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ESG Policy

 

Introduction

Our business impacts the environment as well as wider society and we believe that managing this is more than just a policy to adhere to. Instead, we see this as a way of thinking and a holistic approach to everything we do in running our business. We are determined to conduct ourselves ethically and with integrity at all times and to make a positive impact on the areas in which we operate.

 

Environmental:
  • Use of chemicals
  • Energy usage and carbon footprint
  • Sustainability in our supply chain

 

Social:
  • Our approach to equality, diversity and inclusion
  • Our commitments
  • Our performance
  • Working in partnership with our customers

 

Governance:
  • Diversity in our senior leadership team
  • Mitigating risks in our supply chain
  • Corporate reporting

 

 

Environmental

 

Our intention is to minimise our impact on the environment wherever possible and we do this in a variety of ways:

 

Use of chemicals

 

We limit the use of chemicals wherever we can – when we do need to use chemicals, we choose them in line with COSHH guidance to ensure our impact is as minimal as it can be.

 

  • We use the Toucan Eco chemical-free cleaning system at our Leyland head office and on 20% of the sites we manage. Toucan Eco uses only salt and electrolysed water, meaning it is green and very clean – and it kills up to 99.99% of viruses and bacteria.
  • In the next year our intention is to further increase this ratio by 50%
  • We source many of our other cleaning chemicals from Selden (which follows a stringent 8-point environmental policy) and Robert Scott – both companies also use external accreditations including ISO14001 meaning that their standards are independently verified.

 

Energy usage and carbon footprint

65% of the energy we use at our head office is generated on-site via solar panels. The remainder is purchased only from renewable sources, and we look to reduce our electricity and water consumption at every opportunity.

We work with our customers to help reduce energy consumption on their sites whenever possible.  This includes reviewing overnight cleaning operations when appropriate in order to move to a twilight operation where we can and where heating and lighting are historically only being used to facilitate cleaning tasks.

  • We also have 4 hybrid or electric vehicles within our insurance fleet, and we are looking to increase this number as other vehicles are renewed.
  • To further reduce our carbon footprint, we hold client and staff meetings remotely where this is appropriate – but we balance this with regular site visits to ensure we get to see our staff and customers face to face as well.
  • In terms of our site teams, we offer a cycle-to-work scheme, and the current take-up rate is 2% – our aim is to grow this number to 10% over the next 3 years.

 

Sustainability in our supply chain
  • We spend over £100,000 per year on uniforms to ensure our teams are always looking smart and presented professionally – we are working with innovative suppliers such as Ralawise who are working on new technologies such as clothing made from recycled plastic bottles.
  • We source our cleaning equipment from trusted suppliers like Karcher and Glutton and we operate on a long-term hire model wherever possible – this helps to reduce cost for customers, extends the life cycle of the equipment and reduces the need for replacing existing fully functioning machines with brand new ones.
  • Karcher and ePowerTrucks supply us and our customers with 100% electric machines and both have sustainability and the environment at the heart of what they do.
  • Karcher has pledged to plant a tree for every piece of equipment we hire from them.
  • When we introduce our customers to waste providers, we only work with accredited suppliers with strong green credentials and the emphasis is always on recycling wherever we can. We work with suppliers like Biffa, B&M, and Saica Natur – we never send waste to landfill.
  • We use the Trackforce Valiant system on many of our sites – this is a completely paperless security management software platform which further reduces our environmental impact. Our intention is to roll this out to all of our sites by the end of 2025.

We have made a further commitment to the environment by pledging to plant a tree for every member of our team.

 

Social

 

Our approach to equality, diversity, and inclusion. We are committed to encouraging and celebrating equality, diversity, and inclusion among our workforce, and eliminating unlawful discrimination. The aim is for our workforce to be truly representative of all sections of society and our customers, and for each employee to feel respected and able to give their best. The organisation – in providing goods and/or services and/or facilities – is also committed to the elimination of unlawful discrimination of customers or the public.

