Community involvement

CHARITY AND SOCIAL ACTIVITIES

PGE Group is actively involved in social activities. In 2014, we adopted the CCI procedure, which identifies the main areas of PGE Group's community involvement. PGE Group's Code of Ethics is an important document addressing this area, with the following rule: "We care about relations with local communities”. PGE Foundation and PGE Energia Ciepła Foundation are the pillars of our community involvement.

The objective of PGE Foundation, which was set up in 2011, is to support the development of local communities and implementation of in-house social programmes. Foundation's key operating areas:

• Social assistance.
• Science and education.
• Medicine and healthcare.
• Support for culture and national heritage.
• Ecological activities and environmental protection.

In 2017, PGE Foundation gave out donations worth PLN 4 million.

Local community support is also pursued through PGE's employee volunteering programme "Pomagamy(“We Help”).

PGE's volunteering initiatives by the numbers:

• Number of employees involved in PGE's employee volunteering programme "We Help" in 2017: 276, including from PGE S.A.: 17.
• Number of volunteering hours in 2017: 12,500, including hours worked by PGE S.A. employees: 1,077.
• Number of projects completed in 2014-2017: 160, including projects completed by PGE S.A. employees: 14.

PGE Energia Ciepła Foundation is an important element of PGE Group's community involvement. It organises one of the largest arts festivals in the country - Nationwide Festival for Art Songs OFPA, as well as events such as the Nationwide Theatre Arts Festival and the Rybnik Festival of Photography. It also hosts workshops for kids and youth, including cyclical debates and competitions. The Foundation organises numerous meetings and special events for kids, such as Kids' Day, winter breaks, summer camps and many educational campaigns (e.g. Safe Kindergartener), which served as the location of numerous meetings and competitions for kids from local kindergartens. PGE Energia Ciepła Foundation also helps those in need and is behind the idea to mobilise the elderly.

PGE Energia Ciepła's branches and companies run programmes to support socially sensitive customers. Their beneficiaries include NGOs, foundations and associations that act for people in hardship and for families in need referred by social assistance centres.

On the coast, PGE Energia Ciepła together with Gdańsk-based distributor OPEC Sp. z o.o. conducts the "Pass the heat forward" campaign. This is a campaign that supports the most valuable initiatives by NGOs and social economy entities from the Tri-City (Gdańsk, Gdynia and Sopot) area. In 2017, the campaign's key theme was "Inter-generational city in open social spaces." Nearly 20,000 votes were cast for the best projects in an online vote. Cash prizes were given to three NGOs from Gdańsk and Gdynia.

In 2017, PGE EJ1 conducted the third edition of the Programme to Support Development of Site Municipalities, initiated in 2015, which aims to assist the following municipalities:
Choczewo, Krokowa and Gniewino, as well as disseminate knowledge about nuclear energy, building social acceptance for this source of energy and support the investment process effectiveness. The company is involved in selected infrastructure projects that support its on-going and future needs. It also supports social engagement by members of local NGOs and public entities involved in culture, education, parenting and social assistance, thus inspiring them to work for the common good. The programme provides funding or co-funding for initiatives located with the prospective site municipalities that help them to develop and are addressed to residents and tourists. These are educational and informational activities that promote knowledge about nuclear energy, activities related to the local labour market and vocational learning, supporting municipal investment projects as well as charitable and sponsoring initiatives. The programme's beneficiaries are: local government authorities, residents and organisations from the municipalities where the nuclear plant might be located as well as the Puck and Wejherowo poviats.

PGE Group also initiates pro-environment campaigns. In 2017, PGE Group companies' employees together with schools and local communities across the country planted 80,000 trees in a campaign entitled "Forest full of energy."

PGE Energia Ciepła becomes involved in local initiatives related to ecology and environmental protection, including in Gdynia and Rybnik.

In 2017, PGE Energia Odnawialna sponsored the social initiative "Cinema on bicycles." This event combining culture with ecology and "green" energy was organised on the Children’s Day. A module was placed in front of the Palace of Culture and Science with 20 "energy bicycles." During the campaign, short films showing humans' relations with nature and the surrounding world were shown. All electricity needed for the movies was produced by the cyclists on stationary bikes.

