 
The entrepreneurial success of our company is not only reflected in its economic indicators. Awareness of its social responsibility has also numbered among the factors contributing to its success that have influenced its long-term, positive developments.
From this sense of corporate identity, MVV Energie has committed itself in a number of ways within its social environment. Within the framework of integrated corporate and brand-name communication on the one hand, our activities are aimed at enhancing the public awareness of MVV Energie and its participations in the respective regions. Excellent customer relations and successful measures to establish ties to customers are of particular importance for an energy distributor. On the other hand, we want to prove that we are responsible partners and good neighbours in the regions, in which we do business. This purpose is served by our commitment to environmental protection as well as by our wide-ranging measures to promote the scientific, cultural, sports and social realms.
Scientific Research
In fiscal year 2002/03, we continued to cultivate our long and intensive partnership with the University of Mannheim. With a grant to the university’s alumni association AbsolventUM, we made a lecture series on economic and corporate ethics possible during the summer semester of 2003. Moreover, many of our employees have been regularly holding lectures in financial, personnel, contractual, economic and labour law. By endowing half of a research-assistant’s slot, we have supported a dissertation on a real-world theme related to labour law. In addition, we have endowed a programme at the Jagiellonen University of Cracow, within the framework of which a School of German Law has been established there. Furthermore, we have been co-operating with the Central Energy and Environmental Research Department at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the U.S. and have been working with the Energy Industry Institute University of Cologne. Finally, we have been supporting a large number of interns and degree candidates from Germany and abroad. All of these activities have underscored our great and undiminished interest in fostering education. This remains a timely theme for our employees; their advanced training is also a major priority for us at MVV Energie.
Culture
With our commitment to art and culture, we intend to support and preserve cultural events in times of lean public budgets. For this reason we are financially committed to the annual Mozart Week at the National Theatre in Mannheim. In 2002/03 our financial commitment, however, also aided concerts of the Kurpfalz Chamber Orchestra, Jazz at the Opera and a number of other cultural events in Mannheim. In addition, our participations have also been supporting cultural events in their regions: Concerts presented by the Wintergarden in Offenbach have received financial backing from EVO. The Ingolstadt public utility has shown a strong commitment to its local municipal theatre and the Künstlerinnentage, a project to promote equal opportunities for women in culture and society.
Sports
With sports we associate performance and strength, perseverance and teamwork – values that MVV Energie also stands for. We have devoted particular attention to promoting sports for the youth of our region. Hence we sponsor, for example, the MVV Energie Cup each year in cooperation with the Rot-Weiss Rheinau sports club, a football tournament for young teams from various age groups. In Offenbach, EVO has been supporting the Samurai 1953 judo club, which focuses its activities on working with children and teenagers, particularly in judo and jujutsu.
We also support exceptional athletes, such as Olympic show-jumping gold medallist Ludger Beerbaum, and international sports events such as the equestrian tournament at Mannheim’s annual Maimarkt. Moreover, we are committed to supporting top sports teams, such as hockey pros Adler Mannheim as well as several football and handball clubs. However, we ended our commitment to SV Waldhof Mannheim 07 after the 2002/2003 season as they were not able to fulfil the conditions for continued support – namely remaining in the 2nd Division of the German Football League (GFL) and merging with VfR Mannheim. Additional clubs are supported by our participations; for example, the ERC Ingolstadt hockey team is sponsored by the Ingolstadt public utility (SWI).
Social Activities
With our activities in the social realm, we would like to contribute new energy and to provide encouragement. In 2002/03, the clinic at the University of Mannheim thus received support for setting up an interdisciplinary centre for pain and radiation therapy. EVO has been funding the initiatives of the Clown Doctors, a non-profit organisation that entertains child patients in the paediatrics hospitals in the Rhine-Main region. Another non-profit organisation, Help for Children Whose Parents Suffer from Cancer, received financial aid from EVO in 2002/03. Our participation, the Solingen public utility (SWS), has been speaking out on behalf of greater tolerance and showing the courage of one’s convictions for more than two years via its funding initiative "Take a Stand against Racism!" Numerous events have taken place in the name of this slogan, such as theatre performances and a handball game between two teams from the German Handball League (GHL), SG Solingen, SWS’s sponsoring partner, and SG Leutershausen, which is sponsored by MVV Energie. They have all received support from this initiative. With nearly 40 projects in all, SWS has sent a clear signal against racism and open hostility towards people of other cultures.
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