ESG & Sustainability Policy
Purpose and scope
Our purpose is driven by being a Force for Good, for our people, our communities, our planet, and for society as a whole. At Hydrock, we are committed and have the opportunity to be creative and bold with our design solutions for clients to drive long term value, eliminate impacts, and deliver climate resilient places and infrastructure.
In developing our approach to ESG and sustainability we have considered the impact of both the projects we design and of our corporate and individual activities locally and nationally. We have agreed the following goals/outcomes which are underpinned by commitments and targets owned, delivered and monitored by us.
» Human capital – To put our people and talents first
» Social capital – To create social value and partnerships
» Economic capital – To champion innovation and resilience
» Natural capital – To elevate the place of nature and biodiversity
» Physical capital – To enable responsible growth and practices
Governance
This policy is a live document and is reviewed at least annually, or more regularly as required. The Hydrock Board is ultimately accountable for the implementation of the policy, supported by the Business Improvement team, the ESG Steering Group and the Sustainability Working Group. However, everyone at Hydrock is responsible for considering their impact on the environment and the sustainability of their actions as part of all work undertaken, whether internally or for clients.
Our commitments and targets
» Health & wellbeing – We will continue to provide a range of health and wellbeing packages for our employees including, but not limited to: Healthy Living Bonus (HLB)
» Diversity equity & inclusivity – We will continue to have a % target for male-female ratios for graduate apprentice, intern vacancies and seek to provide disclosures on Pay Gap
» Continuous professional development – We will continue to develop our people by updating and rolling out relevant internal and external training programmes and packages for all staff.
» Charities & charitable giving – We will formalise the nomination and support for a national charity and a number of local charities appropriate to our organisation and offices on an annual basis
» Supporting our staff to give back through our Day Off For Good Causes approach - we will continue to develop our approach to supporting staff in taking time away from work to support local groups, support those most disadvantaged and to apply their personal and professional skills to maximise the social value that these activities deliver. Supporting employment - We will actively plan to provide apprenticeships and support others in gaining work experience. We will maintain focus on providing these opportunities to those in hard-to-reach and disadvantaged groups.
» Building links with academia – We’ll increase our firmwide network of STEM Ambassadors and promote engineering as a profession to school children, with a focus on girls
» Industry engagement – We will continue to actively collaborate with industry peers, partners and professional institutions, and maintain our membership of relevant institutions
» Focus on clients – We will continue to seek to elevate our client needs and address relevant social and economic challenges presented through their brief
» Investing in innovation – We will continue to prioritise the use of innovative design approaches to help unlock opportunities for our clients.
» Thought leadership – We will actively engage and collaborate with our peers, academia and the wider industry to cross-pollinate thoughts and ideas
» Climate action and leadership – We’re committed to becoming a net-zero business by , with a published ‘roadmap’.
» Promote circularity – We’ll aim to measure and increase reuse, recycling and reduction of our operational waste and ensure our sustainable procurement policy is in line with ISO .
» Biophilic design – We’ll aim to launch a ‘rewild initiative’ as we progressively return to working in the office and champion the principles of biophilic design in our work with clients and partners.
» Net zero operation – We’ll measure our own Scope , and emissions, monitor progress towards our Science-Based Targets (SBTs), and seek continuous improvement of our own assets/facilities through active monitoring of waste, energy use, water consumption etc. where we have operational control
» Enhancing productivity – We aim to continue to achieve high levels of economic productivity through investment in innovation and our people.
» Championing safety – We will continue to maintain a Gold Standard accreditation under the British Approvals for Fire Equipment (BAFE), the Cyber Essentials Plus accreditation and the UKAS Safety Management System to ISO standard accreditation
» Sustainable practices and operation – We’ll operate a firm-wide Sustainable Procurement Policy (SPP) which will be translated by our various office champions into location-specific action plans.
» Drive continual environmental improvement by ensuring effective management of our environmental impacts and implementing environmental management systems in compliance with EN ISO
» Demonstrating stewardship - embed and improve their responsible business practice, working collectively to create lasting, beneficial impacts in their communities. Using our membership of Business in the Community (BITC) so support this.
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Mark Seberry, Executive Director
June