Environmental, Social and Governance Annual Progress Report
October 2023 – September 2024
About Medicines Discovery Catapult
Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC) is a national Life Sciences service dedicated to turning drug discovery into commercial breakthroughs.
At the frontier of drug discovery, we work with entrepreneurial scientists to make every move count. We validate their ideas, de-risk investments, and feed insights back into the sector to drive productivity and impact.
MDC creates momentum through its unique blend of discovery expertise, technology, insights, and sector-leading partnerships. Where there is unmet patient need, we stimulate innovation through our National Programmes.
To date, MDC has helped over 300 companies raise more than £1bn of R&D investment.
Our approach to drug discovery drives game-changing breakthroughs and improves patients’ lives.
With a team of over 140 specialists across the UK, our cutting-edge facilities are based at Alderley Park in Cheshire.
MDC’s Vision
MDC’s vision is to reshape drug discovery for patient benefit, by transforming great UK science into better treatments through partnerships. This is at the core of everything we do. It is supported by our values of Excellence, Integrity, Community and Innovation.
Our ESG Strategy
Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) is a set of standards measuring an organisation’s impact on society and the environment. Integrating ESG actions into our organisation is a key strategic goal for our organisation, to enable us to continue to make a sustainable, measurable, long-term impact within the life sciences sector.
In 2023, Medicines Discovery Catapult launched our ESG Strategy. We are committed to transparent, annual reporting on our ESG performance.
Foreword
Medicines Discovery Catapult works to increase the productivity of the life sciences sector that will then improve the health of our patients, society and our economy.
Professor Chris Molloy Chief Executive Officer
Medicines Discovery Catapult
As a values-driven organisation, our ESG is symbiotic to our core values of Excellence, Integrity, Community and Innovation. These values are reflected in the way in which we work, the places in which we work and the community around us. We believe in protecting our Environment, our Social responsibility to one another and our neighbours, and to Governing ourselves well on behalf of all our stakeholders.
It has been a year since we launched our formal ESG Strategy, that outlined our approach to:
Delivering improved sustainability in what we do, for a better future
Enhancing our culture with a focus on respect, inclusion and values-driven decisions
Delivering transparently and responsibly to enhance operational success
Supporting our community across our drug discovery sector, and throughout our regional, local and on-site communities, engaging in programmes where we can make a difference
We have made long strides in the delivery of these goals, whilst maintaining a growing business and sector impact using our unique blend of discovery expertise, technology, insights, and sector-leading partnerships.
We should never be content; there is more to do and proof that we can do so. We commit to continuing our ESG approach and sharing progress with you all, to ensure we can deliver more sustainable, higher impact across our sector.
Introduction
Following the launch of our ESG Strategy in 2023 with longterm sustainability in mind, it is pleasing to see the genuine progress and impact already made in the first 12 months.
Robert Sherville-Payne General Counsel, Company Secretary and Executive Lead for the ESG Programme Medicines Discovery Catapult
As an organisation, we have made strides across all of our target areas. We have focussed particularly on integrating environmental initiatives into our core activity and networks, building strong foundations through the development of improved corporate policies and practices, and the collation of key baseline data to allow us to tangibly track and scrutinise our performance over the coming years, without losing focus on our community priorities.
Our 2023/24 goals were an ambitious start, which we have delivered against strongly, but we know that we have much more to do to achieve our longer term ESG goals. As we look forward to our next reporting period, we will continue to set ourselves challenging targets, learning, evolving and adapting our approach to ESG as we do.
I have been particularly proud to see colleagues at all levels of our organisation demonstrate their commitment to ESG this year – whether that’s through the simple action of switching off equipment when it is not in use, or through the development and delivery of new organisationwide practices.
As an innovative science organisation with its own laboratory space, which can consume up to ten times more energy than standard office space, I am particularly pleased to note the practices we have undertaken this year to address hot-spots in our energy usage. Alongside those physical changes, we have also continued to work to support our own people and the wider sector, through mentoring, training and STEM-aligned schools programmes and the review, scrutiny and restabilisation of our own governance practices, to ensure we continue to operate safely and sustainably for the benefit of all.
