3.3.4.3 Social innovation
At the very heart of its business lines and via its Foundation, the EDF group develops initiatives promoting new innovative solutions for the most vulnerable.
3.3.4.3.1 Social innovation: a core part of its business
- EDF is developing “Don d’énergie” (i.e. “Energy gift”), a social and digital innovation, in partnership with the Abbé Pierre Foundation. Since the beginning of2019, EDF’s customers with the EDF & MOI application and its newsfeed can make a donation to help vulnerable households pay their electricity bill, irrespective of their electricity supplier. The allocation of these donations is entrusted to Abbé Pierre Foundation, as part of its mission to support the most vulnerable households. EDF matches this tax-free donation.
- EDF has developed several digital tools for its residential customers to help them gain a better understanding of their energy use and reduce their energy use: E.quilibre solution, News Feeds, etc. These tools are rarely used by the most vulnerable households, which often face both digital and energy poverty. EDF R&D is therefore trialling, as part of the “So Mel So Connected” project run by the Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME), training modules for these tools to be implemented in practice by non-profit partners.
- EDF has created mobile spaces specifically designed to allow it to get out and meet people in the heart of the regions, mainly in the poorer districts. In the form of a mobile home, bus or tent, “Mon Appart’Eco Malin” (my smart green flat or MAEM) is designed to explain energy saving tips by presenting concrete uses “just like at home”. The MAEM Box is a fun way of raising awareness about demand side management. The main frame represents the main rooms of a home with its appliances and it also contains a card game with questions on energy saving tips.In 2019, EDF presented the MAEM digital game, an application based on the MAEM Box.
- In 2020, EDF continued its partnership with ASHOKA France (social entrepreneurship) and a network of 7 social innovation accelerators. As part of this, EDF partnered a third call for solutions on a theme developed at a workshop attended by various EDF entities and stakeholders, to help address shared challenges. The aim was to come up with a theme related to the legacy of the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games. EDF received support from ESS2024, the solidarity platform of the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games (bringing together Les Canaux, centres for social, innovative enterprise of the City of Paris, Yunus Centre, Paris2024 and the Olympic delivery authority, SOLIDEO). Under the“Health-driven environments and inclusion” theme (public housing and spaces, health as a core concern of housing; education and infrastructure; sport for health initiatives open to all; social ties, inclusion and local solidarity), EDF will support and assist the five winners.
- As part of its partnership with UNIS-CITES (young people under civic service contracts), the distribution network operator Enedis is working to increase awareness of demand side management and sustainable development issues in the poorest districts, where Enedis is also developing digital inclusion workshops for the most vulnerable.
- ÉS has launched an energy-savings animation project in the form of an EscapeGame, in partnership with EDF, the Bas-Rhin Departmental Council and local partners.
3.3.4.3.2 Social innovation and sponsorship
For more than 30 years, EDF group and its Foundation have supported public interest actions. Their corporate sponsorship policy is based on the values of respect, solidarity and responsibility. Endowed with a budget of €10 million per year, the EDF group Foundation has worked with several Group subsidiaries represented on its Board of Directors to promote a Group approach to corporate sponsorship.
Philanthropic actions are carried out either by the Foundation, or directly managed by EDF SA parent company and the Group’s subsidiaries:
- in France, in 2020, the Foundation supported 180 projects for a total amount of €2.2 million to help combat poverty. It set up an emergency and solidarity fund to help the most economically disadvantaged cope with the economic and social consequences of the health crisis: food aid, accommodation, basic necessities and delivery of computers, for a total amount of €1.3 million (€562,000 emergency +€750,000 solidarity).
- internationally, the Foundation supported 63 projects to combat poverty in an amount of €2.3 million, including 46 projects run by non-profits for which electricity aids in access to water, health, education and development, by providing them with a combination of funding and technical expertise from theGroup’s employees.
- it also earmarked €700,000 to help protect international populations (Africa, Asia, South America) from the health crisis and its economic and social consequences through an international emergency and solidarity fund, which provided 400,000 economically disadvantaged beneficiaries with basic necessities (food, hygiene), access to healthcare, the resources needed to access remote learning, back-to-work schemes and food autonomy.
- among the 37 associations supported, Electricians Without Borders holds a special place as a historical partner of the Group: 13 projects supported in 2020 and financial support for the crisis in Lebanon.
Employee volunteers
Working with associations, the Foundation combines financial support with loans of employees via skills-based sponsorship and volunteer work in France.
- In 2020, its support for international inclusion and education projects involved 22technical skills-based sponsorship assignments over 187 working days by 17 employees in 10 different countries;
- EDF R&D research engineers offered their technological expertise to the public interest, through skills-based sponsorship. In 2020, their skills in physics, mechanics and mathematics were used for the SCIENCES2O24 project to develop innovative solutions and optimise the performance of disabled athletes;
- The Foundation and the EDF group’s regional delegations also encouraged employees to volunteer for associations in the regions. A matching platform (EDFHuman Pacte) has been developed to match offers from associations and employees wishing to get involved: 289 volunteer proposals were registered on the platform and 900 off-platform;
- EDF employees in the UK raised £100,000 for Prostate Cancer UK which was matched by the Company in an amount of £150,000, by running virtual initiatives during the lockdowns: virtual dance classes, virtual treasure hunts, online raffles, personal videos of employees talking about their own prostate cancer experience and how important it is to support the charity.
Education
Education is a key factor for human development and economic growth and helps combat all forms of exclusion. The EDF group Foundation invests nearly €2 million annually in education, in France and abroad. As education is the first step in reducing social and economic inequalities, it finances solutions that attack the root of the employment problems faced by young people in France. Each year, 2,000 trainees from underprivileged backgrounds are welcomed, steered towards the Company via a platform called “Viens voir mon taff” (come see my job), funded by the Foundation.Various major initiatives are implemented for the 100,000 school dropouts who leave the French education system each year without any diploma or qualification.
Internationally, the EDF Foundation helps to improve educational conditions (access to modern teaching tools, provision of evening tutoring, continued teaching even during periods of low amounts of sunshine) and increase the number of children attending school (school canteens, accommodation centres, etc.) mainly by providing schools with power. The Foundation supported five such projects in 2020 representing 5,630 beneficiaries.
