2017 Shortlist

Over the past few years we’ve refocused on our higher social purpose, and embedded responsibility and sustainability in our values and brand. Our strategy is about building pride among our people and trust with our customers. We do this by using bright ideas to tackle the important issues of our time, like climate change. We’ve built our big bang external-facing activities, like the Aviva Community Fund and our UN campaign to change the rules on sustainable finance, on solid foundations of governance, accountability, diversity and carbon reduction. We simply see it as good thinking for everyone…

SustainAbilities is Interserve’s group wide framework for making a positive contribution to society and the environment through its work. The comprehensive, business-wide plan sets 48 targets that help the company manage risk and increase opportunities for profitable growth. Interserve has seen positive benefits from its investment in communities and creation of local employment opportunities, its commitment to responsible sourcing, investing in skills through training and careers programmes and progress in cutting waste and carbon emissions over the last four years. The plan shapes how the company operates, engages with its workforce and builds successful relationships.

Enrich Not Exploit™ is more than a sustainability programme; it is a new business strategy that underpins all aspects of the company. Under this commitment, there are 14 ambitious, measurable targets across all business functions. They are grouped into the three key areas where we can make a difference; People, Products and Planet, and include a target to protect and regenerate 75 million square metres of the most biodiverse and precious habitat on the planet, and help communities to live more sustainably. This target will be achieved via our Bio-Bridges programme, beginning in the forests of north central Vietnam.

VMware has a long-standing commitment to driving innovations that contribute to a net positive future and sustainable growth. VMware technology not only provides customers with a valuable return on their investment, but has had an incredible impact on energy efficiency in datacenters around the world.

With the release of VMware’s first Global Impact Report, the company has expanded and elevated our commitments. The report shares the company’s VMware 2020 vision to serve as “a force for good,” outlining our sustainability roadmap and detailing the aspirations and goals we have established for ourselves across our products, our operations and our people.

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Aviva has a well-established tradition of giving money to good causes. But other large organisations have similar programmes, so how could we capture the nation’s imagination and stand apart from the crowd? We used digital to create an Aviva Community Fund that helped to build capacity for organisations in the long-term, giving them not just cash, but the skills and outreach opportunities to make a difference to local projects close to their hearts. In 2016, recognising the successes and learning from the 2015 initiative, we innovated the ACF using our skills and communications channels to make an even greater impact.

The Barrie Wells Trust is a charitable organisation, founded and entirely funded by financial services entrepreneur and sports philanthropist Barrie Wells. The charity’s Box4Kids initiative provides VIP experiences for seriously ill and disabled children and their loved ones in executive boxes at major sporting and entertainment venues across the UK.

Box4Kids collaborates with companies and venues who donate their executive boxes to the charity, which has benefitted over 4,000 children and their families since 2010. The Trust has created a unique partnership with The Jockey Club that will benefit over 2,000 more children and families in communities across England.

Hackney Herbal is a project specialising in creative workshops and events which connect and inspire people around the extensive uses of herbs. We grow herbs in a patchwork of sites around Hackney supporting volunteers to get hands on horticultural experience. From these herbs we create unique seasonal herbal tea blends which are sold through local cafes. The proceeds from our tea blends funds the work we do in the community promoting good mental health and wellbeing  through horticulture and craft. We work in partnership with the Centre for Better Health to provide regular courses at their community hub.

Since 2014, UK Youth and Microsoft’s partnership has engaged over 17,000 young people with digital opportunities. During 2014-15, UK Youth created 45 Microsoft Youth Hubs, providing local youth organisations with funding of £3-10k to invest in the necessary technology and staff resource to support peer-led digital skills projects. In 2016, the project expanded its digital initiative with the creation of Generation Code, a practical and targeted curriculum aiming to inspire the next generation of coders. The programme recognised young people’s need for supported access to IT outside of school and has demonstrated positive impacts including increased motivation, resilience and digital technology skills.