As we look forward, we will maintain our focus and commitment, and have set out our progress to date, along with our future focus areas, in the following pages.
One year in, we know this is just the beginning, which is why we’re making sure our next moves count – whether that’s through large system-wide process changes, or through the individual, dayto-day actions and efforts of our colleagues.
Our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy framework
Our framework aligns our ESG Strategy to our Vision and Purpose and sets our guiding principles for activity.
MDC’s Vision and Purpose
Reshaping drug discovery for patient benefit, by transforming great UK Science into better treatments through partnership.
Our ESG Mission
Build sustainable and ethical practices into everything we do, to enhance our reputation, culture and delivery of our purpose, through positive environmental, people and decision-making actions.
Our ESG Strategy
To understand and sustainably manage the impact we have on our environment, our community and the people who work for and with
Our ESG Principles
Be an open, inclusive organisation and a great place to work. 2. Operate responsibly, ethically and with transparency. 3. 1. Drive sustainability for a better future.
Environmental
OUR COMMITMENT
To Deliver Sustainability for a Better Future
We will continue our work to be an advocate for sustainability, by continuing to optimise our physical impact and working across our organisation – it is everyone’s responsibility. We will also continue to advocate for best practice through engaging and influencing our wider stakeholder community.
In 2023/24, we identified five focus areas with updates shared in the following pages. Using our insights from over the last 12 months, we have also refreshed and updated our approach for the forthcoming year to ensure we continue to challenge ourselves in this area.
Environment: Our 2023/24 Performance
For the first year of our ESG Strategy, we focussed heavily on developing robust foundations to build on, such as policies, processes, and baseline data reporting.
ENVIRONMENT: Partial completion Achieved Exceeded
Our focus areas were1:
1. Environmental Sustainability
2. Emissions (including supply chain)
3. Energy Efficiency and Usage (including energy and renewables)
4. Recycling Efforts
5. Safety Audits, Inspection Reports and Deficiencies
A number of initiatives have been launched this year that demonstrate how individual actions can lead to a substantial collective impact – reinforcing the understanding that reducing our environmental impact is everyone’s business. Three examples of individual actions making a big difference to the way we work have included:
• Colleagues switching off office and laboratory equipment that is safe to do so when not in use, as part of a coordinated SWOOP (Switch Off Optimisation Plan) campaign – noting that laboratory spaces can consume up to ten times more energy than office environments.
At an organisational level, impressive progress has been made across a wider range of areas, such as:
An increased focus on energy usage monitoring and assessment, using insights to address energy hot spots. This is already resulting in real energy savings for the organisation.
The introduction of a whole range of additional lab waste recycling initiatives, with more being considered.
Changes to our inspection processes, to align with ISO accreditation.
These areas incorporated a wide range of activities at both an organisational and individual level. 1.
• Making improvements to our cold storage practices and sample management as part of the My Green Lab International Freezer Challenge, including defrosting cold storage units, updating sample inventories, relabelling units and reducing time units are open to retrieve samples.
• The introduction of a new food waste stream for colleagues based at our offices in Alderley Park. 3,650 litres of kitchen waste have been recycled during this time period.
Increased engagement and commitment from senior leaders.
Driving Cold Storage Efficiencies – The International ‘Freezer Challenge’
The International Freezer Challenge is a global competition co-hosted by the International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories (I2SL) and My Green Lab to promote best practices in cold storage management. Participants earn points based on the amount of energy they save and the cold storage management practices they implement.
Thousands of scientists around the world compete in the International Laboratory Freezer Challenge each year to learn how to be more energy efficient with their lab’s cold storage, improve sample accessibility, reduce risk, and reduce cost.
Laboratory environments use up to ten times more energy than typical office spaces. Second only to fume hoods, laboratory cold storage such as refrigerators, freezers and cold rooms are often the next biggest energy consumer in laboratory space.
