Sustainability Report 2006/07
FRC Group Sustainability Report 2006/07 Acknowledgments We would like to thank the following for all their hard work in contributing to the production of this report: All the people who make FRC Group a truly great place to work: our staff, trainees, volunteers and work placements. All the people who matter to us and who gave us feedback on our performance - our customers, our suppliers and our Board of Trustees. All the employees at FRC Group who helped with the collection and analysis of data. Adam Richards, PhD student, Centre for Management Studies, Liverpool John Moores University who collated all the feedback from our stakeholders’ questionnaires and calculated our social return on investment. Adrian Henriques, Just Assurance, for his advice and due diligence in auditing this report. His statement can be found on page 56.
The Report Panel who gave up their time to be part of our independent audit panel, they were: x x x x x x
Penny Street, independent sustainability consultant Peter Tyson, Financial Skills Worker, Citizens Advice Bureau, Liverpool Paul Arista, Partnership Manager, Learning Skills Council, Merseyside Paul Sanderson, Director of Environmental Services, St Helens Council Sally Bonnie, Social Enterprise Unit Manager, Oldham Borough Council Diane Kelly, Business Manager, Furnished Accommodation, Helena Housing, St Helens
Alison Ball and Verity Timmins of the FRC Group compiled these accounts in September 2007.
1
Contents Page 3.2
1.0 Introduction 2.0
Furniture Resource Centre
Our values
2.2
Bulky Bob’s
20
2.3
Revive
25
2.4
The Cat’s Pyjamas and FRC Solutions 29
l Company map Our health and safety
3.0 Our people 30
42
ll Our Stakeholders and how we engaged them
4.0 Our Environmental Impact 45
lll Environmental reporting methodology
5.0
lV Triple Bottom Line Accounts
Update 2006/2007
6.0 Auditors Statement Our employees
39
16
3.4
3.1
35
Appendices
Our Businesses
3.3 2.1
Our training programme
V Bulky Bob’s Environmental Impacts
2
1.0 Introduction Our social, environmental and economic impact 2006/07 Welcome to our third Sustainability Report detailing FRC Group’s triple bottom line - the social, environmental and economic impacts of our business activities from the 1st April 2006 until the 31st March 2007. We have a long history of social and sustainability reporting, we produced our first social report in 1999 and our first sustainability report in 2005. Through our reporting we aim to prove the added value of the Group’s social business activities. This report details our business performance and reveals important feedback from our stakeholders - the people and organisations that really matter to us. We report on where we have both over and underachieved on the performance targets that we set for ourselves in 2006/07 and set out our targets for improvements in 2007/08. For us reporting is a discipline of integrity and, if a business claims to deliver added value, then it needs to be able to robustly prove it. Our ever improving practice of accounting and reporting gives us systems, key performance indicators and the data to measure and make improvements on the increasingly stretching targets that we set for the FRC Group. Enjoy reading about our business as we are
immensely proud of what we have both achieved and learnt this year and as ever are excited about our future.
Overview of the year Group Income This year £3,321,548, last year £3,449,274 This year has been one of winning key contracts, delivering more social and environmental impact than ever before, winning national awards and discussions with leading politicians. We were once again delighted to have been ranked in the Financial Times’s Top 50 Best Place to Work UK index (we were ranked 26th in 2005 and in 2007 no individual ranking was published). We were awarded Employer of the Year 2006 by the Daily Post and Echo.
We were also a winner in the Enterprising Solutions Social Enterprise of the Year 2006 awards.
Our first female logistics trainee won the Edge Upstart’s Trainee of the Year 2006. Our Sustainability Report 2005/06 was short listed in ACCA’s Sustainability Reporting 2006 Awards. Adding to our celebrations we also met leading UK politicians – Tony Blair, David Cameron, Margaret Hodge and David Miliband who were all keen to learn more about the realities of running a social business. We worked hard to review and improve business performance across the Group working with our managers to introduce a new set of performance indicators. To ensure increased efficiencies and maximum returns on our financial, social and environmental performance we set stretching targets in all areas of our business. Our Bulky Bob’s business continued to grow in size and operational scope – we launched a Bulky Bob’s collection service in Oldham, a bulky household waste recycling operation in Sefton, a Cathode Ray Tube recycling project in Liverpool, expanded our collection service in Warrington and launched a Bulky Bob’s operation in St Helens. We also collected, reused and recycled more items of furniture
3
and white goods than ever before - all in all a very busy year!
activities, reducing the Group’s overall carbon dioxide emissions throughout the year.
Furniture Resource Centre, our one-stop furnishing service for registered social landlords (RSLs), getting quality furniture to those most in need, remained at the heart of our business winning key contracts with national organisations such as Procurement for Housing. (www.procurementforhousing.co.uk).
Our Group financial performance
Revive, our high street furniture store in Liverpool and Widnes, continued to get our special mix of both new and pre-loved furniture out to low-income households. This year we had to take the difficult decision to close our Widnes Revive after three years of trading there. We provided less advice through our FRC Solutions consultancy business than we have previously and once again we left the running of our Cat’s Pyjamas business in the hands of our joint venture partner. Our programme to give long term unemployed individuals a job and training continued to get an impressive number of trainees into work after they graduated. We were challenged by very stretching targets for recruiting individuals from the black and minority ethnic communities in both Liverpool and Oldham. We remained committed to improving the environmental impact of our business
Year
Income
2001/02 2002/03 2003/04
7,490,451 5,045,661 4,758,731 4,085,568 3,449,274
2004/05
2005/06 2006/07
3,324,402
% income from grants 10 4.0 7.0 7.0 4.6 4.2
For the second year running we calculated the social return on investment (SROI) for our Bulky Bob’s training programme in Liverpool and the social impacts of our Revive store. SROI enabled us to measure and monetise the social environmental and economic value gained compared with the level of investment we deployed in these aspects of our business. Through Bulky Bob’s and Furniture Resource Centre we continued to engage with the growing public sector procurement agenda. Social businesses are increasingly recognised by national and local government as a way of delivering effective services and bringing both efficiencies and added value to local authorities and public sector agencies. For the first time ever we worked with a fundraising consultant to prepare a fundraising strategy for the Group – we believe that it is an
% income from sales 90 96 93 93 95.4 95.8
Employees average 104 74 78 83 71 71
Unrestricted funds Profit/(loss)£ 431,299 28,265 (11,124) (149,267) (205,024) (320,599)
important part of our business development to explore developing good relationships with funding agencies who are willing to fund our innovations that bring about social and environmental change. Whilst FRC’s financial trading results over the last few years have been poor the Group has been able to sustain its losses as it entered this phase with a healthy level of reserves and still retains circa £1 million as ay 31st March 2007. In addition, throughout 2006/07 we continued to deliver increased positive social and environmental impacts as well as implementing growth plan which is coming to fruition in 2007/08 with sales already exceeding 2006/07 performance and therefore reducing the level of losses that we have recently seen. We expect this positive trend to continue at an increased rate in 2008/09 which will see us
4
posting a positive financial result and enabling us to continue to deliver increased social and environmental change. Our business continued to be run by a triumvirate of directors who are ultimately answerable to a Board of Trustees. We received great feedback from our employees about working for FRC Group, our staff are highly committed and proud to work here, our values culture remains at the heart of all that we do and how we do it and we believe that we remain a great place to work. Once again it was a challenging, rewarding and above all exciting year at FRC Group!
The Leadership Team
Alison Ball Director of People and Learning
Shaun Doran Commercial Director
Phil Tottey Finance Director
September 2007
5
Who we are and what we do The Cat’s Pyjamas FRC Group
amovingexperience
We do good things, running businesses that promote equality and create livelihoods for people who really need them. We seek to achieve social, environmental and financial benefits by operating commercially viable social businesses in a range of markets.
An expansion of the Furniture Resource Centre’s services to registered social landlords, amovingexperience offers registered social landlords a people-centred removals service for their tenants. We move people, not just furniture.
We are a values led company trying to live and work creatively, passionately, bravely and professionally. We will be as open, honest and accountable as we can with all the people who matter to us. We want always to learn and to help others learn from us.
In 2000, we launched Bulky Bob's, a recycling company that collects bulky household waste on contract to Liverpool City Council and, Oldham and Warrington Borough Councils. Bulky Bob’s reuses, refurbishes and recycles furniture, white goods and Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE).
Furniture Resource Centre At the heart of our Group, is Furniture Resource Centre, a registered charity. Founded in 1988 and based in Liverpool, we provide a one stop furnishing service to registered social landlords throughout England and Wales enabling them to offer furnished accommodation to tenants who are most in need.
The Cat’s Pyjamas, our joint venture company with Urban Strategy Associates (www.urbanstrategy.co.uk), provides learning experiences in the realities of running a social business. We run a range of bespoke events for customers in a range of sectors. For a company map showing our trading subsidiaries, see appendix I.
Bulky Bob’s
Revive Stores Revive, our high street store in the centre of Liverpool, opened in 1998 and in June 2004, in Widnes. Our Revive brand sells “pre-loved” and new furniture direct to the public and offers discounts to people on low-incomes.
6
Our stakeholders Our stakeholders are the people who matter to us, our direct customers, such as local authorities and registered social landlords (RSLs) and indirect customers, such as the tenants of RSLs and other housing providers, also our employees, our trainees, our Board of Trustees and the environment. A list of our stakeholders can be found in appendix II.
Our aspirations and Group objectives Our objectives are: x x x x
To be great to do business with To be a great place to work To be great for people To be great for the planet
And of course to be profitable in all of our business endeavours. We aim to deliver on our triple bottom line of financial, social and environmental performance everyday of every year. Our objectives enable us to articulate how we do this: Being great to do business with - we act on customers’ and suppliers’ feedback to continually improve the quality of the goods and services we supply.
Being a great place to work - we take seriously what our employees say about working at FRC Group and act on their suggestions and ideas to improve our working environment. Being great for people - we offer training and job opportunities for long term unemployed individuals in our business. We also get high quality furniture to low-income households through our furniture supply contracts with registered social landlords and through our high street store, Revive. Being great for the planet – measuring, accounting for and improving the environmental impacts of our business operations and the goods and services that we sell. This is a key commitment for us. And, we can never forget, that we must always ensure that we are commercially minded and always deliver on our financial bottom line.
