Corporate Social Responsibility

Acorn believes that a commitment to the principles of corporate social responsibility (CSR) not only makes good business sense but also complements our core business strategy and corporate values. We are aware that the running of our business will, in many ways, affect our place of work, the community and the wider environment in which we operate. We believe that the way we run our business can and should make a positive difference in these areas and we aim to ensure that continued efforts are made to achieve that.

Our policy is based on the following principles:

• to minimise the impact and maximise the benefits that our work has on the environment and people around us
• to integrate our CSR considerations into all our business decisions
• to comply with, and exceed where practicable, all applicable legislation, regulations, and codes of practice.
• to conduct all aspects of our business with honesty, integrity and openness respecting the interests of our employees, clients, sub-contractors and suppliers
• commitment to being open and honest in communicating our strategies, targets, performance and governance to our stakeholders.
• to review, annually report, and to continually strive to improve our CSR performance.

Our approach continues to evolve as we learn lessons along the way. To help define our policy we have divided it into three key areas:

Community

Acorn recognises that we play an important role in our local communities and we aim to make the communities in which we operate better places. Acorn work with and support several local charities and employees collectively raise funds which are matched by Acorn. We promote and encourage volunteer work in community activities including allowing employees authorised paid absence to undertake work.

People

Acorn strives to ensure all our employees enjoy their work and are treated fairly and equally at all times. Acorn invests in our employees training and development which then helps us as a business meet our key objectives. We invest in apprenticeship and leadership development programmes and are actively looking for ways in which we can promote and increase the diversity of our workforce. We aim to empower our employees and we will recognise individual contributions and reward our employees fairly. We keep our staff fully informed of our policies and procedures and we encourage them to share their ideas with us on both internal processes affecting them, and the way our service is provided to customer/clients. We maintain an open and honest approach to all of our communications.

Environment

Acorn aim to ensure that our working practices are as environmentally friendly as possible. We work hard to reduce our carbon footprint; optimise utility usage and reduce waste sent to landfill. We ensure that we provide a comfortable working environment for all our clients by carrying out our services in accordance with agree contracts and complying with industry standards and statutory requirements.

This corporate social responsibility policy is reviewed annually for continuing suitability by our directors and is available to existing clients, potential clients, sub-contractors and suppliers on our website.