This year, MDC participated in the challenge for the first time. Actions taken to reduce our energy consumption and improve sustainable practices have included defrosting cold storage units, updating sample inventories, relabelling units and reducing time units are open to retrieve samples. With 52 cold storage units in our laboratory, the estimated savings based on these activities is impressive – at 52.25kWh per day. This is equivalent to boiling a kettle approximately 173,375 times per year and amounts to an approximate cost saving of £5,000.
Furthermore, the Challenge’s points-based system ranked MDC in the top 20% of participating organisations in the challenge in its first year. The team’s plans for participation in the 2025 are already underway.
2023/24 Progress Update
We had five key areas of focus in our Environmental portfolio for the year 2023/24 and we set out a range of key deliverables in our report. Our progress in each of these areas is set out below.
Environmental Sustainability
Emissions (including supply chain)
Develop and implement an Environmental Sustainability Policy to drive best practice within our business.
Create and launch an Environmental Sustainability Handbook, to detail practical advice on reducing our environmental impact within all areas of the business.
Finalise our baseline data generation, capturing key metrics such as energy utilisation, business and commuting travel data.
Assess, track and reduce our energy utilisation within our office and lab environments.
Energy Efficiency and Usage (including energy from renewables)
Recycling Efforts
Engage employees to promote awareness.
MDC will work with our office, lab and facilities partners to encourage wider efficient practices.
Seek to maximise our access to energy from renewable sources.
Drive behaviour changes across the laboratory and office environments to increase recycling and reduce/manage kitchen waste.
Work with our facilities partners and suppliers to reduce cross contamination of waste, to enable increased recycling, reduce volume of incinerated waste and optimise greener waste processing.
Formally instigate quarterly laboratory inspections and six -monthly office inspections; all completed using best practice audit tools including clear reports (with actions).
Engage with the Executive Team and encourage key leadership and non-scientists to directly participate in the inspections and increase the general awareness of safety principles across the employee group.
The Environmental Sustainability Policy has been developed.
The Environmental Sustainability Handbook is currently in development.
An extensive suite of baseline data has been collated and a third-party supplier has reviewed and ratified this data. This has resulted in a clear picture of our carbon footprint as an organisation and hot spots identified for intervention.
We have amended our strategy regarding automated tools and will consider this in future.
A number of initiatives have been run to meet goals in this area. These included:
A SWOOP campaign (Switch-Off-Implementation-Plan) in December 2023, educating and engaging colleagues on energy saving equipment practices. The campaign due to re-run in December 2024.
International Freezer Challenge participation, generating energy savings and ranking in the top 20% of organisations participating around the world.
Continuation of smart plug roll-out and associated energy usage assessments.
Overall metering system producing clear energy monitoring and baseline data, in order to inform future budget and usage strategy.
Existing office, kitchen and laboratory recycling streams have been updated to support colleague use.
A new food waste stream has been developed and implemented. Green bins have been introduced to increase recycling capability. During this period, 3,650 litres of kitchen waste have been recycled.
A recycling stream for media bottles has also been introduced, having worked with suppliers on site to understand washing and cross-contamination requirements.
All lab waste and recycling is being monitored and recorded to create a baseline dataset.
Our inspection schedule for laboratory and office inspections is in place for 2025, with a member of our Senior Leadership Team committed to attend every inspection. This is important in evidencing our senior management commitment to health and safety, as part of ISO 45001 accreditation.
Health and Safety representation is incorporated into organisational Board Meetings.
Environmental Look Ahead: 2024/25 and Beyond
Over the coming years, we will focus on the following three high-level delivery areas in relation to our Environmental portfolio:
Build sustainability, energy efficiency and environmental impact awareness into our core practices, encouraging responsible use of resources and minimising waste.
Integrate energy efficiency, renewability and responsible use of resource awareness into customer/partner relationships and the supplier network, to build shared good practices and a greater positive environmental impact within our community.
Strive to overlay the 5R principles of: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose and Recycle into MDC’s and our partners’ operational delivery, to encourage action at every level, minimise our environmental impact and enhance MDC reputation.
Our goals and deliverables for the next year will build on the progress made in this period. This includes a particular focus on the data we have begun to collect and how we can now further analyse this to make future decisions relating to activities such as equipment usage and our wider practices.