Our values: beliefs in action
Our values are fundamental to everything that we do; they are our beliefs in action. To remain relevant and successful in business, we may change our business strategy, but our values remain consistent about the way in which everyone at the FRC Group works. They keep us on the straight and narrow, we work hard to encourage all of our employees to champion them. We recognise, reward and celebrate those who work in ways that demonstrate them. We strive for Bravery, Creativity, Passion and Professionalism in all that we do. We have devoted a full section to reporting on the ways we have worked on our values in 2006/07. This can be found on page 39 of this report.
Our methodology After another year of challenges and changes at FRC Group we have worked hard to include any new impacts of our activities in our accounting systems and include them in this report.
7
Data was captured on a monthly basis as an integral part of our business practices and in our triple bottom line accounts, which can be found in appendix IV. We approached 15 different stakeholder groups of people who matter to us and asked them throughout the year for feedback on our performance. We asked them how well we performed against our objectives? Were our objectives and the issues we work on the right ones in the first place? And what had been the impacts of our work upon them as stakeholders? Feedback was obtained using a number of different methods, by a variety of our Group’s employees. Examples include postal questionnaires, telephone interviews and faceto-face interviews. Questionnaire analysis was carried out by a PhD student from the School of Management at Liverpool John Moores University.
Liverpool and Revive, Liverpool. We also began a project with a major housing association customers to establish the SROI of providing furnished accommodation for tenants. This year we entered the Financial Times’ Best Place to Work Index and were obliged to use the format that they provided to survey our staff. In addition we supplemented their questionnaire with questions about the impact of our values culture. In the tables on the following pages, we have reported how well we have done on the priorities and targets we set the Group for 2006/07. We have used ‘smilies’ to indicate where we have achieved or missed the mark on our targets:
- - We met or surpassed the target . - We made some progress but still aim for more
This year we did not have the time and resources to gather feedback from every one of our stakeholder groups. We plan to address this in 2007/08. We measured the wider economic impact of the FRC Group’s activities on the Merseyside area and our contribution both to the local and national economies using the New Economics Foundation’s Local Multiplier 2 (LM2) and social return on investment (SROI) tools. SROI was calculated for the training programme in
/ - We missed the mark Throughout the report where we show performance data we have also, where possible, shown comparative performance figures for previous years.
8
Category
Indicator
Targets and Priorities 2006/07
Furniture Resource Centre
Financial performance
Increase the sales and profitability of the Furniture Resource Centre
Business Development
Increase activity on amovingexperience by 100% on 2005/06
We achieved
/
Turnover fell by 11% in 2006/07 compared with 2005/06
Target 2007/08
Increase the sales and Furniture Resource Centre.
profitability
of
/
Activity decreased by 53% Customer Care
Social Impact
Introduce quarterly feedback process for customers by September 2006
.
Introduce a formal quarterly feedback process with major customers from October 2007.
Set up a focus group with a major customer and Customer Service Team by October 2006 to explore customer service issues
/
100% rate of customer satisfaction.
Devise a robust measure to prove the impact furnished accommodation has in creating sustainable tenancies by February 2007
.
Try to identify the SROI of providing furnished tenancies. Research CO2 savings brought about by our stock management service.
9
Category
Indicator
Targets and Priorities 2006/07
Bulky Bob’s
Reuse and Recycling rate
Warrington BB’s 100% of white goods
We achieved
-
Meet reuse and recycling rates of 10% on furniture collected in Warrington Maintain 100% recycling of white goods in Warrington
/
Start deconstruction in Liverpool Send 100 pre-loved items to revive each week Achieve recycling/reuse rates of 42% (75% with deconstruction) by weight Achieve a reuse and recycling rate of 25% by weight Start deconstruction in Oldham
Rate of 100% achieved
Reuse and recycling rates of more than 70% on operations where we use deconstruction
54.5% achieved Reuse and recycling rate for Oldham - 25%
/
Rate achieved was 21% Business development
Continue to investigate business opportunities for Bulky Bob’s with the corporate sector
.
One Local Authority signed up and 3 ready to sign by March 31st 2007
.
Oldham and Sefton Deconstruction operations started in 2006/07 Economic impact
Prove the Social Return On Investment for Bulky Bob's activities on two contracts Use LM2 on all Bulky Bob’s contracts
Customer Care
Ensure we get direct feedback from householders on all of our Bulky Bob’s contracts
Environmental impact
Find the most environmentally friendly options and business opportunities for the reuse and recycling of residual household waste 2007.
Target 2007/08
Win contracts to begin 4 new deconstruction services Win contracts to begin 2 new Bulky Bob’s services
. .
Engage with local authority and households to receive stakeholder feedback
10
Category
Indicator
Revive Stores
Social impact
Targets and Priorities 2006/07 At least 84% of customers in Liverpool are from low income households
We achieved
Target 2007/08
.
To achieve at least 84% of Revive customers from low income households
-
N/A
79% of customers in Liverpool were from lowincome households Maintain level of low-income household customers at 91% at Revive Halton (Widnes)
Establish the SROI of Revive stores
Category
Indicator
Targets And Priorities 2006/07
Cat’s Pyjamas
Business Development
Priority FRC Group is to leave the running of Cat’s Pyjamas to our joint venture partner for 2006/07 and review progress later in 2006/07
92% of customers in Widnes were from lowincome households
The store closed in February 2007
-
To calculate the SROI of our Revive store
We achieved
-
Targets 2007/08
No target set
11
Category
Indicator
Priorities 2006/07
Employees
Great place to work
100% employees agree HIG is a fair way to discuss their progress at work.
We achieved
Target 2007/08
.
100% employees agree HIG is a fair way to discuss their progress at work.
/ /
Publish Group’s diversity policy by August 2007
/
Write a Group diversity action plan by December 2007
95% agreed HiG is a fair way to discuss their progress at work Diversity
Publish Group’s diversity policy by August 2006. Introduce diversity monitoring by September 2006
Write a Group diversity action plan by October 2006 Category Trainees
Indicator Social return
Targets and Priorities 2006/07 Target Early leavers rate 13% or below
We achieved
/
25% were early leavers 75% into jobs or further education
/
73% went into jobs or further education 33% of trainees coming from BME communities
.
31% of trainees were from BME communities Track leavers for up to 18 months
-
Introduce diversity monitoring by October 2007
Targets 2007/08 Achieve a rate of 75% of trainees into further training or employment 50% of all trainees to be taken on as Driver/Loaders Trainees to achieve a 60% first time LGV II pass rate Trainees to achieve a 60% first time car pass rate 5% of ILM trainees to be women 33% of ILM trainees to be from a Black and Minority Ethnic Group Priority Re-negotiate and evaluate all training costs and providers by April 2008. 12
Category
Indicator
Priorities 2006/07
Values
Values culture
Target Increase the number of creativity and bravery awards given out to (Liverpool based) staff by 100% on 2005/06 performance
We achieved
Targets 2007/08
Creativity:
-
100% increase in the number of bravery and creativity awards given out to employees.
100% increase
Bravery:
/
7% increase Priority Ensure we embed our values culture in new satellite businesses Category
Indicator
Target 2006/07
Health & Safety
Accident rate
Reduce RIDDOR reportable accident rate in Liverpool by 20% on 2005/06 figures
We achieved
-
30% reduction achieved All logistics and warehouse staff to attend 2 refresher courses
All non logistics staff to attend one refresher course
/
Priority Ensure our Oldham operation develops the mature values culture that we have on Merseyside. Target 2007/08 Reduce the number of personal injuries reported across FRC Group by 10% Reduce the number of RIDDOR reportable accidents across FRC Group by 10% Achieve a lost time due to accidents of 0.29% per employee across FRC Group
Report on and reduce the number of vehicle accidents across FRC Group by 30% Ensure all logistics and warehouse employees under go at least two health and safety refresher courses throughout the year
Priority Move to calculating rate of lost time per employee and report on it for separate operations
.
Change the way we calculate our accident rate – move to reporting on performance by different operational areas.
13
Category
Indicator
Targets and Priorities 2006/07
Environment
Carbon dioxide emissions
Reduce CO2 emissions from electricity use at Head Office by 5% on 2005/06 figures.
We achieved
/
emissions rose by 12%
Reduce Co2 emissions from our logistics fleet on Merseyside by 5%
-
13.6% reduction achieved
Targets 2007/08 To reduce fuel usage after SAFED training by: 15% for Furniture Resource Centre 15% for Revive 5% for Bulky Bob’s Liverpool 10% for Bulky Bob’s Warrington The Driver / Mentor / Assessor at Bulky Bob’s Oldham to have been trained as a SAFED instructor by the end of October 2007. Bulky Bob’s Oldham Driver / Mentor / Assessor to deliver SAFED training to other logistics staff by end December 2007 Bulky Bob’s Oldham to achieve a 5% reduction in fuel usage following Driver / Mentor / Assessor receiving SAFED training
Energy use
Introduce bio diesel fuel in our logistics fleet as soon as local supplies become available
.
To further investigate the sustainability of biofuel and make an informed decision about if and how we use biofuel in our fleet by end of 2007/08
Off set the CO2 emissions generated through the Cat’s Pyjamas air miles through a carbon off set programme
-
Priority To develop a methodology which quantifies the CO2 savings from Bulky Bob’s reuse and recycling activities which divert waste away from landfill sites, which will enable us to articulate the carbon footprint of all of our operations
Reduce gas usage at FRC Group Head Office by 5% on 2005/06 levels
-
Gas usage reduced by 49% Reduce gas levels at Revive by 10% on 2005/06 levels. Reduce to 29,127kWh
-
Gas usage reduced by 11%
14
Category
Indicator
Targets and Priorities 2006/07
Water use
Maintain at 2005/06 levels of 3.1m3 per person
We achieved
Targets 2007/08
/
increased to 5.12 m3 Staff training
Environmental Impact
Run at least one environmental awareness training event for all staff
/
Run at least one driving efficiency course for all logistics staff
.
