Scope

This policy applies to all VE3 employees, associates, secondees, agency staff and third parties who undertake activity for and on behalf of VE3. It applies to the goods and services we procure, our direct operations and the services we provide to our customers. VE3 is committed to creating a sustainable society actively managing our operations in a way that balances our social, environmental and economic objectives. To do this, sustainability considerations are woven throughout a suite of interdependent polices and their procedures, which are implemented collectively in order to deliver the objectives of the Sustainability Policy.

Purpose

To provide an effective framework for realising VE3’s commitment to creating a sustainable society by protecting and where possible enhancing the Groups social, environmental and economic impacts, preventing pollution, reducing social inequality and driving sustainable economic development as part of a transition to a low carbon future.

Responsibilities

All employees including associates, secondees, agency staff and third parties are responsible for ensuring that this Policy is adhered to. In addition, those employees who procure goods and services should follow VE3’s Procurement Policy including the requirement to include social value considerations which mirror our sustainability objectives. As referenced some activities within the scope of this Policy are covered by additional dedicated policies and procedures to ensure that the objectives of this Policy are delivered.

Policy

VE3 is a profit group of responsible companies that work in partnership with others to enable growth, create jobs and improve the lives of residents and local communities.  The Group delivers activities across six service areas: Strategy & Research, Business Support & Finance, Skills, Employment, Marketing and Organisation Development Services.   

In recognising this, VE3 is committed to contributing to a more sustainable society and to continually improve the positive impacts we make by:

• Ensuring compliance with all relevant legislation and standards, and the expectations of our customers and other key stakeholders
• Ensuring our systems and procedures prevent pollution, and minimise resource consumption
• Ensuring our employees and suppliers are able and are encouraged to support our sustainability commitments
• Ensuring we continue to develop services which meet the needs of those customers who are often less able to participate in mainstream services
• Ensuring we continually review how we can make improvements to our sustainability performance

In order for VE3 to realise these commitments, sustainability performance is driven by the Chief Executive and Group’s Senior Management Team, through our:

• Agreed Shared Values, namely: Make a positive difference; Stronger together; Empower people; Do the right thing and Build on success
• Investors in People standard, Health and Wellbeing initiatives and our Reward and Recognition programmes we support, encourage and enable all employees to meaningfully contribute
• Social Enterprise Gold Mark accreditation
• Equality and Diversity policy and positive about disability status we are committed to action on equal opportunities
• Service offer, ensuring it targets and supports those customers who are least able to access mainstream service provision
• Travel Policy which encourages journey planning and use of alternative modes of transport, and also operates an access to EV leasing and Bike to Work scheme
• ICT Disposal Policy which covers reuse, recycling and the associated data security issues
• Monitoring and reporting of our CO2 emissions
• Inclusion of Social Value requirements into our procurement policy

To realise our sustainability objectives VE3 both recognises the need for and is committed to communicating these objectives to our suppliers, employees, customers and wider stakeholders.  This is achieved via our procurement processes, and our existing communication channels to employees including the business plan, intranet, newsletters, team briefings and the staff induction processes.

This policy and the actions arising from it will be annually reviewed as part of the business planning process which involves VE3s senior leadership and management teams, with final approval via the VE3 Board.