E4 : Corporate Responsibility

Introduction

1. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) for Microspec Ltd means that we take account of the impacts of our activities on the environment, society and the economy. Our stakeholders include customers, employees, suppliers, communities and society as a whole.
2. Our Policy sets out our overall aims, key activities and targets to continue our efforts in relation to CSR to 2025 Microspec Ltd aims to embed CSR into everything it does and to be a responsible company.

Aims

1. To maintain strong business ethics.
2. To manage our environmental impacts.
3. To promote sustainable development through our procurement practices.
4. To encourage our staff to be active citizens, committed to high performance and continuous improvement.
5. To support the local community.
6. To work in partnership to influence the higher education sector.

Aim 1: To maintain strong business ethics

We want to continue to be an organisation that provides the highest levels of service by embodying high ethical standards and engendering mutual trust and respect among our stakeholders.

We will achieve this through:

• meeting, and where possible, exceeding all relevant legal requirements
• behaving with honesty and integrity in all our activities and relationships with others
• acting ethically and fairly at all times in our dealings with our stakeholders
• maintaining internal controls that are adequate to ensure standards are met.

Aim 2: To manage our environmental impacts

We want to continue to be an organisation that improves its environmental performance continually, prevents pollution, and complies with, and where possible exceeds, applicable environmental legislation.

We will do this through:

• making the most efficient and effective use of all resources, encouraging all staff to develop a sustainable approach to their work
• minimising carbon emissions from business travel by avoiding unnecessary travel and travelling by public transport unless there are reasons why this is not practicable or if there are circumstances where travel by public transport would impede efficiency or effectiveness
• promoting sustainable modes of transport for commuting to work
  identifying and implementing cost-effective measures to reduce energy and water consumption
• reducing the amount of waste generated and disposed to landfill through a waste minimisation and recycling programme
• managing our grounds in an environmentally and biodiversity-sensitive manner.

How will we demonstrate our progress?

Carbon reduction

• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions from energy use on the whole estate and business- related transport by 25 per cent by 2020- 2025 from a 2018 baseline.
• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions from domestic business travel by 20 per cent by 2020- 2025 from a 2018 baseline.

Waste

• Reduce the amount of waste we generate by 5 per cent by 2020 – 2025 from a 2018 baseline.
• Cut our paper use by 10 per cent in 2020-2025.
• Ensure that redundant ICT equipment is re-used or responsibly recycled.

Water

• By 2020 – 2025 reduce water consumption from a 2018 baseline.
• Report on office water use against best practice benchmarks.

Aim 3: To promote sustainable development through our procurement practices

We want to continue be an organisation where our procurement practices deliver value for money from non-pay spend and improvements in areas such as human rights, greenhouse gas emissions, community relations and product recycling.

We will do this through:

• implementing our sustainable and socially responsible procurement policy that includes consideration of CSR in all evaluations of tenders
• working with our suppliers, to help us achieve our sustainable and socially responsible procurement policy aspirations in the delivery of our products and services
• supporting the principles of fair trade, and aim to purchase only fair trade products for meetings through our catering provider where possible
• Annually to evaluate procurement practice.

How will we demonstrate our progress?

• improve and publish data on our supply chain impacts, initially focusing on carbon but also water and waste – setting detailed baselines for reducing these impacts.

Aim 4: To encourage our staff to be active citizens, committed to high performance and continuous improvement

As a knowledge-based organisation, our continued success depends on the expertise, talent, interpersonal skills and proactivity of our people. To be regarded as effective we need to be responsive to, and trusted by, our stakeholders. We aspire to empower and appreciate each other and operate with the principles of fairness and integrity at all times.

It identifies the following aims:

• promote an organisational culture that embodies the service ethos and values
• have an approach to human resource management that supports the delivery of our strategy within a continually evolving environment and is based on the organisation’s overarching principles
• attract and retain high calibre people
• enable people to achieve their full potential in delivering our success, and encourage creativity and innovation in appropriate circumstances
• provide people with a healthy, safe working environment in which individuals are treated with respect.

How will we demonstrate our progress?

To support the local community

We want to be an organisation that continues to undertake initiatives aimed at helping local communities, the communities in which our staff belong.

We will do this through:

• a volunteering policy that enables staff who wish to undertake voluntary activities to do so
• enabling our staff to continue to support charitable organisations every year through payroll giving, voluntary fundraising activities and giving them the time and opportunity to participate in charitable events.

We will report annually on our objectives in our Equality Scheme.Monitoring and review

Assurance