Priority Carry out cradle to grave impacts for the products we sell
/
Talk to three major customers about the environmental credentials of the products we supply
/
Commit to identify and promote the environmental impacts of the products we offer on our furniture resource centre service
/
Commission DTI fuel champ advice
-
Benchmark our logistics performance against other companies in the waste and logistics industry
-
Introduce an incentivised fuel efficiency programme for logistics staff
/
Deliver at least one session of environmental awareness training to every member of staff by the end of 2007/08
Begin implementation of BS8555 with the aim of accreditation in early 2007/08
15
2.0 Our businesses 2.1 Furniture Resource Centre
In 2006/07, we made 3,131 deliveries, an increase of 5.3% on last year (2,974, 2005/06) but turnover fell by 11%. Our longer-term customers now have established furnished tenancies schemes and no longer need large volumes of new furniture. Others are under increasing financial constraints and are unable to offer tenants the comprehensive packages of furniture that they once did.
Achievement 2006/07 Increase the sales and profitability of
This year’s turnover £1,780,737, last year’s £2,006,400 The Furniture Resource Centre aims to provide furniture solutions for low-income families so that those in greatest need could have access to furniture. To do this we run a ‘one stop’ furnishing service for registered social landlords (RSLs) and other housing providers. This business-to-business service delivers and installs bespoke packages of brand new domestic furniture, white goods, carpets and curtains. We do this so that our customers can offer furnished rented accommodation to their tenants. We also offer related services such as furniture rental, stock management and amovingexperience which is our home removals service.
Furniture Resource Centre
/
Sales fell by 11% in 2006/07 compared with 2005/06
We are now in the business of persuading those RSLs who have never run a furnished accommodation scheme of the benefits of doing so, arguing as we have always done, that offering furnished accommodation is a worthwhile strategy to create sustainable tenancies for people who would otherwise not have the financial resources to secure decent furniture for themselves. We continue to increase our work with specialist agencies such as hostels, accommodation for older people and asylum seeker agencies. This year we saw smaller and more one-off requests to furnish specialised accommodation for specific needs such as foyers, domestic violence refuges and supported housing schemes.
In June 2006, Furniture Resource Centre was selected to be Procurement for Housing’s1 (PfH) supplier of furniture and white goods. PfH is a national purchasing agency and an initiative of the Housing Corporation and the Chartered Institute of Housing. It aims to ensure that its membership of registered social landlords get the best procurement deals. PfH’s procurement process was the most rigorous and professional that FRC has ever been subjected to. Julie Craig, PFH’s Director told us that we had passed “with flying colours” and are “a remarkable organisation”. The PfH contract has given us direct access to a greater number of social landlords across England and Wales and has helped us reach a greater diversity of vulnerable tenants who now have furniture supplied by us. This year we were able to increase Furniture Resource Centre’s spend with one of our most valuable suppliers, Dove Designs. They are a neighbouring social enterprise, manufacturing upholstered furniture which we include in the furniture packages supplied to our RSL customers. Dove Designs brings invaluable added social value to our supply chain - they provide job and training opportunities to individuals on Merseyside with mental health problems.
1
www.procurementforhousing.co.uk
16
Achievement 2006/07 This year we persuaded them to make more of their manufacturing capacity and expand their product range to supply us with a range of wooden bedroom furniture. Our spend since 2005/06 has risen by 2%.
telephone call to customers and 95% them said they were “very happy” with our service. “All went well- great. We’ll continue using you.” Bradford Community Housing
Amovingexperience
“Very helpful drivers, need to wait half an hour, very friendly.”
Achievement 2006/07
Framework Housing, Nottingham
Increase amovingexperience’s number of moves by 100% on 2005/06’s activity Activity decreased by 53%
/
Amovingexperience our removals service, working for the RSL market, carried out 60 moves for 4 RSLs. The service was described by a private resident being moved under Liverpool City Council’s Housing Market Removals Initiative as “Excellent”.
Achievement 2006/07 Introduce a quarterly feedback process with all of our customers by September 2006
.
Instead of introducing a quarterly feedback process between August 2006 and February 2007 we followed up every delivery with a
“Happy. Very good quality furniture. Good communication throughout the ordering and delivery process. Consultations and demonstrations with residents were excellent, you left fabric and pictures of chairs and between us we designed our own chairs. We received exactly what we wanted. FRC stored chairs and held off delivery until our lounge had been painted which really helped.” Phil Campbell, Warden, Arena Housing, Roger Arden Court, Bootle. Whilst our customers gave us great feedback about our service they also fed back that they saw no point in us following up every delivery. We addressed this by reducing the frequency of delivery follow up calls and plan to introduce a formal quarterly feedback process from October 2007 for all customers.
Set up a focus group with one of our customers and their tenants so that our Customer Service Team can explore customer service issues by October 2006
/
We approached our major North West customers to set up a focus group to explore customer service issues. They all declined, preferring instead, to attend meetings of the North West RSL Bench Marking Group for providers of furnished tenancies. As suppliers we are not invited to attend, but we have encouraged all of our customers in the North West to join this group, which discusses best practice including the provision of furnished tenancies.
Achievement 2006/07 Establish a robust measurement tool to prove the impact furnished accommodation has in creating tenancies by February 2007
.
In March 2007 we launched a project with one major customer to measure the social return on investment from providing furnished tenancies. Comprehensive tenant feedback was gathered in May 2007 to establish what it means to a tenant to have a furnished tenancy. The results of this project will be reported in our 2007/08 Sustainability Report.
17
Stock Management
claim Housing Benefit and they then build up rent arrears.
Two major customers continued to use our stock management service. We collect, clean, repair and store items of furniture from vacant tenancies until customers required them again for use in another furnished tenancy. This service removes the customer’s headache of storing unwanted furniture and extends the life of items that would have otherwise gone to landfill. This year 173 items were stored and reused in this way.
The choice is to either live in a property without any essential furniture or accrue rent arrears for a property that they are not living in.
We know that reuse of furniture has a positive environmental impact but are currently not able to quantify this. We plan to look at this in 2007
Fresh Start
The objective of Fresh Start is to provide men leaving the hostel with low cost furniture on credit. If they have this essential furniture they can take up their unfurnished tenancies, begin to claim housing benefit immediately and ultimately increase the likelihood of remaining in the tenancy.
This year we provided furniture to the value of £2,750 to 10 individuals at a cost of £2000 to the Furniture Resource Centre. In February 2007 whilst all 10 recipients had not yet paid us back they all still had their tenancies. Some were struggling to find the finances to pay us because they had received reduced Community Care Grants. We asked John Metcalf, Field Lane Hostel’s manager, what proportion of residents would have successfully progressed into private accommodation without the scheme’s intervention?
They have a choice of new or pre-loved furniture from our Revive furniture store and pay for it once they have received their Community Care Grant.
In June 2006 we launched the Fresh Start project with Liverpool Housing Trust’s Field Lane Hostel. The hostel offers temporary accommodation to homeless men. When residents secure a permanent tenancy elsewhere often they either cannot move out of the hostel and into the tenancy, or they leave the tenancy within a short time because they do not have the finances to acquire basic and essential furniture. To buy this essential furniture, they usually apply for a Community Care Grant, which can take can take several weeks to process. If they do not move into the tenancy then they cannot
18
John Metcalf, February 2007.
We plan to carry on running the project with Field Lane Hostel but are unable to say how many residents we will be able to help as the number of men leaving the hostel is dependant on how many of them are offered secured tenancies. Single men are not seen as a high priority by registered social landlords.
We attempted to calculate the social return on investment of Fresh Start but were only able to get feedback about the difference that the project had made to one recipient’s life. He said the following about what the scheme had given him:
Furniture Resource Centre Targets 2007/08
“It’s more about the sustainability of the tenancies. Often people would move out of the accommodation quickly (often in the first few days), if they arrive with no furniture and accrued arrears.”
“Peace of mind – when at Field Lane Hostel it was on my mind about how I would furnish my flat. I went to Revive a couple of times to look at furniture. Everything purchased was spotless” Fresh Start recipient, February 2007
He also admitted he felt more confident in himself and that his next step is to find a job and that he is “getting his life back on track”. When asked what would have happened without Fresh Start he explained he would not have had any furniture and would have only have been able to purchase one item of furniture a month. It would have taken him between 6-12 months to furnish his home. He said finally he would “ stick it out regardless, but the scheme has made things much easier.”
x
Introduce a formal quarterly feedback process with major customers from October 2007.
x
Increase the sales and profitability of Furniture Resource Centre.
x
Achieve 100% rate of customer satisfaction on deliveries and installation.
x
Identify the Social Return on Investment of providing furnished tenancies.
x
Establish the CO2 savings brought about by our stock management service.
“Peace of mind- when at Field Lane Hostel it was on my mind how I would furnish my flat. I went to Revive a couple of times to look at furniture. Everything purchased was spotless.” Fresh Start recipient
19
This year we started three new contracts with local authority customers, a bulky household waste collection and recycling service for Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council, added furniture items to our Warrington Council collection service and launched a furniture deconstruction project with Sefton Metropolitan Council.
2.2 Bulky Bob’s
We have performed well on our recycling targets and reused more goods than ever before. Throughout 2006/07 a total of 39,565 items were collected through our Liverpool, Warrington, Oldham and St Helens collection services.
Turnover this year £998,359, last year £809,817 Bulky Bob’s continues to offer local authorities an innovative collection service for bulky household waste and maximises the reuse and recycling of the furniture and white goods collected.
* refers to white goods only collected,
Percentage of Waste Diverted
therefore 100% target achieved
100 80 60 40 20 0 01/02
Liverpool
02/03
Halton
03/04
04/05
Warrington *
05/06
Liverpool City Council We achieved a 36% recycling rate (by tonnage) in Liverpool, (37.6%, 2005/06). The decrease can be attributed to the fact that in April 2006, due to increased rents, we ceased trading at the city’s Heritage Market. This had been a useful outlet for lower quality furniture items collected by Bulky Bob’s increasing the tonnage of furniture we diverted from landfill. We reused and recycled a total of 26,249 items (28,936, 2005/06) sending 3,265 items to Revive for reuse and 19,576 white goods to CREATE2. CREATE is a social business in Speke, south Liverpool, which refurbishes white goods for reuse. High quality white goods are then sold with a 12-month guarantee. Reusable parts are salvaged from low quality items and all remaining materials are recycled through approved reprocessors.
