Our commitment to Business Excellence began in 1993 when we set out our quality strategy. In 1995 this was reinforced when we introduced the European Foundation for Quality Management's (EFQM) Business Excellence Model and with it the process of self-assessment as our template for change management.
Since then we have adopted a number of improvement initiatives, which act as building blocks to strengthen our approach to Excellence and worldclass performance as described within the criteria of the EFQM Model. These include:

1996	Balanced Scorecards
1997	Charter Mark Accreditation
1997	ISO 9002 Quality Management Accreditation
1998	Investor in People Accreditation
2000	Adoption of Six Sigma problem-solving methodology (the first utility company outside the USA to adopt the concept).
2001	ISO 9001 Quality Management Accreditation
2001	ISO14001 Environmental Management Accreditation (a first for the entire operations of a UK utility).

Our approach has matured to the point where business excellence is embedded in our normal business activities. Measures of our progress include winning the Northern Ireland Millennium Business Excellence Award and the 2001 UK Business Excellence Award.