We also look to focus further on communication and training across our organisation on environmental sustainability and how we can integrate our 5Rs (refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose and recycle) into our organisational practices and daily behaviours.
Social
OUR COMMITMENT
To Support our Employees, Ensure Clarity of Purpose and Strive for Inclusive Delivery
MDC is a people-focussed business that works towards improving patient lives and building a healthy society. Our core values encourage connectivity and engagement with the communities in which we work.
We believe investment in our own colleagues is critical to our success in delivering our vision. Our recruitment policies focus on finding the best people, and we seek to offer training, development and volunteering opportunities to provide satisfying and fulfilling careers. We will continue to strive to ensure that MDC is a great place to work, prioritising inclusion and wellbeing.
We work with our customers and collaborators to influence, shape and drive our access to advanced scientific technologies, and provide expert advice and support the development of new ideas and approaches in the sector.
We also recognise the power of our wider stakeholder network, working in partnership to deliver and amplify our impact both in drug discovery and in delivering on our ESG commitments.
Social: Our 2023/24 Performance
In the first 12 months from the launch of our ESG strategy, our teams have focussed on building strong existing practices across procurement, inclusion, community engagement, and sector skills. We have also worked to develop awareness, understanding and ownership of our ESG goals across the organisation.
Highlights from this year include:
2.
The five Social focus areas set out for 2023/24 were2:
1. Build ESG into our Vision, Purpose and Values Statements and Link New Initiatives with Business Ethics
2. Procurement and Supply Chain Standards
3. Equality Diversity and Inclusion (ED&I)a Workplace for All to Thrive
4. Connecting with our Community
5. Sector and Employee Skills
The extension of our Mental Health First Aider scheme, training an additional eight colleagues, bringing our total number of MHFAs to 11
A focus on the importance of role models: from highlighting the underrepresented role of women within industry to showcasing the importance and variety of STEM roles available
Action Planning Workshops to understand what matters most to employees
Our Reverse Mentoring Programme brings together early career colleagues with senior leadership, to bring fresh and diverse perspectives and continue to foster a collaborative MDC culture.
A reverse mentoring scheme for early career employees and senior leadership
As a junior employee, I mentored a receptive senior colleague in a reverse mentoring scheme. Our discussions, enriched by our differences in age and experience, explored societal issues, gender biases, and generational disparities, enabling us to recognise and challenge our hidden prejudices. Our key achievement was identifying the need for mindset changes, strategising ways to leverage our privilege to create a more inclusive environment. The experience provided an open, safe space for reflection and dialogue on often-avoided topics.
Scientist
Mass Spectrometry Imaging and Reverse Mentor
SOCIAL: Partial completion Achieved Exceeded
British Science Week
Putting STEM careers under the microscope
During British Science Week (March 2024), MDC participated in a number of activities as part of our schools engagement and sector skills initiatives.
We partnered with the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester as part of a STEM Q&A panel, to engage a variety of primary and secondary schools in the North West. Pupils heard from one of our experts, Sarah Brockbank, Strategy Leader for Complex Medicines at MDC, about what inspired her to work in science, how her role at MDC means she gets to work with many different partners to help solve their medicines discovery challenges and her advice for exploring a rewarding career in science.
MDC also partnered with the Institute for Research in Schools (IRIS) to host an educational webinar on how medicines are created. Reaching hundreds of pupils aged 11-18 across IRIS’ nationwide network of schools and colleges, the digital session was led by Dr Nicola Heron (Chief Strategy Officer), Dr Emily Offer (Head of Cellular Sciences) and Rob Bevan (Data Scientist – Text Analytics).
The webinar covered an introduction to MDC, what medicines discovery is, how medicines are made and what skills are needed to get involved in our industry.
By engaging with students across the country, the webinar aims to tackle perceptions of scientists and explain that there are multiple routes into science – apprenticeships, graduate schemes as well as the university route. And science jobs aren’t just based in the lab, you can work across various different areas, as our team explained.