Bulky Bob' Reuse and Recycling Rates
00/'01
We collected 4,766 tonnes of furniture and white goods, reusing and recycling a total of 1,677 tonnes.
06/07
Oldham
2
www.create.org.uk
20
Warrington Borough Council Achievement 2006/07 100% reuse and recycling of white goods on the Warrington Borough Council contract
-
Rate of 100% achieved
We achieved a 100% recycling on our Warrington white goods collection service – a total of 6,051 items were sent to CREATE. All the white goods collected by in Liverpool and Warrington were taken to CREATE
Achievement 2006/07 Reuse and Recycling rate for Oldham 25% Rate achieved 21%
/
Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council In June 2006, we launched our Bulky Bob's service in Oldham. Throughout the year we completed 19,000 collections and recycled 21% of the 1,409 tonnes collected.
We are disappointed not to have met the 25% target set; however for the first 9 months of a brand new service this performance is extremely encouraging. This has to be compared to Liverpool Bulky Bob’s, which only achieved a diversion rate of 13% in its first year of operation in 2000/01. A disappointingly low number of 406 furniture items were reused a result of Oldham Borough Council specifying that all the items must be collected from outside a householder’s property. In Liverpool an average of 75% of the items collected are either stored inside the property or covered to protect them from the elements meaning we can reuse more of what is collected. It has taken many years to educate householders that if items are protected from the weather that they can be reused and recycled. We are working with Oldham Council and their contact centre to ensure that when a customer books a bulky household waste collection this fact is explained to them. We believe this will eventually improve reuse rates. Discussions with Oldham MBC about the possibility of collecting from inside properties are ongoing.
Achievement 2006/07 Get 1 local authority signed up and 3 more ready to sign up by March 2007
.
Oldham and Sefton operations started in 2006/07
The 406 items sorted for reuse were passed onto either other furniture charities or housing associations. We worked closely with a homeless centre to provide furniture to families in desperate need basic of furniture. During 2006/07 no suitable bulky household waste collection tenders were put out to the market. Subsequently we did not achieve our target of having 3 more local authorities ready to sign up for a Bulky Bob’s service. We continued to market our service and build networks and relationships with local authorities, predominantly in the North West. There are five authorities which may let a suitable tender in 2007/08 and we are well placed and ambitious to win them.
Customer Feedback Achievement 2006/07 Ensure we get direct feedback from householders on all of our Bulky Bob's contract
.
In February 2007, we conducted a telephone survey with 100 householders in Liverpool who had recently had a collection from Bulky Bob’s. 88% (93%, 2005/06) of householders said that overall the service was “excellent” or “very good”.
21
65% said that our crews were “very polite” or “polite” (83%, 2005/06). (n.b. 28% of customers were not at home when Bulky Bob’s called.)
trainees per year and providing furniture to local residents who really need it”. Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council
it to the site where we sorted items for reuse and recycling. Furniture was taken apart to separate glass, wood, metal and plastic for recycling.
Householders made the following comments about the service:
St Helens Chamber of Commerce
During February and March 2007 the project took in 127.4 tonnes of furniture and white goods and reused and recycled 54.5%.
“Great service to have around and keeps the city tidy.” “Excellent, apart from delay of a couple of weeks.” “Staff were very pleasant and done a great job.” “Always excellent, used the service a numerous amount of times and will continue to do so.” Due to lack of resources we were not able to survey householders in Warrington or Oldham. This will be a priority in 2007/08. We also got great feedback from our local authority customers: “Bulky Bob’s has made a huge impact on the Council’s bulky waste service. Waiting times have reduced and so have complaints, to the level of them being non-existent. Bulky Bob’s is training 7 long-term unemployed Oldham
We carried out work for a small number of corporate clients in the leisure industry and academic institutions. We also ran a Business Resource Efficiency and Waste (BREW) funded service in conjunction with St Helens Chamber of Commerce, providing a commercial bulky waste collection and recycling service for their members. However, there was a lack of interest in the service in St Helen’s commercial sector. Despite this we were able to reuse 96% of the 9.69 tonnes we collected.
Deconstruction Achievement 2006/07 Reuse and Recycling rates more than 70% on operations where we run deconstruction Achieved 54.5%
/
In January 2007 we launched a furniture deconstruction project at the South Sefton civic amenity site, north Merseyside. Sefton Borough Council continued to collect the borough’s bulky household waste but brought
Achievement 2006/07 Find the most environmentally friendly options and business opportunities for the reuse and recycling of residual household waste
.
Throughout 2006/07 we continued to refine our deconstruction methodology ensuring that we maximised reuse and recycling possibilities. In an effort to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from transporting recyclate and residual waste we used local companies where we could.
Cathode Ray Tube Recycling The transposition of the EU’s WEEE regulations into UK law in July 2007outlawed the land filling of all electrical goods. This legislation presented an opportunity for Bulky Bob’s to widen the scope of our recycling work in 2006/07.
22
Within the spectrum of electrical goods that need to be recycled we identified that goods containing Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs) present the most viable business opportunity for us. The CRT extraction process requires a low level of capital investment and yields a valuable recyclate. In February 2007 we started an action research project to recycle (CRTs) from TVs and computer monitors collected by Bulky Bob’s. We identified the most appropriate methods to extract the CRTs for recycling and the best markets for the recyclates. We are now ready to bid for WEEE disassembly contracts when they are advertised.
Social Return On Investment Achievement 2006/07 Prove the Social Return On Investment for Bulky Bob's activities on two contracts
-
programme. The New Economic’s Foundation’s1 SROI tool has enabled us to measure and monetise the social environmental and economic value gained compared with the level of investment we deployed by running the training programme. Based on standard accounting principles and investment appraisal techniques SROI has allowed us to put a monetary value on things traditionally hard to quantify, in this case the benefits to the public purse as a result of increased taxation and reduced benefit payments. We found that for every £1 invested through the provision of salaries, training and overhead costs there was a social return of £2.22. We also recalculated the SROI of this programme for 2005/06 – the results were a return of £2.20 for each £1 invested. We are very pleased with these findings and plan to continue using SROI as an important tool to prove the economic impact of our business.
Achievement 2006/07 We undertook Social Return On Investment studies (SROI ) for Bulky Bob's Liverpool and our Revive store. SROI is a useful tool for us to show the social impact of our work in monetary terms. For information on the SROI achieved through Revive see page 25. For the second year we calculated the SROI for our Liverpool Bulky Bob’s logistics training
Use LM2 on all Bulky Bob’s contracts
-
We used the New Economics Foundation’s Local Multiplier 2 tool (LM2) to do this. 74% of Bulky Bob’s income earned in through our Merseyside base (Liverpool, Warrington, Sefton, St Helens) was redistributed into the local economy through payments to suppliers and staff wages. In Oldham, 71% of the income earned was spent in the local economy.
Achievement 2006/07 Continue to investigate business opportunities for Bulky Bob’s with the corporate sector
.
Achieved work with a commercial customer in St Helens
We are excited about the future of Bulky Bob’s and our planned national growth. We see many opportunities for us to expand the scope and scale of the recycling, to increase recycling rates and continue to offer more training and job opportunities to these from socially excluded backgrounds, while continuing to measure the economic impact of what we do.
Once again we also investigated the impact that our activities have on the local economy. 1
www.nef.org.uk
23
Bulky Bob’s Targets 2007/08 x
Win contracts to begin 2 new Bulky Bob's services
x
Win contracts to begin 4 new deconstruction services
x
Engage with local authority and households to receive stakeholder feedback on the quality and impact of our furniture
x
Achieve waste diversion rates of more than 70% on operations where we run the full deconstruction operation
Bulky Bob’s Oldham x
Achieve a reuse and recycling rate of 25%
x
Start deconstruction in Oldham
Bulky Bob’s Warrington x
Meet reuse and recycling rates of 10% on furniture collected in Warrington
x
Maintain 100% reuse and recycling of white goods in Warrington
Bulky Bob’s Liverpool x
Start deconstruction in Liverpool
x
Send 100 pre-loved items to Revive each week
x
Achieve recycling / reuse rates of 42% (75% with deconstruction)
24
2.3 Revive Stores
Turnover this year £138,719, last year £218,837 Our Revive shops are our presence on the high street in Liverpool and Widnes where we sell quality pre-loved and low-price excatalogue furniture at discount prices to lowincome households.
customers, should have as much choice as possible. This year we were disappointed to close our outlet at Liverpool’s Heritage Market, a discount Sunday Market at a dockside venue. Rising rents forced us to leave the Heritage Market in April 2006. Our decision to do this meant we lost an outlet for very low cost and low quality items that we may not have been able to sell through Revive.
This year 3,833 customers shopped in our stores (3,475, 2005/06). They bought 3,265 (3,448, 2005/06) items that had been sourced through Bulky Bob’s, equating to 79% (77.5%, 2005/06) of sales. Ex-catalogue stock equated to the remaining 21% (22.5%, 2005/06) of sales. The majority of our customers 3,395 (2,938, 2005/06) shopped in Revive, Liverpool and 438 (537, 2005/06) in Widnes. 85% and 79% of customers were from low-income households in Liverpool and Widnes.
We are still committed to finding the time and resources to publicise Revive to referral agencies in treaty because we are determined to get our furniture out to the people who need it most.
In Liverpool 82% (85%, 2005/06) of customers were low income households and were in receipt of benefit, students or pensioners and a further 3% (4%, 2005/06) came through referral agencies.
Revive Customers Customer profile – Revive Liverpool 2004-2007
It is through Revive that we are able to sell the good quality furniture that is collected by Bulky Bob’s. We sell ex-catalogue stock to meet customer demand and believe that people on low income, who are the majority or our
% customer type
Revive customers by type
We target our bargains at people who are most in need of furniture. Our pricing policy is to give a 10% discount to customers in receipt of benefit and a 20% discount to customers who come to us through a referral agency e.g. Citizen’s Advice Bureau. We also give referral agency customers a free delivery service.
