American Electric Power 2008 Corporate Sustainability Report

2008 Corporate Sustainability Report 57 Stakeholder Engagement To be successful we must work with many different stakeholders on an ongoing basis, not only when we need them. We face complex, global issues that require collaboration in order to achieve solutions. We must listen with an open mind to build mutually advantageous relationships that are grounded in trust, respect, honesty and a shared commitment to collaboration. Whether we succeed will be for others to determine. In the spirit of living these values, we organized a series of eight stakeholder meetings in 2007 and 2008 in order to hear different points of view on issues such as environmental performance and discussions about work force planning and mountaintop mining. We reached out to customers, regulators, employees, community leaders, environmental groups, labor, conservationists, educators, investors and neighbors of our power plants. Through this process, we learned about what we are doing well and received constructive suggestions for improvement. This AEP, in partnership with the Columbus Housing Partnership, supported construction of this LEED home that will be sold to a low-income family. Solar panels will provide part of the home’s energy. Network, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), Ceres, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Kimberly Clark Corp., Texas Public Utilities Commission, Ohio University, Whirlpool Corp., Appalachian Trail Conservancy, Small Farm Institute of Ohio, AllianceBernstein Investments, Lord Abbett & Co., a neighbor of our Rockport Plant, University of Arkansas and many of our employees. Many stakeholders were surprised that we invited them to participate in this process and welcomed the openness it signaled. We asked them to be candid and assured them we were listening with an open mind. We learned a lot about how we are perceived, how we can improve, and how to forge relationships we never expected to have. Through this process we were able to identify gaps in our reporting, such as a lack of information on mercury issues. Our employees expressed concerns about aging work force issues and related them to safety risks for inexperienced workers. Some employees did not under- section reflects some of what we heard and how this report was influenced by our stakeholder engagement. To foster neutrality, AEP engaged SustainAbility, a London-based firm, to facilitate six of the meetings. Stakeholders and AEP management, including power plant managers, senior executives and operating company presidents, had wide-ranging discussions on issues of mutual concern. These discussions will serve as a foundation for integrating stakeholder engagement as an ongoing process within our companies and at our power plants. Among those we met with were representatives of the Indiana Consumer Counsel, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA), the Environmental Defense Fund, Arkansas Sierra Club, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Oklahoma Sustainability stand our approach to carbon offsets; one employee said it sounded like “we can’t live up to all the expectations so let’s buy some mulligans.” One investor told us his clients are increasingly asking what companies are doing to be good stewards and recommended we reach out more to socially responsible investors. The language and terminology we use came into question at times. One stakeholder asked if we are opposed to tary” in talking about regulations. Others asked us to stop using the term “clean coal” because coal is not clean in their eyes. Nearly everyone who participated in these discussions agreed AEP must do more to educate customers, policymakers and the general public about the true value of electricity and the impact that unreasonable carbon regulaStakeholder Engagement mandates we don’t like when we say “reasonable and volun- T John Martin, left, chairman of The Images for Conservation Fund, and Julio Reyes, vice president of external affairs, AEP Texas

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of American Electric Power 2008 Corporate Sustainability Report

American Electric Power 2008 Corporate Sustainability Report Contents Leadership, Management & Strategy A Message from Michael G. Morris A Message from Dennis E. Welch About This Report Environmental Performance Work Force Issues Public Policy Climate Change Energy Security, Reliability & Growth Stakeholder Engagement Glossary GRI Table of Contents

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