This year marks the third time that SSE has measured and published its economic impact. We contributed £8.8bn to the UK economy and supported around 106,000 jobs in 2014/15, the study conducted by professional services firm PwC found.
That’s equivalent to around 0.6% of total UK GDP, which is a pretty staggering figure for the impact of one company when you to stop to think about it.
But what’s new this year is something we think is something of a first for a UK company – namely that we have integrated our economic impact into our annual financial results.
That may sound like a technicality in terms of the way we report; but it is a significant milestone for a company of our size and scale.
It represents part of our company’s commitment to be transparent about its wider impact and its belief that a company’s contribution to the economy and society is about more than its financial results.
Over the past three years, based on data from SSE and statistics authorities such as the UK’s Office for National Statistics, PwC has used economic modelling to estimate that SSE has contributed £27.4bn to the UK economy. Each year it’s supported on average, 110,000 jobs.
And we hope these numbers will keep growing. In the coming years, SSE is committed to investing around £1.5-1.7bn a year, equivalent to £4m a day, so I’m pleased the economic impact of our work is being fully assessed and included in our full year results for all to see.
The full report examines the direct and indirect contribution to UK employment and GDP as well as in SSE’s supply chain spending and the impact of employee spending.
At SSE we know our impacts are not simply about what we do, it matters how we do it too. Delivering energy to people’s homes and businesses carries a huge responsibility.
We aim to be responsible in all that we do, and set our sights higher than just worrying about the bottom line. Being transparent is a key part of that process and to find out more about how we are meeting this responsibility go to: sse.com/beingresponsible/