Sustainability

The Environment

Our core strategic objective is to be recognised as a major provider of precast concrete technology, products, services and solutions. At the same time we recognise the environmental impacts arising from our business activities and are committed to reducing these through effective environmental management.  

We are committed to a policy of effectively managing environmental performance in order to minimise the impact of our business processes on the natural environment and the community at large.  This commitment extends to all workplaces, employees and others affected by our operations. We assess the environmental impact of our operations during planning, design and implementation phases so as to prevent pollution of the external environment.

We comply with all relevant environmental legislation as a minimum and, where practical, approved codes of practice and other requirements such as those specified by our clients. At all times, where possible, we incorporate sustainable environmental considerations into our manufacturing practices having particular regard to energy and water consumption, use of low environmental impact materials, designing out waste and reusing materials. We also take reasonable and appropriate measures to ensure that our supply chain provides us with FSC / PEFC certified timber / timber products. We work to implement standards for good practice in reducing waste, recycling more, and increasing the use of recycled and recovered materials.

We continue to look at reducing the impact we have on the environment as a result of our operations - through innovation and a proactive attitude to energy reduction we decreased our carbon emissions by commissioning a wind turbine and solar PV array to produce around 50% or our electricity requirements. We hope to increase this approximately to 75% in the next 18 months. We are cognisant of alternative fuel developments and continue to assess their potential commercial capabilities and economic viability.

The water we use in the manufacture of our concrete products is harvested rainwater or obtained from our onsite bore hole. Any excess water from our manufacturing operations is cleaned and recycled. All of our waste wood is used in a heat recovery system to aid the manufacturing and curing process. Any waste or excess concrete produced is turned into walling products and sold to the local trade and agricultural sectors.

The Local Community

Our actions and advice always conform to relevant law, and we believe that all businesses and organizations should avoid causing any adverse effect on the human rights of people in the organizations we deal with, the local and wider environments, and the well-being of society at large.

We are fully committed to working in partnership with the local community in which we operate. We continually strive to reduce the effects of our business operations on our neighbors’ by employing working practices which improve the environment in and around our operations. We interact with the local community by supporting local charities and sports clubs through sponsorship programmes. We also give full support to the individual fund raising efforts of our employees.

We endeavor to forge and maintain working relationships with local businesses by sourcing where possible our labour, equipment and material needs. During the course of our operations we engage with the local community at a range of levels as customers, businesses, potential employees, residents and neighbors’. Through our ongoing community strategy we seek to contribute by promoting socially inclusive, non-discriminatory policies which help to develop our employees skills, which encourage the disadvantaged and where possible, that help older members of the community and the disabled.

Our Employees

We recognise that our employees are our most valuable asset and their performance is the key to the quality of the service that we provide and we always endeavour to offer, where possible, a long term employment commitment to our staff.

Our recruitment is carried out with regard to fairness, equality and consistency for all candidates at all times. Recruitment practices will be inclusive and we strive to ensure there are no barriers to the employment of suitable candidates.

We provide our staff with the necessary guidance and training to ensure the effective and safe implementation of their day to day activities. This training is reviewed on a regular basis and re-training is carried out as legal requirements dictate. All training is carried out by approved third party external training providers. We are amenable to our staff undertaking further education courses for professional development. We offer flexible working conditions and incentivised bonus schemes.

Any employee who feels that he or she has grounds for complaint in relation to bullying, discrimination, harassment or victimisation has the right to pursue the complaint through our documented grievance procedures. Our staff have access to independent HR advice should they wish. We also allow staff to join trade unions should they wish.