Moreover, the Foundation also implements social programmes such as:

• "Energy of Innovation" - a competition for young scientists who get an opportunity for business cooperation with PGE Group. Innovative solutions from PGE Group's business areas can be submitted to this competition.
  More information: https://www.gkpge.pl/fundacja/Programy/Energia-Innowacji

• "Energy Backpack" – a campaign started over a decade ago by energy professionals in Łódź. First-graders from families suffering hardship, selected by local social assistance centres, receive backpacks with school supplies. In 2017, PGE Foundation together with PGE S.A., PGE Dystrybucja, PGE GiEK, PGE Systemy an PGE EJ 1 prepared over 3,000 Energetic Backpacks with the most essential school supplies.
  More information: https://www.gkpge.pl/fundacja/Programy/Energetyczny-tornister 
• In 2017, PGE Foundation and Cultura Memoriae continued a project as part of which Christmas packages are given to Warsaw-based veterans. Overall in 2016-2017 1,000 packages were given to the veteran community.

PHILANTHROPY AND SPONSORING

Sponsoring activity is part of PGE Group's strategy, which is used to strengthen its brand and increase its impact.

The key objectives in this area include the creation of social capital and provision of assistance as part of corporate social responsibility activities. PGE's key sponsoring areas are sports and culture. The strategic marketing goal of PGE Group is to retain existing clients and gain new ones. Sponsorship activities promote the PGE brand, increasing its recognition and reach. Sponsorship activities help in building PGE's reputation and garnering public support; they also help in achieving CSR objectives.

As the leader of the Polish energy market, in order to reinforce its brand the Group serves as the name partner for the PGE Narodowy arena, where the Polish football team plays its games. PGE Narodowy is the most cutting-edge multi-functional arena in Poland and host to many other sporting and cultural events, which helps to increase brand recognition. In 2017, the PGE brand, by sponsoring PGE Narodowy, appeared in nearly 229,000 transmissions and publications, including over 62,000 TV news reports and more than 57,000 online publications. This project's effectiveness reached 335% in 2017.

PGE Group works with professional teams in various sports that are fans' favourites, including volleyball, basketball, football and handball. In 2017, we sponsored PGE Skra Bełchatów (volleyball), PGE Viva Kielce (handball), PGE GKS Bełchatów (football).

From 2015, PGE S.A. is the name sponsor of speedway world league - PGE Ekstraliga. Thanks to games played in eight Polish cities as well as TV broadcasts, the promotion of the PGE brand is highly effective. This project's effectiveness reached 750% in 2017.

PGE Group also supports local initiatives related to promoting amateur sports, especially by promoting sports amongst children and youth. In June 2017, we launch an amateur sponsorship initiative for the most interesting projects.

PGE is also sharing the positive energy radiating from culture and arts by sponsoring valuable cultural initiatives, both national and local. It supports Polish culture and history, caring for national heritage and historical remembrance. Sponsoring cultural events allows PGE S.A. to actively participate in the mission of developing and protecting culture and to build its own image as an entity investing in culture and deriving benefits from its development.

PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna S.A. has for many years been receiving the title of Patron of the Year of the Warsaw Philharmonic. This award is given not just for supporting concerts but also for contribution to the musical education of kids and youth. Other music projects that PGE S.A. has been supporting for years are: Music Festival in Łańcut, which became a world-renown event, and the Crazy Days of Music, an international festival with the idea of combating prejudices against classical music by encouraging and facilitating participation in concerts, while at the same time maintaining the highest possible quality of music presentation. A new classical music project is the Mozart Festival in Warsaw.

Caring for Polish national heritage, PGE supports the Warsaw Uprising Museum and especially its in-house educational projects for kids and youth.

This year, the Company also sponsored the Youth for History project, a part of the Niepokorni Niezłomni Wyklęci Film Festival. Its idea is to commemorate Poland's difficult road to freedom and raise interest in history amongst the young generation. Young people through their own initiatives are becoming involved in the process of learning about and commemorating the heroes of 1939-1989.

PGE Energia Ciepła's branch in Kraków supports the Kraków Festival Office KBF and its concerts. In 2017, the CHP plants in Gdańsk and Gdynia once again sponsored artistic events at the Polish Baltic Philharmonic. The power plant in Rybnik traditionally sponsors Rybnik's Juwenalia event, while the CHP plant in Zielona Góra sponsors the European Museum Nights.

Research conducted in evaluating projects in terms of their impact on relations with communities that are of importance to PGE Group or specific PGE Group companies, media reception, increase in PGE brand prestige, showed high effectiveness of the activities we undertook in 2017.