Beyond Business is a unique social enterprise incubator, run in partnership by Investec and the Bromley by Bow Centre. Beyond Business launches and supports sustainable businesses in Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Newham, all in the top 5% of deprived boroughs in London.  It launches businesses committed to generating their own sustainable profits and social impacts, empowering local people to create sustainable solutions to problems in their community.  Since 2008, Beyond Business has launched 44 social enterprises, many of them black and ethnic minority or female led, creating over 250 jobs and yielding a combined annual turnover of more than £2.3m.

When Kellogg’s launched its Breakfast Club programme in 1998, the very idea of pre-school clubs was something new. Today, that situation has changed completely as 85% of schools now run a Breakfast Club and teachers and parents look to these clubs to help with everything from attendance and attainment to hunger in the classroom.

We are proud of the role we’ve played and continue to play – by providing everything from cash grants and training to free bowls and food to enable 3000 Breakfast Clubs to open their doors to feed children in the morning.

TOIW was set up by London City Airport, the London Borough of Newham, and the East London Business Alliance in 2009. Designed to tackle local unemployment issues, the programme up-skills local residents giving them key transferable skills that many employers look for and over the last 6 years, 600+ Newham residents have been supported into jobs at the airport.

Plans to expand the airport will commence later in 2017 – a project that will create an additional 2100 jobs and we feel that TOIW, along with other employment programmes, will play a crucial role in helping us to recruit good quality local residents.

Amey has worked in partnership with Blue Sky to co-create an innovative employment model, a ‘labour agency with a difference’, to recruit and support ex-offenders at scale. The partnership has generated real job opportunities for over 150 ex-offenders between 2014 and 2016, generating business and social value for Amey, and a life-changing opportunity for those previously denied the chance to work because of their criminal record.  Only 12% of those employed by Blue Sky / Amey have re-offended, 5 times less than the national average. For every ex-offender who completes the employment programme, the state saves an estimated £18,600.

Cargill has partnered with FareShare since 2009, on the premise of a shared commitment to ensuring that everyone should have access to a steady supply of safe and nutritious food. Cargill was proud to renew its support to FareShare with another £225,000 committed from 2013-2016. The commitment enabled FareShare to grow the capacity of its Merseyside warehouse, increased capacity of its Greater Manchester warehouse, equating to 900,000 meals across the two sites, with around 34,000 people reached per week.

Lycamobile has partnered with Chance to Shine to deliver Chance to Shine Street, which brings cricket to thousands of young people in inner-city areas by using the game to promote social cohesion and create opportunities in diverse communities affected by anti-social behaviour. Chance to Shine Street is a counter for a lack of clubs and green spaces in inner-city areas and aims to make cricket accessible to young people throughout the country.

Lycamobile’s support has helped the project in its latest expansion phase of around 50% that brings us up to more than 150 projects today.

Project Ocean is a long-term partnership between the Zoological Society of London and Selfridges, to stop overfishing and pollution; increase ocean protection; and engage new audiences in marine conservation. Our impact is profound: Selfridges and concessions now only serve sustainable seafood, removed all shark products from their beauty hall and have reduced ocean plastic by removing single-use plastic water bottles. Project Ocean founded the Marine Reserves Coalition that has facilitated protection of >1 million km2 of ocean, the #OneLess campaign working to free London of single-use plastic water bottles by 2021 and supported three community-managed marine reserves in the Philippines.

The digital revolution is here and it’s presenting opportunities and challenges for communities across the UK. Our TechFuture Ambassadors are 1,000+ women & men IT professionals. They have a simple aim – to share their tech passion and help inspire a generation of young people embrace digital technology and for them to succeed as the nature of society and the jobs we have changes. The brainchild behind TechFuture Ambassadors is Tata Consultancy Services, one of the largest IT services company in the world working with the Tech Partnership, a UK charity responsible for developing digital skills in young people.

