(incorporating Sustainability and Environmental Policy)
For ekosgen, sustainability and social issues are central to our business strategy and activity. They colour and influence our activities as we strive to become an organisation that people wish to interact with, whether they are clients, employees or suppliers.
Responsibility therefore sits at the heart of everything we do. We aim to achieve best practice in employee relations, workplace standards, training and development, diversity and disability as well as environmental policies for both staff and students alike. Our Corporate Responsibility is about ensuring that we take into account the social, community and environmental consequences of all of our activities.
In its provision of economic development consultancy services, the Company seeks to protect and enhance in particular, the environment and the well being of its staff, clients and members of the public with which it engages during the conduct of its business. It requires all its offices and staff to comply with this policy.
We are committed to good environmental practice as part of our overall approach to corporate and social responsibility. We recognise that we have a responsibility to minimise our impacts on the environment as much as possible, and to conduct our business in a way which contributes to the sustainability of the environment in which we work and deliver our services, whilst continuing to deliver a high quality service to our clients. Our policy is to take the environment into account in all appropriate decision making, not only in compliance with UK and EC legislative and statutory environmental requirements (which we view as a minimum standard), but in recognition that a quality environment should be available to all, not just to those who can afford it. Our commitment, therefore, is a proactive and anticipatory approach, which embraces:-
Whilst we are a private company, we do not seek to make a profit at the cost of environmental quality. We therefore incorporate environmental concerns into our business planning process.
As ekosgen has grown, we have sought to absorb relevant elements of environmental accreditations/standards such as ISO14001 and the Carbon Standard into our internal policies and day-to-day operations.
Staff members are made aware of the company’s environmental policy as part of the induction process and regular updates are provided via inclusion in the company staff handbook and internal staff newsletters. All employees are aware of the role they are required to play in implementing the policy and are encouraged to identify opportunities to continue to minimise negative environmental impacts.
Office and Project Directors are also required to alert sub-contractors, suppliers and clients to the scope of our environmental policy.
Environmental issues for our direct business operations currently include:
Some of the specific ways in which we support environmental action, reflecting the issues outlined above, include: -
We shall continue to work in partnership with our clients towards the promotion of the minimisation of environmental damage, environmental protection and improvement. We are committed to minimising the environmental impacts of our business activities wherever possible.
We measure our environmental practices using the following key performance indicators:
We have set targets where possible to minimise our impacts on the environment. Examples including:
We are committed to providing the best standards of staff welfare within the constraints of our business size and scale. Our staff’s well being is of paramount importance to us as a people oriented business.
Our policy includes: