Saint-Gobain UK and Ireland, part of the Saint-Gobain Group has released its Corporate Social Responsibility Review 2018.
Saint-Gobain’s UK & Ireland’s progress in response to industry challenges is highlighted in the review and focuses on its commitments which include creating better buildings, caring for the environment, connecting with communities and developing its people.
Commenting on the review, Mike Chaldecott, CEO for Saint-Gobain UK & Ireland, said: “We make a real effort to make positive improvements to the way that we work and I’m pleased about our progress in a number of areas such as our continued delivery of industry training, our actions around the circular economy, and in waste reduction.
“As ever our goal is achieving sustainable changes and continually striving for improvements. While there are some real positives in this Review we are mindful that there is much more to be done. The energy efficiency benefits of some of our products once installed are huge but we still face the challenge of reducing the impact of our own operations and resource use – particularly in decarbonising our operations and reducing water use.
“This review is designed to provide an honest look of our progress and future ambitions. With any review such as this it is important to seek feedback and any comments or suggestions are actively welcomed.”
Some of the achievements documented in the review include; 94.2% of electricity use is now renewable only, the launch of a national plasterboard recycling scheme in Ireland and 4,655 students trained in construction skills to help tackle the industry skills gap. We also saw a further decline of 9% in the amount of waste our business sent to landfill, reducing for the fourth consecutive year and launched closed-loop glass recycling pilots and waste collection schemes designed to bring closed-loop principles to other construction waste streams.
Saint-Gobain has also reported progress in supply chain activities with a focus on Modern Day Slavery training, collaboration with charity Stronger Together, a focus on helping suppliers to the business in their own CSR development and a further business being awarded BES 6001 Responsible Sourcing Certification.
There were also some positive statistics for employees with the ‘health age’ of the organisation reducing by 2,788 years and the launch of the ‘It’s OK not to be OK’ mental health programme. Saint-Gobain was also recognised externally with Top Employer status for the fifth year in the UK and the second in Ireland.
This Review presents the annual performance data for all of our UK and Ireland businesses for the calendar periods 2016 and 2017. The full Review, and previous snapshots, can be viewed at www.saint-gobain.co.uk/csr