It is fantastic to interact with so many young people and bring to life the impact and importance of life sciences across the UK as part of British Science Week. We have a responsibility to inspire the next generation to select a career in our industry, and this engagement is hugely powerful and something that we are very proud to be involved in at MDC. There is no time like the present to inspire and evolve the pipeline of skills in medicines discovery.
Dr
Nicola Heron
Chief Strategy Officer Medicines Discovery Catapult
We are thrilled to partner with MDC on this important initiative. Engaging students early on about the exciting career opportunities in STEM fields is critical to ensuring a robust future for the UK’s life sciences sector. By working together, we can inspire the next generation of scientists and equip them with the skills they need to make a real difference in the world.
Dr
Jo Foster Director
of
the Institute for Research in Schools (IRIS)
Inspiring a future pipeline of scientists
Our efforts this year have built on our strong track record in schools engagement and sharing sector skills where we take the opportunity to celebrate the capabilities, drive and qualities that underlie MDC. Individuals and teams from across the whole organisation have been involved in a range of mentor programmes, educational visits, work experience placements, panel sessions and events – reaching both our local community and students from around the globe.
As part of our commitment to the ‘S’ in ESG, we strive to have an individual and professional impact on our sector and community, especially through inspiring future bright sparks in STEM.
In July, we welcomed students from Leeds International Summer School to MDC to learn about all things antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and the challenges of getting new antibiotics to patients. Students from Canada, Hong Kong, Australia, the USA and the UK joined us at Alderley Park and went ‘behind the science’ to understand what making a new medicine entails and the plethora of career paths available in the industry.
Students from across the world visit MDC to gain an insight into antimicrobial resistance
Here’s what the students had to say:
I enjoyed seeing the lab and hearing from many of the employees talk about their work. I particularly enjoyed learning about complex models and the various considerations that come into play with drug development.
University of Leeds Bacterial Genomics student
Each talk was highly informative and I learnt a lot. It was interesting to hear from representatives of the different companies and how they share the basis of AMR but differ in their approaches and methods.
University of Technology, Sydney Forensic Science student
2023/24 Progress Update
There were five key areas of focus in our Social portfolio for the year 2023/24 and a range of key deliverables were set out in our report. Progress in each of these areas is set out below.
Build on employee engagement feedback to influence MDC culture and enhance business delivery.
Build on our core principles to integrate ESG thinking and purpose into the way we do business, with particular focus on wellbeing and ethics.
Build ESG into our Vision, Purpose and Values Statements and Link New Initiatives with Business Ethics
Apply the principles across MDC’s communications and increase the awareness of the crucial role of ethics in driving best practice.
Promote ESG thinking and enhance the profile of the ethics team as advocates of good practice.
As part of our Employee Engagement Survey which launched in July 2024, we continued to survey colleagues on themes of social connection including on the following statements:
• MDC really allows us to make a positive difference (96% scored favourable or neutral)
• MDC’s commitment to social responsibility through our ESG approach is genuine (93% scored favourable or neutral)
Following the survey, during September and October 2024, Action Planning Workshops were held to encourage colleagues to discuss collectively how and where we can make improvements and what matters most to our people, with 124 total attendees. This information will be collated, developed into action plans and form part of a refreshed engagement strategy, launching in January 2025.
Our internal and external communications channels have continued to promote core ESG messages and highlight initiatives and good practice throughout the year as an ‘always-on’ activity. This includes a monthly ESG spotlight in the all-colleague newsletter, highlights at our monthly in-person colleague briefings and external press releases on our website.
We continue to celebrate our people aligned with our values, via the peer to peer ‘Spotlight’ recognition scheme. This allows colleagues to nominate others for demonstrating our values of Excellence, Community, Integrity and Innovation. Additional employee benefits have been launched including Private Medical Insurance, Group Income Protection and a Cycle to Work Scheme.
The Employee Assistance Programme is promoted and our Mental Health First Aiders in the workplace met regularly to discuss opportunities to promote positive wellbeing in the workplace. During the reporting period, eight colleagues were newly trained as Mental Health First Aiders and three received refresher training.
