• Environmental – involves looking at a company’s activities including its use of products, materials, vehicles and energy, its waste management and its carbon footprint.
• Social – taking action to support outcomes like fairness, equality and safety for people you can affect such as staff and customers.
• Governance – to achieve the goals above, and generally to behave ethically in business, it’s important to have full, clear reporting and formal, documented decision-making processes.

Eden Facades has long had a sense of commitment in this area, and feedback from our customers tells us it is valued. The components of ESG are regularly identified in surveys as having importance to investors and companies. Forbes, for example, discussed a recent survey in which 59% of decision makers in construction “said a sustainable supply chain is a competitive differentiator”.

E for Environmental

We look carefully when choosing our suppliers, assessing their own commitments in this area. Obviously, that’s not the only input to the decision, but we are highly conscious that we, our suppliers and our clients are all part of a supply chain which affects the environment we share.

In terms of our own activities, a particular focus is on reducing waste. It’s fair to say we spend more time planning purchases than the average installer, and we have progressively refined our ability to cut cladding boards and other materials optimally. We buy what we need, we transport what we need, and we dispose of as little as possible. We also follow various practices within our office that reduce waste – avoiding the use of paper wherever possible, for example, and using digitised data and processes for almost everything we do.

S for Social

We are good people, and we do a great job. That’s the phrase that our Managing Director, Tony Hill, uses more than all others, to describe us. The point of it is a recognition that all we are, ultimately, is a group of people. What we have to offer is the sum of the experience, the skillset, the character of those individuals. The better they are, the more we are. We invest in our defining asset, continuously upskilling staff, and supporting them throughout a career that is often wholly or largely with us.

We also have a strong tradition of supporting apprenticeships: as we discussed recently, we currently have three apprentices who are combining undergraduate study with work  at Eden Facades.

We work especially closely with partners such as United Living, who themselves commit clearly to building frameworks that create social value. It’s a two-way street of course, with those partners also having to select us, but you will see United Living listed on our testimonials page with a kind quote about us.

G for Governance

Corporate governance at Eden Facades is centred on formalised procedure. Our Manager for SHEQ (Safety, Health, Environment and Quality), Terry Box, serves as Vice Chair of the IOSH Essex committee as well as attending the IOSH Global Chairs committee.

As well as ISO 9001, 14001 and 45001 accreditations, we hold certifications or vetted installer memberships with CHAS, Constructionline, PAS 2030, TrustMark, SWIGA, The Installation Assurance Authority and the Green Deal Home Improvement Fund, as well as being an approved contractor for many of the leading materials suppliers in the country.

We also support employees in gaining personal qualifications that enhance their ability to contribute to the team, with several staff members recently gaining the CIEH award in Environmental Principles and Best Practice, for example.

Our intention is not to overstate these measures, but as an industry we must pull together to affect change, and we believe in partnering with people who take quality, the environment, and health and safety seriously.

If you feel that Eden Facades might be a good choice of partner for any upcoming project, please get in touch on 01268 744199 or at office@edenfacades.co.uk.