Sustainability
We recognise that to continue to deliver care and support of the highest quality in the communities we serve, we need to act now.
We are committed to advancing sustainability within our services. Our sustainability agenda encompasses a range of initiatives aimed at minimising our environmental footprint whilst providing high-quality, financially sustainable and effective services.
Sustainability Themes
What Is Sustainability?
To us, sustainability is about more than just the environment. To help us quantify what we mean by sustainability, we have set out our goals and initiatives into a number of themes:
Our People
We recognise it is only through the support, action and involvement of colleagues that we can achieve our ambitious objectives. Integral to our sustainability agenda is engagement and inclusion at all possible points. We make the following commitments in relation to our team:
- We will continue to offer employment opportunities to the local economy, engaging with community groups and promoting career opportunities in the areas that we serve.
- Apprenticeships represent a fantastic opportunity for people to learn vital skills and receive on-the-job training. Each year, we will review whether existing vacancies can be adequately fulfilled through the use of an Apprenticeship.
- We will review our processes to help colleagues consider sustainability as part of their everyday work, through transport choices, procurement, use of outdoor spaces and disposal of waste.
- We will continue to offer fair and genuinely competitive pay with employment benefits that are meaningful.
Our Environment
We work hard to make sure the high quality care we provide today is available tomorrow. We are dedicated to reducing our overarching carbon footprint and working with partners as the wider health and social care system aspires to Net Zero. There are a number of emissions areas where we have direct influences, and others where we have limited indirect influence.
Figure 1. Sources of carbon emissions in the context of HCL’s community services.
Fossil fuels are expensive and scarce and taxes on pollutants are increasing. Using available resources more efficiently is an easy way to reduce environmental impact and reduce costs. For example, reduction in travel, effective use of building space and careful use of water are all approaches for realising savings.
As a provider, we recognise the wider determinants of wellbeing, including supporting our colleagues and communities to make low carbon healthier choices and enabling that choice to be a practical and long-term reality.
We limit our environmental footprint most significantly by avoiding operating expensive and unnecessary offices.
Business Travel
Business travel is the biggest contributor to our carbon footprint. Every year, our teams travel thousands of miles to deliver care and support. At present, 100% of the vehicles in the fleet rely on fuels. We are keen to explore the possibility of introducing an EV fleet but current constraints include the cost of introducing EVs and the efficacy of electric cars for shorter but frequent trips.
Waste
We have taken significant steps towards reducing the quantity of waste that is created and improving the percentage recycled or reclaimed each year.
To reduce paper waste, we operate a 100% digital service. On rare occasions paper is used, this is recycled after use in 100% of instances. On occasions, we generate paper to send correspondence to clients and families where they prefer and need printed text.
We support our clients to effectively manage household waste streams by promoting recycling day-to-day.
Our Objectives
Business travel is understood to be the largest single contributor to our carbon footprint. To reduce our footprint, realise the benefits of alternative means of travel and take advantage of available technology we make the following commitments:
- We will minimise the harmful impact of our travel choices by reducing the carbon emissions attributed to the transport of staff and clients by car pooling, using sustainable or carbon neutral travel options and promoting public transport where possible.
- We already reduce carbon emissions attributed to commuting by enabling home working for our teams.
Our Finances
Our socially driven purpose is only possible through careful financial management. To ensure a sustainable service, we make the following commitments:
- Ongoing careful day-to-day financial management.
- Promoting cost-saving initiatives across our team to maximise the resources we have available to support clients, trial new and innovative technologies and grow our offering.
- Provide affordable services that do not disadvantage members of our community who need care and support.
- Work with partners, including the NHS, to deliver affordable yet sustainable services to people in receipt of continuing healthcare.
- Where possible, procure products and services from local organisations in order to contribute more effectively to our local economy.
- Every year, donate to good causes in our local community.
Our Spaces
Electricity and gas use in large and mostly inefficient office buildings emits vast amounts of carbon emissions in our atmosphere. To reduce our own carbon footprint and realise the economic, health and environmental benefits of managing the use of buildings and offices space, we make the following commitments:
- We will drive up levels of recycling in our organisation with an initial focus on better ways to dispose of waste in the context of home working, and supporting our clients at home.
- We will not operate expensive, inefficient and pointless office space. This serves a number of purposes:
- We can promote a healthier work/life balance and overall wellbeing for our teams.
- We can reduce commuting time and the associated costs to staff and carbon footprint.
- We can invest what we save in new services, products and technology.
- Our team are geographically spread across the area we serve – meaning we can respond more quickly to people’s needs.
- We can contribute to the local economy by renting training and meeting spaces from local non-profit groups as and when required.
3. We can more effectively control and monitor our waste and recycling outputs.