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1. Introduction
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a concept whereby an organisation recognises that its business operations and processes may have an impact on social, economic and environmental issues outside of the workplace.
It also represents a commitment to ensuring and maintaining socially responsible behaviour in an organisation.
2. Scope
This is a company-wide policy that applies to all departments. Employee shall mean all individuals on a full-time, part-time or temporary employment with 1st Line Defence with permanent or probationary-based contractual employments.
3. Policy
We seek to sustain a business that is successful and respected in its ethical standing by our stakeholders. These include customers, clients, investors, regulators, suppliers and the community. We embrace the role our business plays on a day to day basis in contributing to a better society.
We are aware that the running of our business will, in many ways, affect our place of work, the community and the wider environment in which we operate.
We believe that the way we run our business can and should make a positive difference in these areas and we aim to ensure that continued efforts are made to achieve that.
Our corporate social responsibilities are identifiable in the following areas:
3.1 Environment
With regard to the business’ impact upon the environment, we are committed, amongst other initiatives, to:
- efficient printing;
- reducing the amount of waste produced by the business;
- ensuring that water/electricity is used responsibly by our staff;
- recycling materials as extensively as possible;
- using technology to lessen the need for travel;
- using public transport wherever possible when travelling is unavoidable.
3.2 Charitable / Community work
Our organisation is keen to support and become involved in community initiatives and charitable work. We do this in the form of sponsorship, donations to national and local charities which may be suggested by our staff, and the funding of community projects. Every suggestion is given due consideration.
3.3 Education
We recognise the importance of education in our community, and supporting individuals during this process is key to advancement. We actively encourage our employees to take up training courses, often funded by ourselves, and we offer a number of work experience placements in partnership with local schools.
3.4 Our employees
Involvement: We keep our staff fully informed of our policies and procedures and we encourage them to share their ideas with us on both internal processes affecting them, and the way our service is provided to customers/clients. We maintain an open and honest approach to all of our communications.
3.5 Equal opportunities
We are committed to providing an environment of equal opportunities for all members of our workforce. No account of any of the protected characteristics set out in the Equality Act 2010 shall be taken to a detrimental effect in any decision involving recruitment, promotion, provision of facilities etc.
3.6 Business partnerships
We will strive to engage with local suppliers and businesses where possible to meet the business’ operational needs, in order to support businesses within our area and decrease our carbon footprint.
In respect of our entire CSR initiative, we expect no lesser standards from our suppliers and business partners.
We are fully committed to the principle of CSR and aim to ensure that no relevant policy decisions are made within the business, without first evaluating the potential CSR impact.
