ESG

Environmental Social & Governance: Our purpose beyond profits

Setting our social agenda

An essential tenet of our service is our “THINK” customer charter (Teamwork, Honesty, Integrity, No-Nonsense, Knowledge). It commits us to an exemplary level of service, to innovation, to standards, and to support for our clients.

Championing Integrity

At our core is “Integrity” which to us creates a link between what we do, and the way we do it. It stands for working with strong moral beliefs and for doing the right thing, using our time, resource, income and influence, to support and improve people’s lives. To put it into practise, we utilise the principles of the Social Value Act 2012, which underpins our Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework, and creates our business with purpose beyond profits.

Below is a sample of just some of what we do. If you’d like more information, please just ask!

Committed to environment

As stewards of nature, our technology provides the opportunity for individuals and organisations to stay connected, with a lower carbon footprint than constant business travel. Imprinting this at the heart of what we do, we are committed to constant carbon reduction, and improving environmental sustainability throughout the business including:

our business premises: The 2013 renovation of our Head Office brought green credentials to the fore, giving us a building that in 2022 includes air-to-air heat pumps, LED lighting technology, and full building insulation all sourced locally, in addition to powering the office with sourced renewable energy. We have a paperless office and have a fully supported zero-to-landfill waste management contract with a local provider

flexible hybrid working: adopting our own technology, our staff are able to use hybrid working practices, providing a blended office- and home-based working to reduce unnecessary journeys. This proved extremely beneficial during the pandemic, when home-working was instantly and seamlessly rolled out across the company

supplier selection: carbon cost and system efficiency are key components of our policy in selecting suppliers. For example, our primary and preferred call carrier is Gamma, which is a certified CarbonNeutral company. They are currently the only network operator in the UK to have a net-zero carbon footprint. Similarly, our preferred IT infrastructure is Microsoft which is on course to fully decarbonise and will be climate negative by 2030.

We obtained ISO14001:2015 certification in November 2022, which accredits our business for environmental management and specifically our environmental performance. We have also signed the SME Climate Commitment pledge to “halve our emissions before 2030 and reach net zero by 2050” aligning with the UN Race to Zero campaign and the 1.5°C ambition. Read the full update here.
SME Climate Hub Committed 2022

Supporting our society

Believing in relationships and partnerships, our social impact strategy is derived and led by our employees and our clients, in response to their priorities. This has allowed us to support local and national charities, and to support our clients’ social objectives too. Examples include:

Youth career development through:

work experience & apprenticeship opportunities. Our Purchasing Administrator Charlotte originally joined Eurolink for a one-week work experience placement, becoming an Apprentice, and moving steadily through the company. We also entered Charlotte into the Gloucestershire Apprenticeship Awards where she won “Tech & Creative Industry Apprentice of the Year”. 2022 has seen us take on another Apprentice, Luca, who will tackle the world of Networking and IT.

in partnership with Stroud Council, we worked to achieve our Work Experience Charter as part of the Skills for Stroud initiative and are now regularly providing work experience placements to 15- to 21-year-olds. We work with each student to design an informative and practical period of work experience to suit their interests. We also participate in a number of school career fairs and exhibitions, engaging young people in the science behind good communications.

in partnership with several local schools, members of our team attend events, teaching interview techniques and conducting mock interviews, answering pupil questions, and showcasing telecommunication, cyber and technology roles at their careers’ fairs. This has had a direct impact on the employment pathways of many of their pupils, including some who have reselected their chosen qualifications in anticipation of a different role.

Charitable support and volunteering

Our team is encouraged to take days out of the office for volunteering, both with their own charities, and with charities that the business is working with at the time. Examples include:

meal provision, maintenance, and user engagement at The Butterfly Garden in Cheltenham

essential maintenance and winter gardening at the James Hopkins Trust Kite’s Corner garden

providing essential communications infrastructure including WiFi to Caring for Communities and People’s (CCP) winter foodbank “Hamper Scamper” appeal, supporting volunteers that handle more than 2,000 food box deliveries and more than 40,000 individual food items

collecting Christmas Trees as part of a recycling fundraiser for local hospice Longfield

sponsorship, fundraising, and awareness days for charities, including Hope for Tomorrow, Cancer Research, the Rotary Club, ECCT, Holly Gazzard Trust, and Dwarfism Awareness Day during 2021. Each is selected by a different member of our team, based on their personal connections and interests, something that we feel is incredibly important.

Education

Education and awareness of key issues, shared with our clients and connections, including:

a blog updated regularly and a quarterly newsletter with industry news and advice

dedicated internet safety information for Audley Villages, to help their residents stay safer online, e.g. Staying safe online: your guide to digital safety (part 2) | Audley (audleyvillages.co.uk)

visits, educational sessions, and Q&A sessions to support the residents of the retirement villages that we work with, including ExtraCare centres. This includes discussing telephony & broadband changes, and internet safety for example

working with a residential care client, we have devised a resident safeguarding protocol for dementia patients. Dementia patients risk isolating themselves by cutting off essential communication lines (phone, broadband etc.), so our safeguarding protocol trains our team to recognise the signs, and to prevent disconnection

one-to-one support for residents: all care residents are provided with our contact details, and although they are typically used to enact service changes, we have provided numerous instances of support in the last year with suspicious emails and URLs, COVID phishing scams and the like, preventing vulnerable clients from falling victim to malicious actors.

Everything that we do is underpinned by our equal opportunities and dignity in the workplace policy, covering inclusion & diversity. Our 2013 refit of the office has made the building fully accessible, and we work with each employee as an individual.

The way we’re governed

We are fast adopters of company-wide policy that supports our employees and clients, and improves our business impact. Our board is 50-50 male/female split with a female Managing Director. We have always focussed on skills, upskilling and education, and really believe in equal opportunities, working with those who fit our team and culture regardless of gender, ability, or existing skillset. Our pay is modelled by skillset and job role giving us the same pay for the same role, regardless of gender, which is particularly unique in a heavily male-dominated sector.

We have strong ethical standards and policies supporting all aspects of what we do, including an enshrined customer charter too.