Build ESG considerations and selection factors into our core procurement processes, including principles of non-discrimination, equal treatment, transparency, procedural fairness, mutual recognition, proportionality and business efficiency, to ensure we are considering ESG impact and potential.
Continue to build in changes to procurement legislation and consider the National Procurement Strategy and its embedded social considerations, to ensure our practices are effective, up to date and drive good practice.
Provide focussed training and encourage colleagues to advocate for high-quality and ethical procurement practices.
A supplier questionnaire has been developed and will be issued to a range of current suppliers. This questionnaire includes specific ESG components to ensure suppliers are aligned on MDC’s environmental, social and ethical priorities.
Amendments to the National Procurement Policy Statement that were expected in October 2024 have been delayed and are expected to be published in February 2025. This will subsequently inform the additional ESG factors that will be built in to MDC’s procurement processes to ensure they are in line with national standards.
Focussed training will subsequently be delivered in line with the updated National Procurement Policy Statement to support colleagues to evaluate suppliers during tender processes, in line with MDC’s updated ESG requirements.
Our Plan
23/24 Activities
Focus on our on-going commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion within the workplace, ensuring our employment policies and practices support our ED&I aspirations.
Develop unconscious bias and inclusive recruitment training for all hiring managers and provide line manager guidance materials.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (ED&I) – A Workplace for all to Thrive
Connecting with our Community
Create an enhanced schools engagement programme to engage students in further education and incorporate a PhD intern programme.
Continue to support work experience placements for young people.
Encourage and empower our employees to volunteer their time to various charities and good causes in the local community.
Develop a business-wide approach to charitable causes and focussed areas for our social mobility policy.
MDC has continued its relationship with Inclusive Employers, meeting regulalry to further the development of ED&I culture.
Work has also been undertaken to amplify the roles of women in STEM careers, linking to MDC’s wider schools engagement activities. For International Day of Women and Girls in Science, MDC highlighted the important role of female role models, with a blog spotlighting a range of women in careers across MDC.
The MDC Employee Engagement Survey 2024 provided an opportunity for employees to provide feedback on their employment experience at MDC.
Following the survey we have been running a series of Action Planning workshops with employees from across the organisation to share their experiences on working at MDC and what positive steps can be implemented to improve their experiences.
A reverse-mentoring scheme was launched between early-stage career colleagues and executive team members within our organisation and held review sessions to monitor progress. All participants have provided positive feedback on the scheme, with reported positive impacts on participants.
Scoping has taken place for an unconscious bias training with providers.
Managing for high performance training workshops were held for all managers and leaders to further develop people manager skills, and to elevate the development of our managers, to ensure our employees are motivated and high performing. The workshops focussed on tools and techniques to support employees and on the importance of understanding different motivational techniques can be applied in a team environment to maximise personal contribution and effectiveness.
MDC has developed a Volunteering Strategy, with its launched planned for the beginning of the 2025 calendar year.
MDC has also continued to develop its schools engagement programme and engage students in further education to consider a career in STEM.
It has continued to support a range of work experience placements and visits, some of which are highlighted in this document.
Placements have taken place across a range of departments within the organisation. Other examples of community engagement activities include:
• Work experience for five college students, studying for a BTEC Diploma in Applied Science, on facilities, technical and environmental aspects of research, in collaboration with Bruntwood and other biotech companies on site
• Hosting two Special Educational Needs students for one day per week on laboratory technical work experience, for a total period of six months
• Hosting a Special Educational Needs A-Level student for one week’s laboratory work experience
• Providing A level student interview practice and feedback sessions to assist in University applications
During British Science Week (March 2024), MDC partnered with the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester as part of a STEM Q&A panel, to engage a variety of primary and secondary schools in the North West.
MDC also partnered with the Institute for Research in Schools (IRIS) to host an educational webinar on how medicines are created, reaching hundreds of pupils aged 11-18 across IRIS’ nationwide network of schools and colleges.
Sector and Employee Skills
Seek opportunities to share knowledge and develop sector skills and provide access to high-quality jobs in medicines discovery, biological sciences and technology.
