Sustainability Policy

Purpose and scope 

Hawthorn & Kent Ltd (‘the Company’) believe in the value of sustainable actions. We are committed to reducing our use of fossil fuels, natural resources, empowering our people and limiting our environmental impact on the planet. We pledge to increase Social value through everyday operations, leaving a legacy for the communities in which we work to support a brighter future for all. 

This policy sets out how we manage our approach to be a sustainable, environmentally responsible and energy efficient business. It applies to all employees, in all our operating countries. 

Policy objectives 

The objectives of this policy are to: 

  • Deliver sustainable profitable growth while satisfying our moral, legal and contractual obligations; 

  • Have satisfied clients; 

  • Enable our people to be engaged, safe and respected; 

  • Make a positive contribution to the communities in which we work; 

  • Protect the environment by preventing or mitigating any adverse environmental impacts (including prevention of pollution) and those environmental conditions on our organisation; 

  • Reduce our energy consumption and costs and enhance our environmental performance; 

  • Have an aligned supply chain; and 

  • Ensure our sustainable approach is applied to all new services and markets. 

Requirements 

Moral, legal and contractual obligations: We must understand and fulfil our moral, legal and contractual obligations and ensure these are taken into account in our operations. Contractual obligations must be documented, and processes must be in place to evaluate fulfilment of these. 

Clients: We will nurture relationships with clients and provide the reassurance that we will deliver sustainable development opportunities throughout our service delivery. Customer satisfaction is the key measure of our success in this area and all operations and customer relationship management should be undertaken with client satisfaction in mind. 

People: Our people strategy ensures that we provide the performance management, engagement and leadership training to help our people achieve their full potential. This will include communications campaigns, e-learning programmes and regular employee engagement to measure success. 

Social Value & Responsible Business: Contributions should be made to the communities in which we work. We encourage all our stakeholders to support social mobility programmes to increase vocational education and employability prospects; such as employee volunteering, workplace shadowing, apprenticeships and more.

Environmental and Energy management: We must make sure that our people understand our environmental impacts and are provided with the information and resources to reduce them. Sustainability awareness must also include looking at opportunities to enhance our environmental and energy performance. We will implement and document environmental, energy and carbon management systems to reduce and mitigate our impacts wherever possible in the journey to a net zero carbon future. Fuel consumption will be kept to a minimum through improved vehicle selection procedures, optimised route planning, and driver awareness. 

Supply chain: We will strive to provide sustainable value on every contract and encourage our supply chain partners to support us in achieving our clients’ sustainable objectives and drivers to maximise value for all our stakeholders. We will act in a responsible manner when it comes to selecting supply chain partners and use our influence to enhance the environmental performance throughout the value chain. Small and medium sized businesses, minority owned organisations, voluntary, community and social enterprises will be used where viable as part of our supplier engagement strategy. We will support energy and environmental performance improvements in the design, procurement, operation, maintenance and modification of our facilities, equipment and vehicles. 

Responsibilities 

The Directors are responsible for:
•     Reviewing, endorsing and achieving this policy’s aims. 

  • Administering this policy 

  • Developing and rolling out the supporting strategies; and 

  • Communicating sustainable, energy, environmental and social value information to relevant interested stakeholders. 

  • Maintaining regular reviews of our performance and update the policy as required. 

  • Implementing and enforcing the processes and procedures; 

  • Ensuring that their people are aware of their responsibilities and receive appropriate training; and 

  • Addressing any inappropriate behaviour. 

All individuals representing the Company are responsible for: 

  • Carrying out their work in line with this policy and associated procedures; 

  • Challenging any behaviour that falls short of the expectations of this policy; and 

  • Identifying any breaches of this policy and reporting them. 

What will successful implementation of this policy achieve? 

  • Qualitative and quantitative data trends that are continually improving; 

  • Recognition by external bodies in the form of nominations, awards and accreditations; and 

  • Improved benchmarking results when examining our performance against our peers


Last Updated: 5th January 2025

Sustainability Lead: Sophie Adams