UBS has partnered IntoUniversity (IU) since 2007, working towards a shared goal of tackling educational disadvantage. IU provides a holistic programme of support at its learning centres, for pupils to attain a university place or another chosen aspiration. UBS’s support has helped IU to grow from a neighbourhood service based in Hoxton to a Hackney-wide provision reaching over 1,800 young people annually. In 2015, 80% of IU Hackney school leavers progressed to university, compared to the national average of 37% (23% for all students from Free School Meal backgrounds).

Since 2014 UK Youth, in partnership with UPS, has delivered Road Code, a practical and innovative road safety programme.  Growing year on year, UPS volunteers have delivered half-day workshops at UK Youth’s member youth groups and community centres to 1,500 young people around the UK and Republic of Ireland. As a result of the programme, young people’s knowledge and attitudes to road safety have significantly improved with them committing to become and encourage better drivers. Across the partnership, UPS has provided over 500 hours of volunteering and £590,000 of funding, in addition to further fundraising support for UK Youth.

EcoMedia’s mission is to harness the power of advertising to effect positive social change. Founded in 2001 by social entrepreneur Paul Polizzotto, our programs channel a portion of brands’ ad-spends on CBS broadcast or digital media to critical environmental, education, veterans’ and wellness projects by some of America’s most effective nonprofits. EcoMedia’s innovative and proprietary business models have reimagined the advertising and philanthropy landscapes, catalyzing the ordinary commercial—and media, in general—into tangible social impact that empowers people everywhere to contribute to a healthy and sustainable world.

Launched in 2012, the HSBC Water Programme is a US$150 million global programme in partnership with Earthwatch, WaterAid, WWF and local partners. It aims to provide and protect water sources, educate communities, enabling people to prosper and driving economic development.

The global Programme has had significant impact, providing more than 1.5 million people with access to safe water, and 2.2 million with access to sanitation. 149,000 people have reduced their fishing or farming impacts and more than 8,000 HSBC employees have been trained as Citizen Science Leaders, collecting over 17,000 data points which have been uploaded to a scientific database.

Many young girls living on tea estates with their families in Assam suffer from anaemia and other health problems due to poor diet. In addition they are vulnerable to abuse, exploitation and trafficking. Twinings programme, in partnership with UNICEF and the Assam Branch of the Indian Tea Association aims to tackle both of these issues in a pioneering holistic way; enabling girls to live healthy, happy lives and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals about gender equality and empowerment, health and education. The programme covers 63 tea gardens and plans to reach 34,000 girls by the end of 2017.

Yorkshire Water‘s ‘Big Wish for Ethiopia’ campaign takes an industry leading approach to corporate partnerships.

Focusing on 6 key themes of volunteering, education, fundraising, customers, influencing and capacity building, the partnerships’ aims are embedded within the companies’ strategic business objectives.

Yorkshire Water have demonstrated:

– The delivery of long term benefits and sustainable outcomes to Ethiopian communities.

– Their capacity to be part of the solution, not just fund the solution.

– The desire to be exploratory / experimental, break new ground, create new models of working and take ideas to scale.

The “Not Just Dirty Boots” campaign uses interactive online technology to enable schools to join live broadcasts about construction careers from their classrooms. The campaign enables mass participation providing the opportunity for real time conversations between participants and hosts to ensure students gain maximum benefits from each event. The aim is to raise awareness of the skills gap in construction; highlighting the variety of careers that are available. Using mobile devices presenters can be at their desk or in remote locations including broadcasting to over 3,000 individuals from the top of a mobile tower crane, 180ft in the air.

The Youth Index Survey found 42 per cent of young people between 16 and 24 feel traditional goals such as getting a steady job were unrealistic. That is something that we, at Enjoy-Work, feel we have a duty to change.

To this aim, we have worked closely with Chiswick School to develop Future Focus a pioneering programme aimed at enhancing the employability of 600 pupils each year as they progress through secondary school.

These unique events provides youngsters with access to professionals from across 40 diverse global and national businesses ranging from Disney to Pokémon and Aker Solutions to Foxtons.