 

Our commitments
  1. Encourage equality, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace as they are good practices and make business sense.
  2. Create a working environment free of bullying, harassment, victimization, and unlawful discrimination, promoting dignity and respect for all, and where individual differences and the contributions of all staff are recognised and valued. This commitment includes training managers and all other employees about their rights and responsibilities under the equality, diversity, and inclusion policy. Responsibilities include staff conducting themselves to help the organisation provide equal opportunities in employment, and prevent bullying, harassment, victimization, and unlawful discrimination.
  3. Take seriously complaints of bullying, harassment, victimization, and unlawful discrimination by fellow employees, customers, suppliers, visitors, the public, and any others in the course of the organisation’s work activities.
  4. Make opportunities for training, development, and progress available to all staff, who will be helped and encouraged to develop their full potential, so their talents and resources can be fully utilised to maximise the efficiency of the organisation.
  5. Make decisions concerning staff being based on merit (apart from any necessary and limited exemptions and exceptions allowed under the Equality Act).
  6. Review employment practices and procedures when necessary to ensure fairness, and also update them and the policy to take account of changes in the law.
  7. Monitor the makeup of the workforce regarding information such as age, sex, ethnic background, sexual orientation, religion or belief, and disability in encouraging equality, diversity, and inclusion, and in meeting the aims and commitments set out in the equality, diversity, and inclusion policy.

 

Our performance
  • We already report on the gender pay gap – our latest results show a 1% difference in median hourly pay between men and women. Whilst there is still work to do, this is well ahead of the UK average difference which is currently 7.9%.
  • Our workforce is 59% male and 41% female.
  • We are now in our 7th year of being a recognised Real Living Wage service provider – just over half of our staff are paid at or above the Real Living Wage – that’s 25% more than is typical in our industry.
  • Every member of our staff has free access to 24/7/365 mental health support whenever they may need it.
  • During the pandemic we used a staff safety checker system in order for every member of staff to tell us how they were feeling at work every day – out of all the responses, 94% were positive. This meant we could deal with the small number of instances where staff had concerns swiftly and effectively.
  • Every year we nominate charities, and our senior leadership team takes charge of fundraising for these causes – last year we walked Hadrian’s Wall for The Alzheimer’s Society and The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association (raising over £3,500), our latest charities will be announced in due course.
  • The current age profile of our staff is as follows –
    • 18-24 – 12%
    • 25-39 – 75%
    • 40-54 – 78%
    • 55-64 – 09%
    • 65+ – 26%
  • We are currently on course to utilise 72% of our apprenticeship levy funding, and our aim is to increase this to 100% over the next 3 years.

 

Working in partnership with our customers

Our aim is to always work closely with our customers, and we get involved in supporting our local communities wherever we can – these are just a few examples.

  • We supported our team at Princes Quay by highlighting the importance of mental health issues and helping to normalise talking about how we are feeling.
  • We helped to clean the dock at Princes Quay in order to improve the quality of the water and to highlight the importance of World Ocean Day.
  • We worked alongside our customers at The Harvey Centre to raise money for Streets2Home.
  • We worked with the team at Trinity Square on their #trinitycares campaign throughout the pandemic – leading to the shopping centre winning the award for Best CSR Campaign in 2021.
  • We have supported Edmonton Green with their Christmas gift appeal, run in support of The Salvation Army.
  • We have worked with customers such as Ashdown Phillips to support wider initiatives including Sleep Out to Help Out.
  • We are proud supporters of Purple Tuesday, and we work with many customers on this every year.

We are committed to sharing best practices and talking to our customers and partners about the Real Living Wage and why this is important to us and to our staff.  This forms part of our internal and external communications so that we are not just talking about what we do, but also educating those we work with about why we do it.

 

Governance

 

Diversity in our senior leadership team. As a business we actively encourage and promote diversity and equality including within our senior leadership team – our recruitment policy focuses on finding the best person for the role and does not discriminate against candidates based on any of the protected characteristics. We are committed to improving diversity within our senior team and we will take positive action (such as working with our recruitment manager on targeted advertising) when we recruit for senior positions in the future. We are also an accredited Disability Confident employer. We actively promote the positive recruitment of females into security roles, which is historically seen as a ‘male’ occupation.  Our total workforce is 59% male and 41% female.

 

Mitigating risks in our supply chain

Our supply chain is robust, and we achieve this by only partnering with other strong and sustainable companies.  We also have a number of suppliers in each area of the business in order to prevent us from being overly reliant on a single-category provider.   Our main supply chain areas are cleaning consumables, cleaning equipment hire and staff uniforms – we have between 2 and 3 suppliers as a minimum in each of these areas. Furthermore, all of our suppliers are comprehensively vetted through our integrated management system which incorporates our ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001 accreditations.

 

Corporate reporting

We currently report on the following areas –

  • Gender makeup of our workforce
  • Age profile
  • Gender pay gap
  • Real Living Wage
  • Numbers in promoted schemes such as cycle to work
  • Numbers enrolled in apprenticeship schemes
  • Fundraising and charitable activities

Moving forward, we intend to report on the following areas in addition to the above –

  • Travelling distance from home to work
  • Diversity within our workforce in terms of the other protected characteristics
  • Hours given over to charitable works

 

This policy will be reviewed and updated annually.