American Electric Power 2008 Corporate Sustainability Report

6 Leadership, Management & Strategy About This Report OUR CORPORATE VISION achieve compliance and to reduce risks to the environment and the health of our communities. • Work Force Issues: Protecting our employees’ safety and health and ensuring that we have a skilled, diverse work force to build, operate and maintain new generation, transmission and distribution technologies are imperative if we are to remain an industry leader. • Public Policy: We must actively engage policymakers, employees, community leaders and other stakeholders to ensure that public policy, laws and regulations allow us to continue to serve our customers, reward our shareholders and pursue our vision for sustainability. • Climate Change: We are one of the largest greenhouse gas emitters in the Western Hemisphere. Our sustainability and financial stability, and the economic well-being of our service territory, are at risk if we are not able to prosper with the proposed passage of a U.S. climate policy. Our success will be based on our ability to work with technology providers to bring new Rockport Plant, Indiana We seek to maintain our leadership as one of the largest generation and transmission companies in the United States and as the largest electric distribution business throughout the regions we serve, and to be a leader in technical innovation of power systems, environmental technology, transmission systems and customer service. OUR VISION FOR SUSTAINABILITY American Electric Power enters its second century committed to operating responsibly, efficiently and profitably for customers, shareholders, employees and communities. We will safely provide reliable, reasonably priced electric power while working to protect people and the environment. We will engage stakeholders and continue our role in making people’s lives better today and for generations to come. MATERIALITY Like last year’s report, this report covers seven material issues identified by management and our Board of Directors that (1) have a significant impact on the fi- technologies to commercial scale. • Energy Security, Reliability & Growth: nances or operation of the company; (2) have significant impact on the environment or society now or in the future; or (3) substantially influence the assessments and decisions of stakeholders. Our seven material issues are: • Leadership, Management & Strategy: Sustainability requires a strong and committed leadership team willing to be aggressive and take prudent risks to maintain AEP’s role as an industry leader, meet the needs of our customers, deliver value to our shareholders and meet our sustainability vision. • Environmental Performance: Although environmental laws and regulations are complex and change frequently, we must comply at all times, and we have made significant investments in order to do so. Our challenge is to continually Our electric delivery system must be modern, reliable and keep pace with customer demand with a diverse fuel supply. This requires us to collaborate with regulators, legislators and other stakeholders not only to create and maintain such a system, but to ensure timely regulatory cost recovery. • Stakeholder Engagement: We need to work closely with our numerous stakeholders, such as investors, customers, employees, regulators and policymakers. If we are to be sustainable, we must be transparent and listen to all points of view while measuring and holding ourselves accountable for our impacts. STAKEHOLDER REVIEW OF THIS REPORT American Electric Power conducted eight stakeholder meet-

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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