In 5 years of the EDP Volunteer Programme, more than 20% of employees have participated in the EDP Group's volunteering initiatives in all geographies.

What began as a matter of goodwill became, in 2011, part of the company's culture, with the approval of a monthly allocation of 4 hours of work for employees to volunteer.

The results confirm that this initiative has been winning more and more adherents: starting with 1,300 volunteers in 2011, the company had 2,500 in 2016.

The first initiative - Part of Us Hospitals - held in 2011 in Portugal, involved more than 1,500 volunteers getting down to business.

Part of Us the following Christmas reached all of the EDP Group's geographies.

The next year, a new Part of Us emerged, focusing on forests this time, and in the following years, the environment as a whole.

Today, through initiatives such as the Electricity Exchange, staff who correct faults, perform system upgrades and replacement, and help institutions make savings; "Low-Invoices", electricians who through energy checks help institutions reduce costs; and Lean Volunteering, based on the Lean methodology, which helps institutions implement improvements in management processes, the objective of the EDP Group is to invest more and more in volunteering, placing EDP employees' skills at the service of the community.

Today, on International Volunteer Day, another edition of the Part of Us Christmas 2016 programme started. Every year, during December and January, this initiative challenges EDP employees to leave the office one morning or one afternoon to deliver a more humane Christmas to those who need it the most.

In 2015, Part of Us Christmas broke all records: 1,731 participants in all geographies where EDP is present volunteered more than 10,000 hours of service, through 134 initiatives to provide a better Christmas for more than 9,500 people, across 116 institutions involved.

This year's edition in Portugal involves more than 1000 employees, in initiatives throughout the country, such as: Christmas snacks, visits to EDP projects, renovation of institutional spaces and training of unemployed people.