Create an enhanced schools engagement programme to encourage students who are interested in science and pursuing science in further education.
MDC currently runs a PhD intern programme and is committed to the continued support of this programme to develop young scientists of the future.
Promote wellbeing, supported through the benefits we provide and the initiatives we drive.
Schools engagement activities along with examples of sector skills sharing are included within point 4.
A Personal Effectiveness Training workshop is currently in development for all employees, which is expected to be delivered by the end of the financial year.
As part of MDC’s refreshed Engagement Strategy and the Action Planning Workshops mentioned in point 1, MDC will use colleague insights to further develop wellbeing and development initiatives.
MDC has also refreshed a number of policies and rolled these out to employees to support employee awareness, compliance and development. This will upskill colleagues further, supporting them to work more safely and mindfully.
MDC’s Mental Health First Aider initiative has expanded, with more colleagues trained to support others.
Social Look Ahead: 2024/25 and Beyond
Over the coming years, we will focus on the following three high-level delivery areas in relation to our Social portfolio:
Embedding ESG values at the heart of everything we do – it’s in our DNA.
Striving to make social principles central to both our internal community and in our expectations of clients, customers and partnerships across the supply chain.
Driving positive impact through volunteering, skills development, ethical practices and engagement across both internal and external communities.
We are excited to see activities continue in this area moving forwards and intend to start strongly with the launch of our volunteer policy for employees across our organisation, whilst building on our other social impact STEM and schools programmes.
Engagement will also be a key theme for the year as will responding to activities identified through our employee action planning workshops. We will also continue to work with our wider network and supply chain and build on the activities delivered this period.
Governance
OUR COMMITMENT
To Operate Transparently, Responsibly and Ethically
MDC is committed to improving our corporate governance practices, focussing on the way decisions are made and how information flows through the business. We endeavour to deliver governance practices which are effective, visible and transparent. MDC will strive to align with operational corporate governance best practice and adopt practical risk management processes, focus on mitigating compliance risks
and promote an ethical approach to business. Through improved practices, MDC will enable its employees to directly align with our company values and provide a clear and demonstrable link between business governance and risk-assessed decision-making for high quality performance. We will be an advocate across our network for responsible and transparent decision-making.
Governance: Our 2023/24 Performance
The last 12 months has been designed as a foundation setting year, to stabilise our governance foundations and refresh our practices. This has included the development and improvement of
Highlights from this year include:
GOVERNANCE: Partial completion Achieved Exceeded
ISO
Review and refresh of a suite of organisational policies
The five Governance focus areas set out for 2023/24 were:
Cyber Security Training and Practice
Financial and Investment Controls
Health and Safety Metrics
Development of our business continuity practices
Working to ISO 45001
As part of our health and safety activities, we are progressing our application to achieve the ISO 45001 standard, an international standard for health and safety at work. During this reporting period, we have passed stage one of this process, with our stage two audit scheduled for later this year.
Cyber security is something that all organisations must continue to take seriously, with cyber security breaches and attacks remaining a common threat.
According to a survey published by the UK Government in 2024, 50% of businesses report having experienced some form of security breach or hack in the last 12 months. By far the most common type of attack reported by businesses was phishing (84%).
At MDC, a regular cycle of cyber security training has been delivered to colleagues.
95% of colleagues have completed their regular cyber security training session within the first 3 weeks of issue.
2023/24 Progress Update
Our progress in each of the five key areas of focus in our Governance portfolio for the year 2023/24 is set out below by references to a range of deliverables.
Our risk management framework will be supported by the risk management policy and a new risk management software tool to enable risk tracking, management and action planning across our activities.
Enterprise Risk Management
The framework, policy and tool will be communicated to employees and directed training will be provided to build awareness, confidence and an open and honest risk assessment culture to enhance our business delivery.
Our risk management tool has been implemented and is enabling the generation of granular corporate and portfolio-level risk data.
Regular reporting cycles are established and will also be used to drive continuous improvement in our approach to inform and guide effective decision making.
Quarterly sessions are undertaken with senior leadership team members and project teams, to improve wider understanding and align our approach to risk.