60 50 40 30 20 10 0
Referred Working Unemployed Student Other 2006-07
2005-06
2004-05
Year
25
Achievement 2006/07 At least 84% of customers in Liverpool are from
The remaining 15% of customers received no discount. It should be noted that whilst the percentage of customers who were from lowincome households and referral agencies fell from 89% in 2005/06 to 85% this year, the total number of customers rose by 15%. Also, 82% of sales in financial terms were to low-income households, compared to last year’s figure of 85%. We surveyed 50 customers, of these, 76% said they would take up to 1-12 months longer to buy furniture from an alternative store if it were not for Revive. We believe that this is because they would not be able to find items of the quality and price that we offer elsewhere. A further 16% said they had no alternative but to buy from Revive. We are attracting people to our Revive stores for two principal reasons. In our customer survey in February 2007, 40% of customers said they were shopping in Revive because they were in great need of furniture, while another 40% were opportunistic browsers ‘having a look around’. That people come to Revive for these two distinct reasons demonstrates the wide appeal of the store.
Proportion
79% achieved
Why have you come to Revive today?
.
50.00 40.00 30.00 20.00 10.00 0.00 Great need of furniture
Price of the products
Range of the products
Have a look around
Other
Does coming to Revive give you?
Proportion
low-income households
60.00 50.00 40.00 30.00 20.00 10.00 0.00 More choices about where to buy my furniture
Make your money go further
The main benefit customers highlighted of shopping at Revive was that it ‘makes your money go further’. 49% of customers chose value for money over factors such as choice, quality and range and being able to purchase furniture quickly.
Enable you to furnish your house more quickly
Purchase items that you wouldn't have otherwise done
We also asked customers where they would look for furniture if Revive did not exist. 18% said they would buy furniture from a catalogue, 33% from second hand shops 11% said there was no alternative and 39% other.
26
Social Return on Investment
If it wasn't for Revive how much time would it take to buy a piece of furniture from an alternative shop?
We used the SROI tool to find a monetary value to the added value produced by our Revive Liverpool store.
Proportion
40.00 30.00 20.00 10.00 0.00 Same length Up to 1 month of time longer
1 - 3 months longer
Only 8.5% of customers said that they would be able to find suitable furniture from an alternative source within the same length of time. Most customers (37%) said that it would take them up to one month to find furniture from an alternative shop and 15% said they have no further option but to shop at Revive.
Widnes Achievement 2006/07 Maintain level of low-income household customers at 91% at Revive Halton, Widnes
-
92% achieved
3- 6 months longer
6 - 12 months longer
12 + months longer
No alternative option
This year 91% of sales at Revive Halton in Widnes were to low-income households. Unfortunately, the percentage of customers from low-income households fell to 79% (91%, 2005/06). Of these customers, 13% were from referral agencies. In February 2007, we took the decision to close Revive Widnes, as the premises were due for redevelopment and we stopped our Bulky Bob’s collections in the borough in March 2006, when we lost our collection contract with Halton Borough Council. We were struggling to supply the shop with decent furniture and had no other option.
We found that every £1 spent in Revive produced a social return of £2.12 by providing high quality pre-loved furniture to people who need it most. This social return is produced as a result of the pricing structure which gives discounts to low-income households and the alternative that Revive offers to people who would otherwise use catalogue and credit options to purchase items. Revive remains a great way for FRC Group to achieve our social objective to get furniture to people on low incomes. Furthermore, it helps to achieve a key environmental objective for Bulky Bob’s: it is a way to reuse as much furniture as possible. We believe that reuse is a better environmental option than recycling, extending the life of an existing item of furniture. We remain committed to offering the best product choice and price that we can for our customers.
Achievements 2006/07 Calculate the Social Return on Investment of our Revive store
-
27
Revive Targets 2007/08 x
To achieve at least 84% of Revive customers from low income households
x
To calculate the Social return on Investment of Revive Stores
28
2.4 The Cat’s Pyjamas Cat’s Pyjamas organises innovative events for individuals and organisations to learn how to set up and run successful social enterprises. This year we continued to run bespoke events for clients – a two day course introducing social enterprise to the West Yorkshire Enterprise Partnership and a project with St Helens Chamber to develop a business competition for start up businesses creating social value. We also ran a training programme for Government Office North West and carried out research in South Africa for a possible project with Motorola.
Achievements 2006/07 Review the Cat’s Pyjamas progress later in 2006/07
-
Business development continues to be managed by our partners Urban Strategy Associates and for the foreseeable future FRC Group’s involvement will remain at a strategic level.
2.5 FRC Solutions FRC Solutions the brand name of FRC Trading Ltd. offers a bespoke consultancy service to organisations that want to learn from our hands on experiences of running social businesses. This year we once again worked with a range of organisations across the UK including social businesses, charities, local authorities and other consultancies. They were interested in a range of aspects of our business from how we win contracts and work with local authorities, to how we developed our environmental management system and how we built and maintain our values culture. We carried out 3.4 days of paid consultancy work and hosted several visits for social enterprises and nongovernmental organisations for which we did not charge. FRC Solutions is essentially reactive, and should not be at the expense of our other, more income generating businesses.
29
Reasons for leaving FRC Group – exit interview
3.0 Our People 7
3.1 Our Employees FRC Group is a great place to work and we are proud to win awards for our approach. We aim to create a fair and empowering culture for all our staff. On 1st April 2006, we had 73 people on the payroll and we ended the year with 71 and eight volunteers. Throughout the year we employed a total of 110 people (113, 2005/06). We had 22 (11, 2005/06) new permanent starters, 20 new trainees and 41 leavers. We also took on 8 short-term work placements. Our employee turnover excluding trainees was 39% (22%, 2005/06). 41 people (39, 2005/06) left throughout the year, 17 of these were trainees who came to the end of the 12-month contracts and 22 were permanent employees. Of the 22 who left; 6 had their contracts terminated, 1 left to go back to education, 2 resigned, 10 left for new jobs and 3 were made redundant. Understanding why staff leave us is important to us. Our exit interviews give staff the chance to feedback about what they have found both positive and negative in their employment at FRC Group. We want feedback to continually improve how we treat our current employees. We carried out exit interviews with nine of our voluntary leavers.
6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Better job
Want a change
Unhappy
Here’s what they said about the good things at FRC Group: “Recognition for the things you do” “Directors are close to people and approachable” “I enjoyed learning about social business” “Values culture” “Everything” “Training both informal and formal” And what they said about the not so good things: “Redundancies” “The attitude of some people”
New career
More prospects
University
In all business it is inevitable that employees will move on and, it is clear from our feedback, that some of our leavers are ambitious to progress their careers. We were happy to see leavers moving on to better jobs with more prospects and using the experience and training at FRC Group to do this. While we try to realise everyone’s potential, because of our current scope and size we cannot give everyone the professional development that we would like to.
Employee Feedback In May 2007, we were once again ranked in the Financial Times’ Best Place to Work Index. Entry requires that over 70% of staff give feedback. Of our 73, employees 60 responded
30
Overall there were specific notable increased scores in most of the following areas:Figures in brackets denote November 2004 scores.
resulting in an 82% response rate. (80% November 2004). We were delighted to be placed in the Index’s top 50 (ranked 26th in April 2005). The index measures employee’s perception of the quality of their workplace relationships with management, their jobs and with other employees. We were heartened to see significant increases in our response scores. The index uses the Great Place to Work® Model© and scores the dimensions credibility, respect, fairness, pride and camaraderie.
x
72% - management delivers on its promises (45%)
x
86% - management is honest and ethical in its business practises (77%)
Credibility: x x
85%- management keeps me informed about important issues and changes (73%) 72% - management makes its expectations clear (66%)
Respect: x x x
FRC Group average scores by Trust Index Dimension 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%
x
2004/05 2006/07
Fairness: x x x
Credibility
Respect
Fairness
The scores shown are the average percentage of employees who responded positively to all statements relating to each of the five dimensions.
Pride
x
Camaraderie
78% - management has a clear view of where the organisation is going and how to get there (71%)
83% - management shows appreciation for good work and extra effort (75%) 73% - management genuinely seeks and responds to suggestions and ideas (69%) 80% - management involves people in the decisions that affect their jobs or work environment (62%) 80% - people are encouraged to balance their work life and personal life (59%)
x
83% - everyone has an opportunity to get special recognition (73%) 92% - I am treated as a full member here regardless of my position (78%) 68% - managers avoid favouritism (48%) 72% - people avoid politics and backstabbing as ways to get things done (63%)
31
Pride: x x x x
Percentage of staff who would speak highly of FRC Group to people outside the company
91% - people here are willing to give extra to get the job done (77%) 80% - I want to work here a long time (35%) 73% - people look forward to coming to work here (63%) 88% - I feel good about the ways we contribute to the community (85%)
100% 80% 60% 40% 20%
Camaraderie: x x x x
0%
92% - I can be myself around here (78%) 88% - people celebrate special events around here (94%) 88% - people care about each other here (76%) 83% - we’re all in this together (65%)
2004/05
2005/06
2006/07
University for the People
We also surveyed staff to establish how FRC Group’s work is regarded above pay and conditions and how proud they are to talk about their work. It's important to me that my work is useful to other people as it makes coming into work worthwhile, I'm not only interested in pay/conditions
We believe that to progress at work, your past should not determine your future. It should, instead be your efforts in the here and now. To do this, worthwhile training and personal development opportunities are crucial and we develop our employees through corporate University for the People.
100%
Our university provides professional and personal development opportunities through the day and hobby, health and cultural activities after work. We want employees to develop their interests outside of work and develop a better work life balance.
80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 2003/04
2004/05
1
2005/06
2006/07
32
Staff who think HIG is a fair opportunity to discuss their progress at work
This year our university delivered: x 467 (366, 2005/06) courses in total, 2206 (1682, hours 2005/06) x 400 (275, 2005/06) were work related and 67 (89, 2005/06) were hobby related x 162 of the work related courses were for trainees The number of training hours significantly increased this year due to a decision to deliver more in-house training on health and safety and the safe loading of vehicles for our logistics team.
