Community impact

At Ørsted, we want our projects to make a genuine difference for the people who live near them – helping local communities realise their potential and prosper.

To achieve this, we’re creating jobs that bring prosperity to our employees, their families and the local communities where we operate. We are also cultivating tomorrow’s skilled workforce by helping locals develop the skills it takes to further the renewable energy transition.

Beyond job creation, we’re investing in numerous infrastructure and other local projects designed to improve life for people in the communities where we operate.

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Understanding our impact

To make sure our community initiatives address areas where they can deliver real value, we need a better understanding of the impact we make.

To this end, we’re working with community stakeholders, industry experts, and policymakers on strengthening the way we measure, analyse, and understand our socio-economic impact. Part of this work involves collaborative work in global forums such as the WEF Responsible Renewables Infrastructure initiative and the Taskforce for Inequality and Social Related Financial Disclosures (TISFD).

Local job creation

Our record on job creation speaks for itself. Just by way of example, the construction of our Greater Changhua 1 and 2a offshore wind farms in Taiwan created 8,300 local jobs – not to mention jobs created via our 1,200 contracts signed with 200 local suppliers.

In the US, our first three offshore wind projects created more than 1,400 jobs representing over 3 million work hours, with 92 % of these positions filled by union workers. The picture is similar in Europe, our biggest market, where we’ve hired tens of thousands of local union workers to help construct and operate offshore wind projects in seven countries.

Needless to say, respect for human and labour rights underpins all our relations wherever we work. 

Community work beyond jobs

Our broader work on community impact includes initiatives within these and other areas:

• Growing industrial ecosystems – supporting the growth of whole industrial ecosystems that create jobs, develop talent, grow businesses, and promote innovation.
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• Including disadvantaged groups – ensuring that opportunities created by renewable energy are accessible to marginalised communities.
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• Designing for coexistence – strengthening local participation and engagement so communities have a voice from the very start.