Drax sponsors York Pride celebrations

Renewable energy company Drax has sponsored York Pride this weekend as part of its commitment to supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Around the world, Pride celebration and events take place every June. It celebrates love and friendship, recognises how far LGBTQ+ rights have come and shows unity and support for the LGBTQ+ community

This year Drax is celebrating Pride and diversity through community sponsorships, key events and sharing individual stories.

Jess Peacock, DE&I Senior Manager at Drax said: “All colleagues deserve to feel safe, valued and included at work and our commitment to an inclusive environment at Drax is integral to our values.

“Pride is an important time for me personally, and a time for me to share and celebrate my queer identity. The freedom to be myself and feel accepted is an important part of this. We’re pleased that we were able to support the local Pride celebrations in York last weekend.”

Lauren Batchelor, Drax Treasury Manager, said: “My experiences at Drax have been very positive and it’s great that Drax has set up a LGBTQ+ Colleague Resource Group, which provides a safe space and where both people who are part of the community and allies can come together.”

Robin Fussell, Metering Administrator, added: “I am proud to work for an organisation such as Drax. The Colleague Resource Groups (CRG), promotion of Pride and organisational polices encourage a safe, welcome environment, whereby I can be myself, whether that be through my sexuality or how I identify myself, without fear of being isolated, discriminated, bullied, or harassed.”

The company is running a full schedule of events for employees during the month of June to celebrate Pride including a panel of external speakers and sharing colleague blogs on the theme of ‘What Pride Means To Me’.

ENDS

Photo caption: Drax employees at the York Pride celebrations last weekend

Media contacts:

Megan Hopgood
Communications Officer
E: [email protected]
T: 07936 350 175

About Drax

Drax Group’s purpose is to enable a zero carbon, lower cost energy future and in 2019 announced a world-leading ambition to be carbon negative by 2030, using bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) technology.

Drax’s around 3,000 employees operate across three principal areas of activity – electricity generation, electricity sales to business customers and compressed wood pellet production and supply to third parties. For more information visit www.drax.com

Power generation:

Drax owns and operates a portfolio of renewable electricity generation assets in England and Scotland. The assets include the UK’s largest power station, based at Selby, North Yorkshire, which supplies five percent of the country’s electricity needs.

Having converted Drax Power Station to use sustainable biomass instead of coal it has become the UK’s biggest renewable power generator and the largest decarbonisation project in Europe. It is also where Drax is piloting the groundbreaking negative emissions technology BECCS within its CCUS (Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage) Incubation Area.

Its pumped storage, hydro and energy from waste assets in Scotland include Cruachan Power Station – a flexible pumped storage facility within the hollowed-out mountain Ben Cruachan.

The Group also aims to build on its BECCS innovation at Drax Power Station with a target to deliver 4 million tonnes of negative CO2 emissions each year from new-build BECCS outside of the UK by 2030 and is currently developing models for North American and European markets.

Pellet production and supply:

The Group has 19 operational pellet plants and developments with nameplate production capacity of around 5 million tonnes a year.

Drax is targeting 8 million tonnes of production capacity by 2030, which will require the development of over 3 million tonnes of new biomass pellet production capacity. The pellets are produced using materials sourced from sustainably managed working forests and are supplied to third party customers in Europe and Asia for the generation of renewable power.

Drax’s pellet plants supply biomass used at its own power station in North Yorkshire, England to generate flexible, renewable power for the UK’s homes and businesses, and also to customers in Europe and Asia.

Customers: 

Drax supplies renewable electricity to UK businesses, offering a range of energy-related services including energy optimisation, as well as electric vehicle strategy and management.

To find out more go to the website energy.drax.com