How’s it Going It is vital that every staff member has an opportunity to give and receive feedback about their performance at work. Our approach to staff appraisals is an innovative one. Each year we run ‘How’s it Going’ (HiG) sessions for teams and individuals. These structured conversations are an opportunity for teams and individual staff members to discuss their performance, their personal development and their view of FRC Group as an employer. This year 95% of staff surveyed agreed that How’s It Going was a fair way to discuss progress at work. ( The other 5% did not have a HiG this year).
100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 2002/03
2003/04
1
Achievement 2006/07
2005/06
2006/07
Equal Opportunities and Diversity
100% of employees agree HiG is a fair way to discuss their progress at work
.
95% of employees agree that HiG is a fair way to discuss their progress at work
They also commented: “It should be a procedure to formally review at 6 months to ensure targets are going to be met and no training needs have become apparent” “It let’s me know how I am progressing in my particular job”
FRC Group strives to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage diversity. On 31st March 2007 our female:male ratio was 1:2.6 an increase on last year’s ratio of 1:3.4. Amongst the 13 people with managerial responsibilities the female:male ratio increased to 1:1.1 from last year’s 1:1.6 as there are now more women with management and supervisory responsibility. We asked employees to give feedback on the Group’s approach to diversity by asking them did they agree with the statement ‘I believe I have not been discriminated against on the basis of age, ethnic origin, gender, disability.” This year across the Group 9% of the staff we employed were from ethnic minority groups. Of this 7% (9%, 2005/06) of our Liverpool staff
33
and 17% of our Oldham staff were from minority groups. In Liverpool and Oldham 9% and 14% of citizens are from ethnic minority backgrounds respectively.
Achievement 2006/07 33% of trainees recruited in Liverpool and Oldham from BME community
.
Achieved 31% of trainees from BME community
Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities 22% in Liverpool and 36% in Oldham. There remains a challenge for us to encourage individuals from ethnic minorities to join FRC Group. We believe we have done well but there is room for improvement and we will continue to make it a priority for 2007/08. As well as a commitment to our BME targets, we continued to concentrate our efforts in recruiting more women on to our logistics training programme.
Percentage of staff who agree or strongly agree that everyone in the work place is treated fairly regardless of:
100% 80%
Achievement 2006/07 . Introduce diversity monitoring by September 2006
/
Achievement 2006/07 Write a Group diversity action plan by October 2006
/
While our results show the efforts we have made on our BME recruitment targets we did not, as planned, formalise our approach to the Group’s diversity agenda. This is something which must be high priority in 2007/08.
2004/05
60%
2005/06
40%
2006/07
20%
Employee Targets 2007/08 x x
0%
Age
Ethnic Origin
Gender
Disability
x x
In total 31% of all trainees recruited in Liverpool and Oldham were from the area’s
This year, although we interviewed three women for training places, we were unable to recruit any at all (1, 2005/06) on to the programme.
x
100% of employees agree HiG is a fair way to discuss their progress at work Publish Group’s diversity policy by August 2007 Introduce diversity monitoring by October 2007 Write a Group diversity action plan by December 2007 33% of trainees to be recruited from BME communities on Merseyside and Oldham
34
3.2 Our Training Programme FRC Group offers salaried training opportunities to socially excluded people. We employ individuals for 12 months and give them a job and a structured training programme so they gain professional skills and qualifications. Through this intermediate labour market (ILM) programme we recruit individuals from long-term unemployment and give them a job in our logistics team working in our Bulky Bob’s and our Furniture Resource Centre business, collecting and delivering furniture. Our trainees work at the forefront of the business and are given opportunities to become part of an established team doing a real job, gaining real work experience and given a real chance to carve out a better future for themselves. In doing this we raise individuals’ skill levels, motivation and confidence and embed a work ethic. They then have a better chance to compete more effectively for employment opportunities and start a career in logistics - an industry where qualifications are often expensive and beyond the reach of beginners. We call our training programme Driving Change, and offer for example; LGVII , ADR and HIAB training.
We remained committed to recruiting trainees from socially excluded groups. This means individuals who were unemployed for more than 12 months and, in particular, individuals from the black and minority ethnic (BME) community and women, both groups are under very represented in the logistics industry. Throughout the year 31 individuals took part in the training programme and worked either in our Liverpool or Oldham Bulky Bob’s businesses. We continued to use a mixture of grants and training contracts plus our own financial contribution to run our training programme. European Social Funding (ESF) and Neighbourhood Renewal Funds (NRF) contributed towards the salary and training costs of trainees on our (ILM) programmes in Liverpool and Oldham. We secured a total of £253,703 funding for the year. Due to ESF funding reductions in early 2007 we were forced to reduce the number of trainees recruited this year by four.
We ran 6 open days for applicant trainees both in Merseyside and Oldham, and received 292 applications for 20 positions, we also interviewed 81 applicants including three women. We selected individuals who demonstrated a commitment to a career in logistics. Disappointingly no women trainees were appointed. Over the course of 2006/07 we employed a total of 31 (35, 2005/06) individuals in Merseyside and Oldham. Of the 20 trainees we recruited 1 had been unemployed for 7-12 months, 16 had been unemployed for 12 to 24 months, (8 in 2005/06) and three for over 2 years In 2006/07 Merseyside’s unemployed rate at 6.6% still remained 1.3% higher than the national average of 5.3%4.
4
Office of National Statistics
35
In June 2006, we launched our first satellite Bulky Bob’s operation in Oldham, Greater Manchester. We replicated our ILM programme and offered 8 long-term unemployed individuals job and training positions. The (2006/07) unemployment rate in Oldham was 4.2%. In the wards with the highest minority residence unemployment figures are up to three times this rate5. This year we redesigned our training programme introducing a ‘Driving Change Logbook’. Owned by individual trainees it enables them and their assigned Driver/Mentor/Assessor (DMA) to record, monitor and identify areas for improvement in their driving. Our DMAs are the senior experienced drivers who mentor trainees on the job and prepare them for their logistics examinations. This year they delivered new training such as Safe Loading and Vehicle checks, enhancing the professional development of our trainees. Not only has the new log book and this additional training introduced a more structured approach into the on-the job driving practice and tuition, we now feel confident to
5
Oldham Borough Council Strategic Plan 2006-2009
set clear targets for first time LGV class II pass rates for 2007/2008. In 2007/08 we want 50% of all our trainees to qualify as drivers with LGV II. We hope these defined targets will lead to higher levels of motivation and determination.
Qualifications Gained We want our trainees to receive the best, most relevant and transferable training whilst they are here. As well as offering LGV Class II we offer a range of qualifications to enhance their chances of gaining sustainable employment when they leave. This includes training in first aid, health and safety and tachograph training. Throughout the year 31 (Liverpool and Oldham total) trainees gained a total of 162 qualifications between them (207, 2005/2006), an average of 5.2 qualifications (5.5, 2005/06). This year we built relationships with employers such as Bibby’s, Thomas Hardy Commercials, Parcel Force, Road Haulage Association. They confirmed that the training we offer is the training they want potential employees to have. A big achievement this year was that our first female trainee won the Edge Upstarts ‘Social Enterprise Trainee of the Year Award 2006’. We were delighted and all very proud of her.
"For as long as I can remember I've wanted to drive. I hated being on Income Support. It's not a nice feeling not being able to give your children what they want. And I found it isolating. Mentally and physically it is rough becoming a lone parent but I definitely wanted to be at home for a while to bring up my youngest boy. Then when he reached school age - that was it, I wanted to go back to work. The training was daunting initially: It was nerve racking at first - very - but , looking back, it was a lot easier than being on Income Support!” The only woman among 40 truck drivers at FRC Group, Carol says the job has brought her out of herself: "My colleagues all just 4 welcomed me. I just get stuck in. And I give the lads a run for their money!" Carol Hughes, driver, FRC Group logistics. Trainee progress is reviewed every six weeks. This year we invited trainees’ DMAs to join the reviews making the sessions more job focused. DMAs have first hand experience of
36
working with the trainees in their day-to-day jobs.
incidences of absence were acceptable to us or any subsequent employer.
In reviews our trainees said:
Two (25%) Oldham trainees left during the year, one was dismissed for losing his driving licence and was unable to complete his LGV class II training. The other resigned citing personal reasons.
“This is a good company with good people, and good people to work with.” “ It’s great to be in a working environment and to be part of a team.” “I’ve put on weight. I’m eating better because when I was on the dole I didn’t really eat as I had no routine. I feel healthier!”
Early Leavers
Leavers Of the 15 Merseyside trainees that completed their training, our graduates, 73% obtained jobs. (71%, 2005/2006).
Achievement 2006/07 Get 75% of all leavers into jobs or further
Achievement 2006/07 Maintain our early leavers rate at 13 % or below
/
Early leavers rate 25%
In Liverpool, 4 (26%) trainees left before completing the programme, all had to be dismissed for poor attendance. With limited resources we are tough on attendance. We also believe that one of the most important things we do at FRC Group is to try to instil a work ethic into our trainees. We would be failing if we allowed them to think that high
education
/
We achieved 65% of all leavers into jobs
Tracking Leavers Achievement 2006/07 Track our leavers for up to 18 months
-
with them 6,12 and 18 months after they leave us to get feedback on where they are working and how useful they found our programme. This year we introduced a new incentive to encourage them to keep in touch. For those who return our questionnaire we offer them the chance to win £50 in a draw. We then let all of our current trainees and recent graduates know who the lucky winner is and share the collective feedback with them all. We believe that this simple solution is the reason for the increase in the return rate of completed questionnaires from 23% in 2005/2006 to this year’s 44%. This year we got the best quality of feedback ever. Of the 26 respondents 81% were still in employment (80%, 2005/2006). 100% felt that they can work better in a team compared to last year, can communicate better and 90% said that they feel more motivated and that their self-esteem is higher. 100% of past trainees said that their quality of life is also better. Our graduate trainees said: “My training made me more confident”
We are committed to track graduates for up to 18 months after they leave us. We get in touch
“Working at FRC got me back into a working routine”
37
“FRC opened up new doors for me and gave me better prospects for the future” “ FRC gave me motivation to get a job, improved my communication skills and team working skills.”
