Annemarie Moons
essential teamwork between Essent and its shareholders. There are regular meetings between
us, the shareholders, and Essent’s management. During one of these meetings, Essent told us
about their plans for promoting energy-saving as a means of helping customers to reduce
their energy bills. We quickly agreed that this was something we could do in unison with
Essent and asked the management to produce a more detailed plan. Energy conservation
starts with awareness-raising among the general public, and this is where the provincial
council has a role to play. Our common aim is to encourage people to save energy and hence
reduce emissions.
THE NEXT STEP WAS FOR US, AS THE MEMBERS OF THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL OF NOORD-
Brabant, to see what we could do to implement the Energy Conservation Plan in our own
province. We tried to identify areas in which the Plan meshed in with our own policy plans, and
then sought to formulate a series of realistic targets. The question we asked ourselves was:
what can we actually achieve in concrete terms in the next two years Or, as the Ministry of
Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment puts it, ‘how can we get things done’ This is
an important success factor. The Energy Conservation Plan is targeted at both new-build
housing and existing homes.
The energy conservation desk – which was set up by the Provincial Council and is already
working well – encourages home-owners to take energy-saving measures. The desk supplies
both local residents and housing corporations with information on energy-saving measures in
and around the home. Subject to certain conditions, residents and corporations can also apply
through the desk for financial support for certain measures, such as high-efficiency double
glazing, solar panels, and roof and wall insulation.
IN THE CASE OF NEW-BUILD HOMES, WE ARE USING THE ENERGY CONSERVATION PLAN TO
support a project involving what are known as ‘energy-zero first-buy homes’. This will allow
us to gain experience with all sorts of new techniques and products. We have also selected a
further seven projects on which we will be conducting joint feasibility studies together with
Essent during the coming two years. Teamwork is another critical success factor – the ability
to work together and combine our mutual pools of expertise.
THIS TYPE OF JOINT ACTION MAKES GOOD SENSE. AFTER ALL, THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL HAS
local knowledge to offer, and Essent has the necessary technical expertise. We’re perfect
complements to each other. And I believe it’s good for Essent to raise its local profile. After all,
the company itself came into being as an amalgamation of local and provincial energy
companies.
I BELIEVE THAT ESSENT’S DECISION TO COME UP WITH AN ENERGY CONSERVATION PLAN IS
quite logical when you consider that it does more than just sell energy. An energy company
also has a social responsibility, especially those that claim, as Essent does, to be ‘green’ companies.
Green companies need to do more than simply invest in new, sustainable production
capacity and supply green electricity. They also need to promote energy-saving and investments
in energy-saving measures. Essent’s sharp focus on energy conservation is testimony
to its confidence in itself.
SO IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE THAT ESSENT SHOULD BE DOING I THINK THERE IS. THEY’RE
already leading the way in the use of biomass as a fuel, and made great strides last year in
relation to energy conservation. But there’s every reason to broaden their horizon. Why not
show even more guts, and try and make progress on several new fronts at the same time
How about an energy-neutral business park, or local energy generation in glasshouses and
solar collectors These would not just be innovative, but also have a high regional profile.”

Gijsje van Honk
“FOR A THEATRE SUCH AS OURS – THE LEADING THEATRE INSTITUTE IN THE CITY OF ZWOLLE
and surrounding areas – corporate sponsors are lifesavers. That’s why we’re pleased that
Essent has decided to become the principal sponsor of our children’s theatre programme for
three years, starting from the theatre season 2007/2008. This allows us to present a larger and
more diverse offering of theatre shows than would otherwise have been possible. Now we
don’t have to limit ourselves to the ‘hits’, but we can also stage productions that may be lesser
known, but are certainly worth watching. Just to illustrate: in the theatre season 2007/2008 we
will put on over 70 children’s shows, from plays and musicals to concerts, dance and puppet
theatre. Essent leaves the choice of what performances to stage entirely up to us, and that’s
the way it should be.
OUR COLLABORATION WITH ESSENT IS NOT LIMITED TO THEATRE SHOWS ALONE: WE HAVE
introduced the ‘Essent-kidreporters’, enthusiastic eleven and twelve-year olds who visit one
or more performances and write up a review, which we then post on our website. These are all
concrete things that help us to achieve an important goal, i.e. to raise the level of cultural
awareness in the greater Zwolle area, and to offer our youngest of audiences a nourishing
cultural environment.
FIRMS SPONSORING A THEATRE OR MUSEUM SET AN EXAMPLE FOR BUSINESSES THAT ARE NEW
in town: by social involvement in areas that are not their core business, the corporate sector
helps to make the local community an exciting and colourful place to live.
I WOULD THINK THAT ESSENT ALSO BENEFITS FROM ITS TIES WITH ODEON/DE SPIEGEL. THEY
help Essent to raise its profile in a sympathetic way in an area where it has a large customer
base, as well as enabling it to organise functions in our theatre every now and then, and
welcome business relations here. A case in point is a symposium entitled “Tomorrow’s
Energy”, which Essent has scheduled for 18 March 2008 in Odeon/De Spiegel and where a
host of prominent speakers will express their views on the energy supply of the future.
ESSENT NOT ONLY SPONSORS OUR THEATRE, FOR THAT MATTER, BUT ALSO SUPPORTS STICHTING
Cortegaerdt, an organisation promoting the hustle and bustle at the theatre, and offering a
meeting place for businesses located in the greater Zwolle area.
IN MY OPINION, ESSENT PLAYS A POSITIVE SOCIAL ROLE IN OUR LOCAL COMMUNITY: IT HELPS
to support the community and create a connection between parties that would otherwise not
have been likely to meet.”