Energise Anything is E.ON’s Primary and Secondary schools programme to inspire thousands of young people across the country to discover science in unexpected ways!  From powering Martian colonies, playing music with wired-up bananas to mimicking huddling penguins – we want to energise young people’s minds and love of science.

Tax Facts is HMRC’s project to educate 14 to 17-year olds about how public money is raised and spent and to introduce them – in a very easy-to-understand way – to their future responsibilities as tax payers. It also fills a gap in the Citizenship Curriculum.

The centre-piece is four, short, light-hearted animations, covering: HMRC’s work, starting your first job, working for yourself and the hidden economy.

To complement the animations, HMRC has also created a pack of material, with ready-made lesson plans and a range of interesting exercises and resources for teachers.

Building Futures is an innovative approach to engaging young women in construction careers. The project is a unique after-school club aimed at female students who work in teams to plan and design a virtual construction project. With support from industry experts, students get the chance to try a range of jobs first-hand. The programme addresses the lack of awareness amongst students and teachers of the very wide range of careers in the industry and the shortage of exciting opportunities for students to try roles out before they make important decisions about their careers.

Outdoor Classroom Day is a global campaign to celebrate and inspire outdoor learning and play. In 2016, 3,354 schools across 51 countries took 481,261 children outdoors for at least one lesson, and celebrated playtime too. Outdoor learning improves children’s health, engages them with learning and leads to a greater connection with nature. Play not only teaches critical life skills such as resilience, teamwork and creativity, but is central to children’s enjoyment of childhood. Outdoor Classroom Day is led by Project Dirt working with Unilever’s Dirt is Good brands.

MoneySense is RBS plc’s free and impartial financial education programme for 5-18 year-olds. We’ve been providing financial education for 22 years, we’ve helped 4.5m young people understand money and will help 1 million more by the end of 2018.

Our interactive content makes learning about money relevant and fun at school and home. We work with the Personal Finance Education Group to align content with the national curricula.

We believe financial literacy is essential to national prosperity. To champion financial capability in the UK we commit to helping our customers of today and tomorrow to manage their money well.

Reimagined Learning (RL) is a pioneering training programme which aims to inspire the next generation of young people to pursue careers in the technology and telecoms industries.

RL enables university students who are interested in technology to access a unique chance to work within the Three business. The university students receive training, tested through two practical challenges, including working hand-in-hand with Three employees to develop and deliver an interactive workshop for 14-16 year old students, which brings the opportunities within a technology-based business to life, whilst inspiring these young people about the career paths available to them within the industry.

Battlesteads Hotel & Restaurant in Wark, Northumberland, is renowned for its superb food, welcoming hospitality and outstanding ‘green’ credentials. In fact, it’s widely recognised as one of the UK’s top sustainable tourism destinations and has won numerous awards including the AA Hospitality Eco Hotel of the Year Award 2016 and the Hotel Catey Sustainable Hotel of the Year 2016. Owned by Richard and Dee Slade since 2005, the hotel features 22 bedrooms including five recently built eco lodges, a restaurant with local produce menus, a bar serving biodynamic wines and ales from local micro-breweries and its own on-site observatory.

Land Securities recognises the significant global challenge from climate change, and the responsibility of the built environment which accounts for over one third of the developed world’s CO2 emissions. As the largest listed commercial property company in the UK, we have a responsibility to lead the way. Following the climate agreement reached at Paris in December 2015, we have established a new resource efficiency programme, supported by ambitious carbon, energy and waste reduction targets. The programme has been integrated across all areas of operations – acquisitions, new developments, and property management; and is supported by an employee sustainability training programme.

Cool-phase is a unique, innovative low energy system that provides intelligent control of ventilation & cooling. Monodraught use phase change materials (PCM) to store and release thermal energy, providing a free cooling load and an extremely low running and maintenance cost.

Cool-phase Hybrid is an innovative enhancement that links high efficiency heat pumps with our natural cooling system. Cool-phase Hybrid guarantees night time charge of the thermal batteries during peak summer periods and top up cooling during the day. This integration of low energy cooling technologies reduces the buildings carbon footprint and maintains tight set point control.