Work Placements Over the course of the year we offered work placements to 8 unemployed individuals who came via a range of organisations including Groundwork and TNG. Offering placements to long term unemployed people fits in well with our social inclusion agenda and enables individuals with low skills and confidence to gain skills, while providing a taster of working in a business and gain the confidence to move in to long term training or employment.
Placements were short term, between 2 and 12 weeks with some working in the office and some in the warehouse. We encouraged all the work placements to apply for a place on our ILM trainee programme. This year we worked with Liverpool’s groundbreaking Community Justice Centre.6 A unique initiative, which brings justice into the heart of the community, tackling crimes and anti-social behaviour that affect the quality of life for people living in the local authority wards of Anfield, County, Everton and Kirkdale, in North Liverpool. We were able to offer one placement to a client on Community Referral Order and are keen to support the CJC’s work and the individuals they work with. Our ILM programmes are an integral part of how we achieve our aim of being great for people. Through offering training contracts we give people the opportunity and support to make real changes to their lives and their families’. Increasingly, offering work placements to people with low skills and from offending or at risk backgrounds increases the impact we can make. We will continue to provide these opportunities and maximise the efficacy of the training and mentoring we give.
6
Training Targets 2007/08 x
Achieve a rate of 75% of trainees into further training or employment
x
50% of all trainees to be taken on as Driver/Loaders
x
Trainees to achieve a 60% first time LGV II pass rate
x
Trainees to achieve a 60% first time car pass rate
x
5% of ILM trainees to be women
x
33% of ILM trainees to be from a Black and Minority Ethnic Group
x
Re-negotiate and evaluate all training contacts and providers by April 2008.
www.communityjustice.gov.uk
38
3.3 Our Values Our values show how we want to run our business with passion, creativity, professionalism and bravery. They help us define FRC Group and our people - our beliefs in action. They give us a system to recognise, reward and celebrate our employee’s outstanding work and improve their performance. During 2006/07, we continued to recognise outstanding individual’s work with values awards given out by team leaders and managers on an ad hoc basis and at monthly staff meetings. Each month we celebrated Employee of the Month and in July 2006 held our annual Employee of the Year celebrations.
Recruitment We are committed to attracting and recruiting the right people to maintain the shared culture of the Group. We continued to run values days during recruitment for certain jobs and still believe that this approach helps us see applicants’ beliefs and passions of applicants. In this way we can identify the people that will contribute most positively to our culture. This is vital for certain posts such as managers and team leaders who must not only agree with our values but also lead by example to embed behaviours within their teams.
Employees’ values awards Values Awards 2003-2007 32
2006/07
0
Bravery Creativity
159
45
Passion 81 76
22
2003/04
133 105
11
2004/05
90
32
13
2005/06
41
Professional
29 74 50
153 100
Throughout the year team leaders rewarded their teams by giving out a total of 296 values awards (309, 2005/06). Of these, 41 were for Bravery (38, 2005/06), 32 for Creativity (16, 2005/06), 90 for Passion (101, 2005/06) and 149 for Professionalism (133, 2005/06). The total number of values awards given out remains consistent with last year and we were pleased to reward more creativity where staff are expected to “suggest new ways of doing things, have ideas and make them happen and take an interest in how other companies do things”.
150
200
We were disappointed that we failed to significantly increase the number of awards given out for bravery – where staff are rewarded for “ speaking up and raising issues, volunteering to help colleagues out and admitting when you need help”
Achievement 2006/07 Increase number of creativity and bravery awards given out to employees by 100% on our 2005/06 performances Achieved
- 100% increase Bravery / 7% increase Creativity
39
We are determined to improve on the bravery of our employees and the number of subsequent values awards given out in 2007/08.
demonstrated all four of FRC Group values throughout the month. The Group’s Directors then decide on a winner who is announced to all staff at our monthly Employee of the Month meeting.
Achievement 2006/07 Ensure we embed values culture in new satellite businesses
-
This year we launched a Bulky Bob’s in Oldham, our first satellite Bulky Bob’s depot. Before operations began the team spent several weeks in Liverpool to take on board the Group’s culture - they received training about the Group’s values and took part in employee meetings to ensure they knew the value behaviours we expect and how to recognise, reward and celebrate them. There are 6 staff and 7 trainees in Oldham and throughout the year they were awarded Bravery 3, Creativity 0, Passion 8 and Professionalism 15. Two members of staff were also awarded the Group’s Employee of the Month accolade. Work is still needed to ensure a balance of behaviours and subsequent values awards given out.
Here is why one winner was nominated by his team leader: “Bob took on the brave new challenge delivering training to the whole Logistics Team. He is very professional and has a wealth of knowledge which he passes on to the whole team and he showed creativity with good ideas about how we can improve our service. He always provides good customer service and shows great passion in caring about the job he does. A great all rounder” Helen Halpin, Transport and Warehouse Team Leader, on Bob Davey, FRC Group Employee of the Month, November 2006
Employee of the Month
Annual values awards
Each month we asked team leaders to nominate an employee who they believe had
In June 2006, our employees nominated the colleagues who they thought had been the
most brave, creative, passionate and professional consistently throughout the year. A panel of judges drawn from departments across the Group considered every nomination and voted anonymously for the four winners and Employee of the Year who had received at least one nomination for three or four annual values awards. Here’s what two of our winners said about their awards: “I was honoured to be voted for by people who I work with every day, although it’s great to get praise from management, this award was really special because it came from my colleagues.” Mick Hart, Warehouse Team Leader, Employee of the Year 2006. “Felt proud and honoured.”
Gary Myddelton, Driver Mentor, Professionalism Award winner 2006.
40
Employee feedback
“Work well, people feel appreciated and rewarded.”
operation to the level of the mature culture we have on Merseyside.
For us to monitor the success of our culture it is vital that we get feedback from our employees. The following results show the percentage of staff who agree with the following statements.
“Should encourage peers to give out to peer group.”
Values Target 2007/08
“The people here are passionate and really believe in helping low-income families and unemployed people.” 82% (82%, 2005/06). “As a company we are creative, we come up with good new ideas and find clever ways of dealing with problems.” 86% (86%, 2005/06). “We are professional, the quality of what we do is consistently high and we are always trying to improve.” 86% (82%, 2005/06). “We are brave, we face up to problems, we’re not afraid to take risks and admit when we are wrong.” 84% (84%, 2005/06). These percentages are pleasingly consistent with last year’s feedback and evidence the fact that our values are shared and understood by the majority of our staff. This is also borne out in the way our employees felt after receiving a values award 89% (88%, 2005/06) of them said that they had received at least one values award during the year and made the following comments about this:
“The wrong people get them.” “Just that this is a good place to work and it opens a lot of other doors for your future.” “They’re great, they make you feel like you’ve achieved something.”
x
100% increase in the number of bravery and creativity awards given out to employees.
x
Ensure our Oldham operation develops the mature values culture that we have on Merseyside.
“I am proud of myself.” “I think it’s a good idea to be made to feel special.” “Not always given to the right people.” “Quite often seems to be the people who shout the loudest about what they do.” “They’re a boost to the staff because you know you are recognised for the work you are doing.” Once again the facts and figures on our values performance show the extent to which we have embedded this culture in our business. The challenge for us in 2007/08 is to be better at encouraging, recognising and rewarding the bravery of our staff. We must also ensure that we develop our values culture in our Oldham
41
3.4 Health and Safety
all of our office based staff had a health and safety refresher course this year.
Attention to health and safety makes good business sense and our performance in this area is regarded as important as any other business objective.
We expanded the remit of the Group’s Health and Safety Committee to health, safety and environment as there was nowhere in our business where we regularly discussed staff feedback and ideas on the Group’s environmental performance.
This year, through our induction process we continued to train all new staff on health and safety matters and ran two refresher courses attended by all logistics and warehouse employees.
Achievement 2006/07 Ensure all logistics and warehouse employees attend at least two health and safety refresher courses throughout the year
-
Achievement 2006/07 Ensure all non-logistics employees undergo at least one health and safety refresher course in 2006/07
/
Unfortunately, due to time and resource constraints we did not manage to ensure that
We also changed the membership of the Group to better reflect all of our business activities, inviting the manager of our Oldham Bulky Bob’s operation and one of Bulky Bob’s Liverpool’s Driver/Mentors to attend. We continued to report our health, safety and environmental performance on a regular basis to all employees through team briefings and the monthly staff newsletter. Groundwork Wirral remained our professional health and safety advisors. For funding purposes we monitored the time that the 10 members of the Health, Safety and Environment Committee spent on health and safety matters between April 2006 and March 2007 – a total of 319 hours (100 hours 2005/06). This reflects the increased amount of time spent on professional development and training for our Logistics Team and our newly appointed Group Health and Safety Officer. In August 2006 we appointed a Group Health and Safety Officer to oversee health and safety matters across FRC Group. We also increased
the number of Fire Marshals from 1 to 3 and the number of qualified First Aiders on all sites across the Group from 1 to 4. As a result of the new operations, Bulky Bob’s Oldham and Sefton’s Deconstruction Project, and an increase in the number of job placements, we reviewed the health and safety induction training ensuring that all Group warehouse and logistics staff consistently receive the same basic level of health and safety training. Throughout the year our Liverpool’s Bulky Bob’s collections and warehouse operations were subject to three in-depth health and safety checks by Liverpool City Council. After the June and November 2006 observational checks, we were awarded the highest scores possible. Liverpool City Council also said: “Once again, I was impressed by the company’s clear commitment to health and safety, your comprehensive documentation and clearly defined safe working system.” Carl Hope Liverpool City Council, November 2006 The total number of accidents reported for the year was 26 (41, 2005/06) 12 in Liverpool and 14 in Oldham. This 26% decrease is a result of our increased focus on professional development and training for members of the committee, a consistent focus on health and safety in all inductions and the
42
active part managers and team leaders play in promoting health and safety. As Oldham was a brand new operation we not so surprised by its higher accident rate. All accidents were investigated and improving Oldham’s performance is a priority for 2007/08. We actively encouraged our staff to report accidents and investigated all Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) reportable accidents and any that could have resulted in a more serious injury.
