Be the change.
We’re all about looking to the future and seeing what’s next, but we also like to look back and see how far we’ve come. We celebrate our achievement as much as we celebrate setting new ambitions. Because our current successes springboard to future one. And we’re confident that we’ll only keep on progressing. So you can be the future, and the change that makes it happen.
Being the future
We’re always looking for ways to level up what we’re doing for the environment and sustainability, and to keep the progress going. Earlier in 2022 we appointed our first ESG and Sustainability Manager, Bhav Somal. Here are some of our other goals.
Environment
We’re proud to be a carbon neutral business, and, though, we set our Net Zero date to 2040, we’re already well on our way. We’ve reduced tCO2e intensity ratios by 22.6% and tCO2e emissions by 7.2%. Not to mention, we rolled out a comprehensive vehicle telematics programme, as well as a Monthly Green Moments engagement programme. We’re looking to the future, and doing everything we can to make it happen, and help it shine.
Governance
Being a great place to work, where our people feel valued, means also focusing on being safe. We’ve got 3,000 digital security points that are checked every day, and are thrilled to say we’ve had no data breaches or successful cyberattacks. Our first year with Cyber Essentials Plus and cyber insurance has been great success.
We’ve seen a 99.9% uptime across the business since 2017. More than a hundred staff joined us for Business Engagement Training. And, with £500,000 invested into sales’ human resources, we’re committed to improving.
Cutting waste, boosting recycling
We’re got a priority to cut our waste, and ramp up recycling. Starting immediately. Though we’ve got many types of waste and sources in our portfolio, we’re striving to pinpoint solutions. A vital part of that is following the waste hierarchy; limiting how much waste we produce in the first place, recycling or reusing as much as we can, and ensuring anything left is sent for incineration. So it can be converted into energy, and not sent to a landfill.
Biodiversity - A fresh approach
From buzzing bees to beautiful plants, clean air and so much more - the value of biodiversity surrounds us every day. Playing our part to protect it is fundamental, and an exciting step on our ESG journey. 40% of the world’s insects are threatened by pollution and 75% of fundamental crops depend on pollinators like bees.
Just some of the great things we’re doing to protect biodiversity include exploring having a certain number of bee and insect boxes as a percentage of waste materials per contract from 2023. We’re planning to monitor the air quality inside our offices, and to collect rainwater in water butts to use to water our lovely plants. Our staff will also be encouraged to take cuttings to propagate plants at home, and bring in cuttings for us to use.
Our social value pledges
We want to be an ethical business partner. The kind that engages with smaller, local businesses and traders throughout our supply chain, and tries to keep money within the communities we work in. That’s why we support Social Value.
In May 2021, we purchased Thrive, a software tool which means we can capture and value our social social, economic and environmental impact. Our plan is to use it as a tool to measure our social contribution, as well as a sales tool to measure our potential social value contribution against the National Themes, Outcomes and Measures (TOMs) and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Public contracts make up 57% of our client base, so we’re so excited about elevating our Social Value offering.
Supporting our communities
We’re committed to giving back. For the last 3 years, we’ve supported Alzheimer’s UK. Resuming in 2023 after COVID-19 put it on hold, our chosen charity gets reviewed every year and staff will pick a charity from a list of 6 options, encouraging team buy-in to the chosen cause. We also love to encourage our staff to get involved with charity work by giving them a paid ‘Charity Day’ every year, which they can use to support any charity they choose.
“This year, we have set so many new ESG targets that the whole list is too long to share at the beginning of this annual report. This speaks volumes about our appetite for positive disruption in the decade ahead.”
My favourite thing about my role is getting involved with every aspect of the hard and soft services at the hospital, and seeing how the place operates. I like being involved in various projects as well as day-to-day management as it’s a challenging environment that keeps you busy and interested.
Social
We’ve also been busy making things great for our people, so we can help them shine. We launched a New People Strategy (2021-2023) and restructured our HR to give effectiveness a boost. To help our employees reach the top of their game, we clocked in 6,077 hours of employee training, as well as holding an Annual Beacon Awards ceremony to celebrate their achievements. But we’ve also been focused on how they’re feeling, as well as performing, that’s why we designed a bespoke internal communication platform and appointed our very first Mental Health First Aider.