119 Ebury Street is a highly sustainable refurbishment within a heritage context, comprising of a change of use from a hotel to create three residential duplexes. This development is the first residential refurbishment of a Grade II Listed building in the UK to achieve a BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ rating and won BRE’s Global Residential Award in March 2015.

The words ‘sustainability’ and ‘developer’ are rarely heard in the same sentence, at least not often in a positive light. At Verto Homes we believe in a different approach, an approach that means our homes are sustainable and those living in them are provided with a good platform to exist in a world where resources are running out and long term energy is no longer a given right but something that should be considered by all. Under this ethos, Towan Heights was conceived, a low impact development on the environment that has been designed considerately and thoroughly at every stage.

The £42 million Centre for Medicine at the University of Leicester is the UK’s largest non-residential project built and certified to the ultra low energy consumption Passivhaus standard. The building is a new home for the College of Medicine and the Biological Sciences and Psychology departments, and provides 12,836m2 of teaching facilities, offices, laboratories, lecture theatres and support spaces for over 2350 staff and students. Comprising a podium base and five-storey and six-storey tower blocks, Passivhaus standards of air-tightness, thermal performance, high thermal mass, low energy use ventilation and maximised natural daylight ensure exceptional energy efficiency and a very comfortable environment for users.

Since its founding, leading glass manufacturer and bottler, Encirc, has been committed to building and sustaining an environmentally and, above all, ethically responsible supply chain. Through its comprehensive sustainability strategy, “Our Sustainable Futures”, Encirc has considered the entire lifecycle of its products, from the transport of raw materials and imported wines, to the manufacturing process, to the delivery of finished bottles to customers. As a result, Encirc has reduced the carbon footprint of its supply chain by hundreds of thousands of tonnes every year, giving its products the most sustainable and ethically responsible route to market in the beverages sector.

TUCO have developed a holistic approach to maintaining an efficient and environmentally responsible supplier network by selecting an online Supplier Sustainability Development Tool that delivers sustainability awareness, education and engagement. The tool provides support and advice to suppliers rather than issue audits and compliance.  Its focus on business benefits achieves culture change by moving sustainability away from risk management and compliance activity to instead focus on business improvement. The tool enables suppliers to deliver their own sustainability goals and reduce their carbon footprint. With 75% of TUCO suppliers being SME’s, the tool helps build collaborative relationships.

Cotton represents nearly half the fibre used to make clothes and other textiles worldwide. That’s why WWF and M&S have been working on sustainable cotton since 2007, supporting farmers to produce cotton that uses less water and chemicals and is therefore better for the health of farming communities and the environment. Ten years on, the project now covers more than 15,000 hectares with an annual yield of more than 40,000 metric tonnes of BCI seed cotton.  The focus now is on ensuring the project can be self-sustaining for the long term.

Since joining Land Securities, Caroline has demonstrated innovation and a long term commitment to position Land Securities as a sustainability leader in our industry. This has been clear from the sheer quantity of initiatives that we have been able to achieve in just 18 months and through the significant improvement in our performance in this area as a business. We have seen a dramatic step change in the understanding of the sustainability agenda from all our key stakeholders and an enthusiasm from our most senior executives to put sustainability at the heart of the business.

CSR is a huge part of Greg’s business and employees are encouraged to take an active part. His philosophy is that one small act of generosity on the part of one can transform the lives of hundreds.

His focus is committed to positively improving the quality of life of people around the world. Focusing on education, life skills and leadership initiatives. He want to equip people with the essential tools for success and his mission is to enable people to reach their full potential, thereby transforming their lives and ultimately that of their community.

Gary Elden OBE is hugely committed to CSR. He takes a leading role in increasing the visibility and importance of CSR, and proactively drives initiatives and partnerships. An inspiring role model for many who can easily relate to his story.

