ENERGY firms BP, Wood and Subsea 7 are among six new companies joining a coalition to improve gender diversity and inclusion across the industry.
Drax, Eon and Engie are also among the new additions, together employing more than 66,000 people in the UK.
Subscribe to our daily newsletter
Why? Free to subscribe, no paywall, daily business news digest.
The “Energy Leaders Coalition” (ELC) is a group of senior industry leaders formed in 2018 by the POWERful Women action group.
Shell, SSE and Orsted are already among the inaugural eight members.
POWERful Women highlighted recent analysis from accountancy PwC that representation of women on the boards of the top 80 UK energy firms remains low.
21% of board seats are currently occupied by women, however more than a third (38%) have no women on their boards at all.
Louise Kingham, board member of POWERful Women and CEO of the Energy Insitute, which runs the group, said: “We’re delighted to welcome six new members to the Energy Leaders’ Coalition. Each is demonstrating true leadership on gender diversity and inclusion.
“They recognise that their business will be better equipped for the energy and economic challenges that lie ahead if it can tap into the very best talent available, and they are also sending a powerful message to other major employers in the industry.
“The ELC is a safe space created by POWERful Women for company leaders to interact honestly with their peers and to explore the diversity and inclusion ideas that matter and the strategies that work.
“They find it helpful not just for gender diversity, but for taking care of everyone in their organisation.
“We’re looking forward to working with the new members to ramp up progress on female representation in the sector as we still have a long way to go.”
