Environmental and Sustainability Policy
At The Institute of Export & International Trade (‘IOE&IT’), we are committed to embedding environmental and sustainable policies and processes throughout our entire organisation. This commitment is supported and led by a dedicated Legal and Compliance (‘L&C’) department supported by the IOE&IT Executive Committee (‘EC’).
The IOE&IT have researched and defined within its Integrated Management System (‘IMS’) what environmental aspects the IOE&IT have. With these clearly identified we continually and strategically improve our processes and policies reducing our negative impact upon the environment where possible. . We believe this is right for our organisation both ethically and commercially. We are committed to our responsibilities, our clients, Team Members, and the wider community in which we operate (our interested parties).
Throughout our operations we are committed to reducing our negative impact on the environment through responsible resourcing. This objective will be achieved by the introduction of a new environmental vendor selection criteria designed and approved by the EC during 2023 for implementation during 2024 as an organisation objective. This vendor selection criteria’s intention is to guide our teams on how to identify desired environmental criteria within supplier proposals where applicable considering the context, scope and resource required. In addition to this as part of the goods and services that we offer we provide advice and guidance through consultation and training. The IOE&IT also complete regular reviews of who our interested parties are, understanding their responsibility and relationship to our organisation and what impact they have, subsequently identifying areas for continuous improvement. At the IOE&IT we believe that everyone can make a difference and it’s part of our responsibility to empower identified interested parties to make a difference where they can
As part of the IOE&IT’s commitment to the environment we ensure all our team members and stakeholders are committed to fulfilling their compliance obligations and to continual improvement through regular environmental awareness training modules delivered as part of our weekly “all team” meetings. This includes raising awareness and competency on the consequences of non-compliance with our obligations. The EC empower the L&C to deliver these very important messages and back them through communication of the training and relevant policies.
It also includes a commitment to the protection of the environment through ensuring relevant policies are communicated throughout the workforce via our newly launched dedicated L&C page which includes a dedicated section to the organisation’s EMS including our travel policy, Environmental Gap assessment, volunteer days, and by setting organisational objectives which will have a positive impact on both the environment, sustainability and the wider community.
During 2023 the IOE&IT completed an Environmental Gap Assessment of its UK Fixed infrastructure from our buildings to our major suppliers. As a result of this we have identified opportunities for improvement which will help reduce our environmental and carbon footprint.
The IOE&IT have also identified several areas and projects that over the next 12 months will help contribute to our overall sustainability and help improve our first Organisational Carbon Baseline completed in Nov 2023. These projects are directly aligned to our core business strategy.
• Waste management improvements.
• Environmental vendor selection criteria.
• Environmental sourcing of our major energy supply.
• Annual Environmental Gap Assessment
• Environmental Volunteering Days
• Commitment to improving our carbon baseline.
• Improved Social Governance Policies.
• Communication and awareness of our environmental activities to all interested parties
• Giving external stakeholders the knowledge and tools to understand and make a positive impact with their environmental footprint.
• Review of our travel policy and its environmental impact.Looking at the life cycle of materials we use to try to limit landfill with recycling our products.
We recognise that being leaders in the field of Export and International Trade comes with a responsibility to our environment, our people, and appropriate social governance of our operations. To this end during 2024 the IOE&IT are working with a leading ESG partner to further strengthen our organisation its policies and our position as a globally recognised leader.
During the past 3 months the IOE&IT have also provided all Team Members with structured Corporate Social Responsibility training to support our objectives and to raise competency and awareness.
When considering the principals of sustainability and corporate responsibility we take three main headings into consideration:-
Environment: We invest in ways to protect the environment we live in, not just for our generation but also for generations to come. It is important to our organisation that we source sustainably ensuring we consider and mitigate our environmental impact when doing so. This is supported and evidenced through the implementation of ISO “14001” Environmental Management accreditation which we are very proud of achieving and embedding throughout our organisation and our commitment to continuously monitoring, measuring and evaluating our performance with the intention of continuously improving.
Social: We think of ways to ensure a sense of community and social togetherness to help this generation to thrive and develop organically and help pave the way for future generations to enjoy and maintain a healthy community. An example of how we try to achieve this is through our Team Member Volunteer Days within local communities. Our focus for 2024 is to make these opportunities more accessible for all our team members where possible to use their volunteer days to make a positive environmental impact.
Economic: We look at ways to efficiently use our resources to the best of our availability. One of the ways which we have endeavoured to change our organisational behaviour is by implementing specific environmental vendor selection criteria when considering purchasing of new products and services. The IOE&IT also endeavour to purchase resources that can be reused rather than single use to prolong an item’s life cycle and reduce waste to landfill.
Date:8th Feb 2024