Cyber Security Training and Practice
MDC will develop and maintain a clear compliance and training approach to cyber risk management and will seek to ensure that third-party suppliers, customers and partners adhere to appropriate levels of security.
Cyber security training has been delivered regularly throughout the year to all colleagues via our Security Awareness Training platform. These include short, engaging video courses, short email training tips and simulated phishing emails. Compliance with these training methods is strong, with 95% of training completed within 3 weeks of issue.
MDC launched its Business Continuity Policy and Plan (BCP) this year, which have been approved by the Audit and Risk Management Committee (ARMC). The policy has been rolled out MDC-wide via our quality management software. The BCP Plan has also been rolled out to the Incident Response Team.
The team has facilitated a full incident response table-top exercise and one Business Continuity Plan tabletop exercise during the reporting period.
A crisis (non-cyber) table-top exercise has taken place in 2024 to enable testing of the plan for continuous improvement and refinement. Further cyber and non-cyber table-top and staged exercises are planned for 2025.
We have policies in place and will be providing refresher training to current employees and building in compliance to our new starter processes.
We intend to safeguard against any form of anticompetitive practices in our businesses, partnerships or supply chains.
An updated policy has been developed. Once finalised, this policy along with subsequent appropriate training will be incorporated into new starter induction training.
and Investment Controls
Employee training will be refreshed, and clear communication maintained to ensure employee actions align with policy goals to drive ethical, focussed and repeatable behaviour.
All finance-owned policies have been reviewed and, where appropriate, updated within the last 12 months to ensure they are all up to date.
Our employee expenses policy has been refreshed with travel assistance incorporated, with information cascaded to all colleagues via a number of internal channels.
An MDC Investment Committee has been launched, with associated programme framework, group membership
Governance Look Ahead: 2024/25 and Beyond
Over the coming years, we will focus on the following three high-level delivery areas in relation to our Governance portfolio:
Promoting continuous improvement in MDC’s health, safety and ethics driven culture, developing employee engagement and shared ownership to keep health and safety standards, practices and ethics at our core.
Demonstrating active and effective management and control of financial, personal and operational information and data, both internally and with our wider networks. By prioritising these principles, we not only protect our assets and create a sustainable foundation for responsible and ethical practices.
Building and maintaining clear and effective policy and governance controls that are meaningful and understood, which promote best practices and positive behaviour, and support and enhance MDC’s impact.
With Stage 1 of the ISO 45001 undertaken this year, we hope to be successful in the second stage in the coming year to achieve and maintain the accreditation. The ongoing development of our business continuity readiness will stay in focus, including through building wider colleague understanding and through targeted exercises and training for our incident response teams.
We will also continue to build on the strong progress we’ve made across our policy suite – including through relevant training activities.
As we continue to report annually on our ESG performance, we will also update our annual deliverables to ensure they are relevant and continue to drive continuous improvement in our ESG practices.
Over the coming years, we will focus on the following nine core goals, across our ESG portfolio.
Build sustainability, energy efficiency and environmental impact awareness into our core practices, encouraging responsible use of resources and minimising waste.
Integrate energy efficiency, renewability and responsible use of resource awareness into customer/partner relationships and the supplier network, to build shared good practices and a greater positive environmental impact within our community.
Strive to overlay the 5R principles of: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose and Recycle into MDC’s and our partners’ operational delivery, to encourage action at every level, minimise our environmental impact and enhance MDC reputation.
Strive to make social principles central to both our internal community and in our expectations of clients, customers and partnerships across the supply chain.
Drive positive impact through volunteering, skills development, ethical practices and engagement across both internal and external communities.
Promote continuous improvement in MDC’s health, safety and ethics driven culture, developing employee engagement and shared ownership to keep health and safety standards, practices and ethics at our core.
Demonstrate active and effective management and control of financial, personal and operational information and data, both internally and with our wider networks. By prioritising these principles, we protect our assets and create a sustainable foundation for responsible and ethical practices.
Build and maintain clear and effective policy and governance controls that are meaningful and understood, which promote best practices and positive behaviour and support and enhance MDC’s impact.