Annemarie
Moons
member of the Provincial Executive of
Noord-Brabant with special responsibility
for Economic Affairs and Sustainability
Gijsje
van Honk
director of the Odeon/De Spiegel theatres
Zwolle

8
www.essent.eu
Measuring sustainability
Essent aims to be a leading sustainable energy company.
We already expressed this ambition in 2006. Sustainability
is not something that is confined to regional markets. We
source our biomass on the world market, we have people
working as far away as in Geneva and the climate situation is
a global issue. In this report, we have emphatically reiterated
our sustainability ambitions.
Ambitions are a good start, but what is our actual status
How sustainable are our operations compared with those
of other energy companies Are we in the break-away group,
are we giving chase, or are we stuck in the back of
the bunch We could just follow our instincts, but there is
nothing like objective measuring. And that is exactly what
we decided to do.
the proof is in the numbers
We had a benchmark performed based on the Dow Jones
Sustainability Index (DJSI). Dow Jones is a reputable agency
and leading provider of global business news and information
services. It publishes The Wall Street Journal, among
other publications. Their DJSI is the most important global
index tracking the performance of leading listed sustainability-driven
companies worldwide. Dutch companies such
as TNT, Unilever, Philips and Akzo Nobel are benchmarked
against the DJSI.
Essent not being a listed company did not prove to be an
impediment whatsoever. Our performance could be benchmarked
against that of listed energy companies in every
respect and weighed against the same criteria. Although we
are, and will remain, the odd one out where the DJSI indexes
are concerned, the outcome is extremely reliable.
The benchmark was performed by Swiss-based firm SAM
(Sustainable Asset Management), which is a division of
Robeco. The assessment is made based on questionnaires
that need to be completed by the benchmarked entity itself,
corporate documentation (including the Annual Report and
the CSR Report), third-party documents, public information
and personal contacts between analysts and the corporation.
Essent is the first Dutch energy company to have its
sustainability performance benchmarked against that of its
listed peers in the rest of the world based on this index.
We have opted for the following three benchmark levels:
■ Global
benchmarked against 39 listed energy companies
■ European
benchmarked against 15 listed energy companies
■ North-West Europe
benchmarked against 7 listed energy companies
74 Essent N.V. 2007 CSR Report

www.essent.eu
We made this choice in order to end up with a useful outcome.
A benchmark of our performance against our global
peers only might have produced a biased view with too comfortable
a score. For this reason, we added Europe
and North-West Europe to the equation. After all, we want
to know as accurately as possible where we stand and
how our sustainability performance compares against that
of our peers.
assessment along three dimensions
Our sustainability performance was assessed along three
dimensions, i.e. an economic dimension, a social dimension
and an environmental dimension. The economic dimension
involved an assessment of our policies concerning corporate
governance, our Code of Conduct, human rights, discrimination,
women in management positions, risk and crisis management
aspects, and customer satisfaction.
The environmental dimension addressed our energy-generating
methods, emissions, power stations output, sourcing
policies for products and services, landscape management,
preservation of biodiversity and suchlike. The social dimension
comprised an assessment of social aspects, including
focus on internal affairs such as employee development,
training and satisfaction, and our occupational health and
safety policy. External involvement in the form of sponsoring
and relations with stakeholders are assessed along the
social dimension as well.
our score
At global level, Essent achieved an overall score of 68%,
which is amply higher than the average score of 57%.
The highest score among the 39 benchmarked energy
39 companies globally in 2007
Overall scores
Individual scores
Economic dimension
Environmental
dimension
Social dimension
68
57
81
74
61
86
58
52
81
74
58
86
7 companies in North-West Europe in 2007
Overall scores
Individual scores
Economic dimension
Environmental
dimension
Social dimension
68
72
78
74
75
84
58
67
80
74
73
86
75 Essent N.V. 2007 CSR Report › Measuring sustainability

