Our Communities

Community engagement and social investment

At Drax, we are committed to partnering with our local communities to make a positive contribution to their lives and livelihoods. We do this through active community engagement combined with local social investment that is delivered through the Drax Foundation and Community Fund.

Community engagement

We are committed to implementing comprehensive Community Engagement Plans by 2026 in each of the communities where Drax owns and operates an asset. This process will include active consultation and informed participation where necessary. For example, we have started to hold local focus groups and ‘listening’ sessions, to improve our understanding of the concerns and priorities of our neighbours. We are also establishing Community Advisory Panels to feed into priority areas for our Community Fund and improve a two-way exchange of information. We will also establish a groupwide Resolution Mechanism to receive, track and respond to community grievances and suggestions in a timely manner.  

£3.6 million – Donated in 2024

Drax Foundation

The Drax Foundation provides grants of £25,000 to £150,000 for non-profit organizations in the UK, US and Canada that improve equitable access to STEM education, community green spaces, and measures to address fuel poverty and energy-efficiency.  

Drax Foundation selection criteria
Drax Foundation Annual Review 2024

Drax Community Fund

Each of the communities where Drax operates has unique needs and challenges. Our Community Fund was established to support grassroots organisations and activities with donations of £500 to £10,000. This year, we started the process to set up new Community Advisory Panels to help us identify priority areas for support and build relationships with local non-profits and community groups.  

Community Fund focus areas: 

  • Education, life skills and employability 
  • Health, well-being, and safety  
  • Youth programmes 
  • Essential community services  
  • Improving community buildings and public spaces 

£695.3K in charitable giving through our Community Fund in 2023 

Submit an Expression of Interest to the Community Fund

Indigenous Peoples

Drax recognises the profound relationships that Indigenous people have with the land on which we operate and from which we source raw materials. We are committed to engaging with those communities to ensure we respectfully listen to, learn from and understand concerns related to our operations and those of our suppliers.

Ethics and Human rights

We have introduced our Ethical due diligence programme and this underpins several of our Business Ethics programmes by helping to identify initial and ongoing risks associated with a proposed commercial relationship. In 2024, a project commenced to strengthen our supplier data and supplier on-boarding process and systems beyond biomass.

Activity relating to the Supply Chain Human Rights programme is set out in our latest Modern Slavery Statement.