The Group recognises the importance of conducting its business in a socially responsible manner.
This is demonstrated in the way it deals with its employees, customers, suppliers and the communities in which it does business.
The Group considers that corporate social responsibility is an integral element of good business management and is committed to making a balanced consideration of economic, social and environmental issues in making business decisions.
The Environment
The Group aims to be a merchanting business of choice for the supply of environmental and sustainable products to customers.
This should be achieved through the training and development of staff and by working with suppliers on the sourcing of environmentally efficient products.
Waste Management
As a leading supplier of building materials and associated products, the Group strives to reduce waste going to landfill by increasing levels of recycling.
The Group’s Irish businesses are members of Repak and the UK businesses are members of Biffpack.
Baling machines to recycle paper and cardboard now operate throughout the Buildbase branch network.
The merchanting business in the UK has appointed Greenstar Environmental Limited, a recycling-led waste management company, to partner it in delivering a sustainable waste strategy and to optimise waste disposal methods and reduce carbon footprint.
Carbon Reduction Commitment
As part of its commitment to environmental issues, the UK merchanting business is registered as a stakeholder in the UK government’s Carbon Reduction Commitment and is working towards ISO 14064 Carbon Trust Standard.
The Grafton Merchanting Environmental Focus Group is striving to reduce the UK merchanting business’ carbon footprint and improve performance in other environmentally sensitive areas.
Buildbase has worked closely with its utility service providers to introduce AMRs (Automatic Meter Readers) at all branch locations.
This has enabled the company to accurately monitor usage of both gas and electricity and set targets for branches to reduce energy consumption
Sustainable Products
The Group recognises the increasing importance of supplying renewables and sustainable products.
Product ranges designed to provide sustainable building solutions have been introduced in the UK businesses.
These ranges include Solar Thermal and Solar PV, air source heat pumps, ground source heat pumps, biomass heating, rainwater harvesting and heat recovery ventilation systems.
In Ireland, the Woodie’s DIY business offers a range of environmentally friendly products including energy-saving lamps, solar garden lights and composters for recycling garden and household waste.
Heiton Buckley branches stock a range of products designed to reduce the impact of climate change through better building including condensing boilers that reduce demand for fossil fuel, energy-saving insulation materials and controlled ventilation systems.
Buildbase and Jacksons have adopted the Timber Trades Federation ‘Responsible Purchasing Policy’.
This demonstrates that the business is committed to sourcing timber and timber products from legal and well-managed forests and supports the UK/EU global objective to stop illegal logging.
Buildbase holds the internationally recognised environmental certificates for the PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) scheme.
The Buildbase policy is to ensure that its natural timber products continue to be FSC/PEFC accredited.
The entire operation is independently audited and completely transparent to guarantee that the timber is legally harvested and comes from a sustainable source.
The UK merchanting brands are ISO 14001 certified. Each trading branch has a Branch Environmental Champion who is responsible for monitoring and managing policies and procedures contained in the Environmental Manual.
The UK merchanting business published ‘Go Green with Grafton’, a brochure for trade customers which looks at aspects of sustainable development from legislation to product performance.
Health and Safety
The Group is committed to achieving the best practicable standard of health and safety for our employees, customers and visitors to its trading locations.
It considers health and safety to be an important element in the overall management of the businesses. Group companies invest significant resources in health and safety management and actively work to identify and minimise health and safety risks.
They aim to ensure that all reasonable precautions are taken to provide and maintain conditions for employees, customers and visitors alike which are safe and healthy, and in compliance with statutory requirements.
Accidents are monitored so that corrective action may be taken where considered necessary and in order to reduce the number of incidents and the cost of claims from employees and customers.
Human Resources
The success of the Group is dependent on the contribution and commitment of its management and staff.
The Group’s decentralised culture, which is appropriately supported at Group level, gives management and staff the autonomy to use their expertise, skills and talents both for their own career development and for the success of the Group.
The Group and its businesses are committed to high standards of employment practice and is recognised as a good employer in both the UK and Ireland.
The Group aims to reward management and staff fairly by reference to skills, performance, peers and local market conditions.
The Group where appropriate provides incentives to management and staff through remuneration policies that promote commitment and reward achievement.
It is Group policy that all employees receive fair and equal treatment regardless of gender, age, ethnic origin, nationality, religion or disability.
The Group is committed to offering equal opportunities to all individuals in their recruitment, training and career development having regard to their particular aptitudes and abilities.
Training and development programmes are important to the business. Significant attention and resources are devoted to this area.
Training programmes are organised internally by Group businesses and also in conjunction with external bodies, such as the Builders Merchant Federation in the UK.
They cover a range of issues including sales development, customer service, product training, health and safety and leadership skills.
These programmes help to ensure that the Group can develop, retain and attract the best individuals at all levels in the business.
The Group aims to fill vacancies through internal promotions and to complement internal appointments with recruitment from outside of the organisation.
The Group has Revenue approved share schemes in place in the UK and Ireland that are intended to enable employees to share in the success and growth of the Group.
The majority of employees in Ireland are members of the Group’s Share Participation Scheme which enables them to tax efficiently acquire shares in the Group in any year in which the scheme is operated.
The Group operates a Save As You Earn (SAYE) Scheme for UK employees, which enjoys a high level of support.
Community
The Group recognises its responsibility as a member of the communities where its branches/plants are located and where it does business.
It is committed to developing links to those communities through local management supporting a range of initiatives covering health, welfare, sport, education and community projects.
The Group also supports a range of charitable causes, mainly at local level, by giving donations.
Macmillan Cancer Support received £400,000 to date through fundraising by Buildbase branches.
Selco Trade Centres raised more than £40,000 during 2010 for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC).
Woodie’s DIY continued its sponsorship of the Athletic Association of Ireland track and field, cross country and indoor competitions.