www.essent.eu
companies was 81%. As indicated above, one might question
a benchmark against energy companies from other parts of
the world. That is why we are more interested in comparing
our sustainability performance against that of our European
counterparts. Since the outcome of both European benchmarks
is more or less the same, we have decided to concentrate
mainly on our score benchmarked against the seven
North-West European energy companies.
Our overall score of 68% is slightly below the North-West
European average of 72%. The highest score among the
seven benchmarked energy companies was 78%.
We scored 74% along both the economic and social dimensions,
which is more or less in keeping with the European
average of 75% and 73%, respectively. The detailed report
shows that we are doing well as regards corporate governance
(although we do not employ enough women), risk
management, occupational health and safety policies, and
our commitment to society.
Our human resources policy, recruitment and retention
practices, and performance reporting were rated slightly
below average. In addition, our role as a corporate citizen
(understanding of the effects of sponsoring) is not really up
to scratch. We scored 44% at an average of 66%.
Unfortunately, our performance along the environmental
dimension is lagging somewhat behind. We scored 58% at
an average of 67%. What is most striking in this regard is that
Essent has so far failed to adequately define concrete targets
in the area of climate strategy (45% at an average of 60%)
and emissions reduction (35% at an average of 70%).
We are also trailing behind our peers where monitoring of,
and reporting on, performance delivery are concerned.
follow-up actions
The information on which this benchmark is based relates
to 2006. In 2007 we already proceeded to define a host of
additional sustainability objectives, for both internal and
external purposes. We plan to translate those sustainability
ambitions into more quantitative targets and their monitoring.
The dilemmas that are formulated in this report will help
us to do so.
Naturally, we will investigate in 2008 where and how we
can further fine-tune our climate objectives and step up our
sustainability efforts. The outcome of the benchmark has
steered us in the right direction. In our CSR Report on 2008
we will report on the progress we made.
76 Essent N.V. 2007 CSR Report

9
www.essent.eu
Assurance Report
TO: THE STAKEHOLDERS OF ESSENT N.V.
Engagement
We have performed an assurance engagement in accordance
with the Standard 3410 ‘Assurance Standard relating to
Social Responsibility Reports’. Our assurance engagement
concerns the 2007 Corporate Social Responsibility Report
(CSR) of Essent N.V (Essent) and is aimed to obtain:
■ Reasonable assurance that chapter 1 ‘Retrospective and
outlook’, chapter 6 ‘Essent as an employer’, chapter 8
‘Measuring sustainability’ are, in all material respects,
an accurate and adequate representation of the policy
and business operations regarding Corporate Social
Responsibility during 2007.
■ Limited assurance that the other information in the
2007 CSR report of Essent is, in all material respects,
an accurate and adequate representation of the events
during 2007.
Procedures performed to obtain a limited level of assurance
are aimed at determining the plausibility of information and
are less extensive than those performed in an assurance
assignment to obtain a reasonable level of assurance.
The information published concerning the environmental
and human resources information about swb AG, Deutsche
Essent and minority interests (of less than, or equal to, 50%,
where Essent does not have control of operations) are not
included in our assurance engagement.
Management’s responsibility
The management of Essent is responsible for the information
contained in the 2007 CSR Report and the preparation
of the Report in such a way that it provides an accurate and
adequate view of the policy, measures, and performance
of Essent concerning CSR. That responsibility comprises,
among other things, the design, implementation and maintenance
of an internal control system that helps that the CSR
report does not contain any material inaccuracies, as well as
the selection and use of acceptable principles for measuring
and presenting sustainability performance results, and
the maintenance of estimates that, under the given circumstances,
can be deemed to be reasonable. The choices made
by the management, the scope of the report and the reporting
principles, including the inherent specific limitations that
might affect the reliability of the information contained in the
report, are explained in chapter 3 ‘Structure of the report and
accountability’.
Auditor’s responsibility
It is our responsibility to formulate a conclusion with regard
to the 2007 CSR report of Essent on the basis of the engagement
outlined above.
Procedures
We performed our procedures in accordance with Dutch law
and the requirements set out therein with the independence
of assurance team members. The test criteria that we used
are the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines (G3) published
by the Global Reporting Initiative, the social reporting guide
of the Dutch Accounting Standards Board (Raad voor de
jaarverslaggeving) and Essent’s own reporting policies.
We believe that these criteria are sufficient in view of the
purpose of our assurance engagement.
Our principal procedures relating to the information used
to obtain limited assurance were as follows:
■ Obtaining an understanding of the sector, organisation
and it’s most relevant social responsibility issues;
■ Assessing the acceptability of the reporting policies
used and their consistent application, as well reviewing
significant estimates and calculations made in preparing
the 2007 Corporate Social Responsibility Report;
■ Reviewing the plausibility of the information contained
in Essent’s Corporate Social Responsibility Report by
performing analytical procedures at group level and
at site level in the Netherlands, conducting interviews
with responsible company officers, and checking the
substantiations of this information on a test basis, as
well as retrieving the relevant corporate documents and
consulting external sources;
■ Assessing the overall view of the 2007 Corporate Social
Responsibility Report based on the above criteria.
Procedures added to obtain reasonable assurance regarding
the information in chapters 1, 6 and 8, were the following:
■ Identifying inherent risks relating to the reliability of the
information and investigating the extent to which these
risks are covered by internal controls;
■ Performing tests of control to review the existence and
78 Essent N.V. 2007 CSR Report