Highlights include:

– Launched a new SThree Foundation to support young people into positive destinations

– Eight year partnership with SOS Children’s Villages to donate over £925k

– Regular talks for young people and adults from underprivileged backgrounds

– Strategic high level support for various charities

– A diversity champion in the workplace and recognised by the Queen for this

Inspiring those at the ‘sharp’ end of the business to do more with less, our ‘Sustainability in Action’ campaign has transformed our approach to waste, delivering outstanding results. Achieving zero waste-to-landfill as a baseline, our objective is on actual waste reduction and reuse opportunities through improved efficiencies and changing our standard system and processes . Since Sustainability in Action’s launch in August 2016, Caledonian Produce has seen an increase of over 34% of previously considered waste product going on for further positive re-use; with surplus food and ingredients going on to benefit the local community via a network of social enterprises and charities.

City Harvest addresses two of society’s biggest food-related issues: waste and want. The issue of food waste in the UK is reaching a crisis point, particularly when set against the growing number of people facing hunger. But what seems a simple matter of connecting surplus food with those in need has great challenges. While there is an abundance of food, the challenge is identifying the hundreds of community programs that serve meals, understanding their needs and delivering food safely and efficiently. City Harvest has a proven solution: we get the right food, to the right people at the right time.

A free app that connects neighbours with each other and with local shops & cafes so that surplus food can be shared, not thrown away. Users simply snap a picture of their items and add them to OLIO. Neighbours then receive customised alerts and can request anything that takes their fancy. Pick-up takes place – often the same day – at the home, store, an OLIO Drop Box, or another agreed location. OLIO is available to be used throughout the UK and has been used to share almost 200k items of food so far!

London’s buses have been revolutionised in recent years.  2.3 billion annual journeys are made on a modern fleet of approximately 9,300 environmentally friendly and wheelchair accessible vehicles.  The bus is a flexible and cost-effective means of meeting demand and as the capital’s biggest bus company, we are committed to playing our part.  Having successfully retained Routes 507 and 521 through the competitive tendering process, we creatively set about transforming a Central London garage from a conventional diesel facility to an electric one. This project has delivered real health benefits for all and set the benchmark for future schemes.

Ten years ago we recognised that as growth at MAG boomed, and we became an ever larger business handling an ever greater number of passengers, it became increasingly important to match our big business ambitions with big, bold environmental goals too. In the jostling, competitive spirit of our home city, Manchester, we thought we’d just aim straight for the top, so committed our airports to being the first carbon neutral airports in the UK in ten years’ time. Ten years later, on time, these airports are the first and only carbon neutral airports in the UK.

UPS has a rolling laboratory strategy for its fleet of alternative fuel vehicles around the world, which allows UPS to continuously evaluate and experiment with new fuels and technology in order to offer customers more sustainable delivery solutions.

With the rolling laboratory, UPS can deploy a variety of vehicle types, matched to the terrain, delivery conditions and economic viability in regions, to achieve huge reductions in their carbon footprint.

In the UK, the rolling laboratory fleet consists of electric vehicles, range-extended electric vehicles and biomethane tractors, each of which play an important role in deliveries around the country.

Belu has a long term vision and plan to continue to do business in a sustainable way, providing long term impact. The company has recently committed to working with WaterAid until 2030 to help them achieve their vision of everyone, everywhere having access to water and sanitation by 2030, aligning with WaterAid to support the achievement of UN Sustainable Development Goal 6. By 2018 Belu aim to raise £1 million net profit in just one year, and will continue to reduce its carbon footprint year on year and innovate further with environmentally friendly packaging.

Harrow Council engaged the Social Value Portal to pilot their social value procurement platform on a tender for the renovation of a council property in Harrow. The council wanted to award the project to the supplier who offered not only the best offer in terms of price and quality also with the strongest CSR programme.

The Portal was used to assess the financial value of different CSR solutions being offered by each bidder resulting in the award to the successful bidder who offered an additional value £440,000 (+43%) to society in addition to the core services being requested.