www.essent.eu
effectiveness of the internal controls aimed at reviewing
the reliability and adequacy of the information;
■ Following the audit trail on a test basis, from the source
data through to the information contained in the 2007
Corporate Social responsibility report;
■ Performing tests of detail on a test basis aimed at
reviewing the reliability of the primary information.
Conclusion
On the basis of our procedures aimed at obtaining reasonable
assurance we conclude that chapter 1 ‘Retrospective and
outlook’, chapter 6 ‘Essent as an employer’, chapter 8 ‘Measuring
sustainability’ are, in all material respects, an accurate
and adequate representation of the policy and business
operations regarding Corporate Social Responsibility.
On the basis of our procedures aimed at obtaining limited
assurance we have no reason to conclude that the information
in the 2007 CSR report of Essent is not, in all material
respects, an accurate and adequate representation of the
events that took place in 2007, in accordance with the Global
Reporting Initiative guidelines, the social reporting guide
issued by the Dutch Accounting Standard Board and the
documented reporting policy of Essent.
Rotterdam, 27 February 2008
For Ernst & Young Accountants
Signed D.A. de Waard
79 Essent N.V. 2007 CSR Report › Assurance Report

www.essent.eu
Colophon
Abbreviations
V volt, unit of electric potential
J joule, unit of electric work
A ampere, unit of electric current
VA volt-ampere, unit of apparent power
W watt, unit of actual power
Wh watt-hour, unit of number of watts supplied per hour
k kilo = 1,000 (e.g. kV = kilovolt, kWh = kilowatt-hour, kW = kilowatt)
M mega = 1,000 kilo
G giga = 1,000 mega
FTE fulltime equivalent; unit for expressing total number of staff
based on a full working week
This CSR Report is published in Dutch and English. In the event of any
discrepancies, the Dutch printed version takes precedence.
This CSR Report was printed on PEFC-certified, chlorine-free Lessebo
paper. The Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes
(PEFC) is a global set of standards for sustainable forest management
and supply chain certification. The European Commission stated in 2005
that it considered PEFC and the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) as
equal standards for sustainable forest management (EU A6-0015/2006).
The standards provide an assurance mechanism to purchasers of wood
and paper products that they are promoting the sustainable management
of forests by means of independent assessments.

www.essent.eu
Essent N.V.
Nieuwe Stationsstraat 20
6811 KS Arnhem
P.O. Box 268
6800 AG Arnhem
The Netherlands
Tel.: +31 (0)26 851 1000
Fax: +31 (0)26 851 1389
www.essent.eu
Editing & coordination
Eduard Wijnoldij Daniëls
Chris Arthers
Marga Edens
Joke ten Hove
Marjolijne van Huissteden
Marieke Mooij
Production
Copy
Jan Veenstra, Hoogeveen
Theme location photos and portrait of M.A.M. Boersma
Taco Anema, Amsterdam
Portraits interviews
Paulien de Gaaij Fotografie, Utrecht
Images openingpage dilemmas
ESA p. 31
Thermographic images
Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech p. 45
FLIR Systems Benelux p. 57, 65
Translation
Ernst & Young Language & Translation Services, The Hague
Design, art direction and photography
Design Studio Hans Kentie BNO, Leusden
Lithography and printing
Drukkerij Rosbeek B.V., Nuth
Binding
Binderij Hexspoor B.V., Boxtel
Date of publication: 31 March 2008

Energy demands energy. And energy demands Essent.
With more than 2.7 million private and business customers,
Essent is the Netherlands’ largest energy company. The
company is the Netherlands’ largest producer of sustainable
energy. Essent has more than 90 years’ experience of
generating, trading, transmitting and supplying electricity.
And we have been handling gas for 150 years.
Essent possesses all the knowledge in house to make the
best use of the energy the earth has to offer. Energy that
is everywhere readily available. From wind, sunlight,
biomass, all around us. Essent is unique in knowing how
to make the most efficient and effective use of the available
energy. We put all our energy into that, so that you have
a guarantee of affordable energy for the future. And you can
depend on that.