Accident rate per employee 2002-2007 0.90 0.80 0.70 0.60 0.50
Accident rate per employee
0.40 0.30 0.20 0.10 0.00 2002/03
2003/04
2004/05
Achievement 2006/07 Reduce the number of RIDDOR reportable accidents on the Liverpool logistics base by 20%
-
30% reduction achieved
Of this year’s 26 (41, 2005/06) accidents, we were obliged to report 7 (10, 2005/06) of them to the Health and Safety Executive under RIDDOR. All were investigated. In 2006/07 there were ten vehicle accidents (2005/06, 10 vehicle accidents). Analysing this type of accidents has become an area of focus for the Health & Safety Officer and the Logistics Teams in Liverpool and Oldham this year. The accidents in 2006/07 were more serious, resulting in vehicles being off the road for
longer and incurred greater insurance and repair expenses than the 10 accidents in 2005/06. To address this, two Driver / Mentors were trained to deliver Safe and Fuel Efficient Driving Training (SAFED) in February 2007. They then began tutoring the Logistics Team in Liverpool in safer driving techniques and fuel efficient driving. When we asked employees if they believe that their place of work is “ clean, healthy and safe” 86% of them agreed with this statement. (88%, 2005/06: 85%, 2004/05).
2005/06
2006/07
Operating businesses on different sites has forced us to become increasingly systems led and has influenced our approach to health and safety. This year managers and team leaders were tasked with taking more responsibility for their staff with health and safety matters. Managers had a greater involvement in training, carrying out risk assessments and investigating accidents. This in turn improved their understanding of health and safety law and our approach to health and safety, as well as the ramifications of their failure to keep health and safety high on our agenda.
Achievement 2006/07 Change the way we calculate our accident rates – move to a rate of lost time per employee and report on this for separate FRC Group operations
.
43
The overall rate of accidents per employee continues to fall. In 2006/07 there were 0.34 (0.58, 2005/06) accidents per employee. We have reviewed the way we calculate the amount of time that is lost due to accidents. For 2006/07 we have reported on the percentage of potential working days lost due to accidents, monthly and annually. We lost 0.6% of our working time due to accidents. We have not reported on a rate of lost time per employee for different business operations. This is a priority for 2007/08 as it will provide a greater degree of detail about accidents and allow us to relevantly benchmark the Group’s performance. In 2007/08 we will also establish a baseline accident rate for each operation within the Group.
Health and Safety Targets 2007/08
x
Change the way we calculate our accident rate – move to reporting on health and safety performance in different operational areas.
x
Reduce the number of personal injuries reported across FRC Group by 10%
x
Report on and reduce the number of vehicle accidents across FRC Group by 30% on 2006/07 rate.
x
Reduce the number of RIDDOR reportable accidents across FRC Group by 10%
x
Ensure all logistics and warehouse employees under go at least two health and safety refresher courses throughout the year
x
Achieve a lost time due to accidents of 0.29% per employee across FRC Group
x
Carry out an internal audit of health and safety procedures across all sites by 31st March 2008.
We believe our messages and training efforts resulted in the decrease in the number of accidents reported. However, as we failed to ensure that all non-logistics and warehouse staff took part in refresher training, this must be a priority for 2007/08. We must continue to keep a close eye on our targets throughout the year and endeavour to reduce the number of accidents further by fostering more awareness through training, communication of accident rates and constant review of our operating procedures. We will ensure that health and safety remains a high priority in all areas of our business.
44
4.0 Our Environmental Performance
The Environmental Impacts of Our Products
sustainable procurement. We hope that the results will give us important market insights.
Regardless of an organisation's shape, size and business sector, all organisations face an ever-increasing number of challenges relating to their environmental performance. More environmental legislation and regulation, higher energy and waste disposal costs, increased pressure from business partners and other stakeholders; the drivers for companies to actively engage in positive environmental management have never been greater. This has certainly been the case at FRC Group this year.
Each year through our Furniture Resource Centre business we supply thousands of items of furniture, white goods and household utensils to the tenants of our RSL customers. We rescue hundreds of items of furniture and white goods from the bulky household waste stream and we sell these items to the public through our high street store Revive.
Commit to identify and promote the environmental impacts of the products we
The headlines on our performance are encouraging and mixed.This year has seen increases in the percentages of waste collected, reused and recycled through Bulky Bob’s so that we have reused and recycled more materials than ever before. This year we introduced new recycling initiatives in our Bulky Bob’s operations to expand the type and volumes of materials for reuse and recycling. Our Bulky Bob’s performance details can be found on page 20.
Achievement 2006/07
supply
/
Achievement 2006/07 Carry out cradle to grave impacts for the products that we sell
/
Achievement 2006/07 Talk to three major customers about the environmental credentials of the products that we supply
/
This year we won a contract to be the RSL sector’s preferred supplier of furniture through Procurement for Housing1. To win the contract in the procurement process we had to be very open about the environmental credentials about the goods that we source and supply through our Furniture Resource Centre service. We then went on to launch a research project with PfH to determine the commitment of PfH’s membership (many were already Furniture Resource Centre customers) to 1
We had hoped to be able to find resource needed to carry out this work as we do not have the in house expertise that this research requires. We were very disappointed not to have done this but remain committed to finding the resources funding or help in kind to identify the cradle to grave impacts of the goods that the Furniture Resource Centre suppliers its customers.
Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Energy Use FRC Group creates carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) in two ways: through the use of electricity and gas to heat and light our buildings and by using petrol and diesel in our vehicles.
www.procurementforhousing.co.uk
45
F R C G ro u p C O 2 e m is s io n s
We are aware that the reuse and recycling activities carried out by Bulky Bob’s, which divert over 1600 tonnes of waste away from landfill each year, results in savings in CO2.
CO2 emissions (kg)
350000 300000 250000 200000
L o g istic s
150000
U tilitie s
100000 50000
Furniture Resource Centre and Bulky Bob’s Liverpool. The third most significant contributor to the CO2 emissions was the use of electricity at FRC Group Head Office, Atlantic Way, Liverpool.
0 2 0 0 4 /0 5
The total CO2 emissions from the logistics operations and utilities used in our premises decreased by 0.9% from 294,385kg (2005/06) to 291,765 kg. This achievement is even more significant when considering that in 2006/07 we opened Bulky Bob’s Oldham which added an additional premises and a logistics team. FRC Group operations contribution to CO2 emissions by percentage
2 0 0 5 /0 6
2 0 0 6 /0 7
This pie chart shows how different parts of FRC Group operations contribute to our overall CO2 emissions in 2006/07. Forty nine percent of the overall CO2 emissions were produced by the logistics operations serving the Merseyside area.
In 2007/08 we will work to define a robust methodology that takes these CO2 savings into account and enables to account for the positive impacts on CO2 that Bulky Bob’s reuse and recycling activities have. See Appendix V process diagram showing the reuse and recycling activities and the CO2 emissions produced by Bulky Bob’s services.
Logistics Furniture Resource Centre
Logistics Bulky Bob's Liverpool
Electricity FRC Group Head Office
Logistics Bulky Bob's Oldham
Electricity Revive Liverpool
Logistics Bulky Bob's Warrington
Logistics Revive
Gas FRC Group Head Office
Electricity Revive Halton
Gas Revive Liverpool
Logistics Bulky Bob's Sefton
Electricity Oldham
Gas Oldham
46
Energy in Our Buildings
Significantly, the carbon dioxide emissions per square metre from our use of utilities shows a decrease of 4kg/m2. In 2005/06, use of gas and electricity in our Liverpool and Widnes premises produced 88,388kg CO2 at a rate of 26.9kg/ m2. In 2006/07 this reduced to 22.9kg/ m2 from the use of gas and electricity in our Liverpool, Widnes and Oldham premises.
Achievement 2006/07 Reduce emissions from electricity use at FRC Group Head Office by 5% emissions rose by 12%
/
* The wording of this target has been changed since the publication of the 2005/06 Sustainability Report. See appendix III for more information.
CO2 emissions (kg)
At our FRC Group head office, Revive stores in Liverpool and Widnes and Bulky Bob’s Oldham site, we use electricity and gas to provide heat, light and power for all our operations. Our overall CO2 emissions from utilities decreased by 3.23% to 85,531kg (88,388kg in 2005/06).
C O 2 em issions from electricity use at F R C G roup H eadquarters 40000 30000 20000 10 0 0 0 0 2004/05
This year CO2 emissions from the use of electricity at FRC Group head office rose by 14%. Electricity consumption was 84,972kWh this year (72,793 kWh last year). This equated to 36,538 kg of CO2 compared with last year’s figure of 31,301kg. We believe that this increase in CO2 from electricity use is mainly due to the increased use of air conditioning throughout the summer of 2006/07 to keep not only the offices but also the ICT system servers adequately cool during one of the hottest summers on record.
20 0 5/0 6
20 0 6/0 7
Achievement 2006/07 Reduce gas usage at FRC Group Head Office by 5% on 2005/06 levels gas usage reduced by 49%
-
Achievement 2006/07 Reduce gas usage levels at Revive by 10% on 2005/06 levels -
-
gas usage reduced by 11%
CO2 emissions from gas usage decreased. At FRC Group head office and at Revive Liverpool we exceeded our targets for reducing the amount of gas used.
47
Overall, the CO2 emissions from using gas and electricity in our buildings decreased by 3.2% from 88,388 kg in 2005/06 to 85,531 kg in 2006/07. We are very pleased to have reduced our CO2 emissions at the same time as opening an additional premises (Oldham). In 2006/07 the CO2 emissions from gas and electricity in our premises were 4kg/ m2 less than in 2005/06.
G a s u s e d a t F R C G r o u p H e a d q u a te r s a n d R e v iv e L iv e r p o o l 120000 100000
kWh
80000 R e v iv e L iv e r p o o l
60000
F R C G ro u p H e a d q u a rte rs
40000 20000 0 2 0 0 5 /0 6
At FRC Group headquarters we used 49% less gas – 53,807 kWh in 2006/07 compared with 104,022 kWh in 2005/06. This is due to the installation in November 2006 of 2 ‘A’ graded energy efficient boilers. Gas use at Revive Liverpool decreased by 11.6% from 32,364 kWh in 2005/06 to 28,603 kWh in 2006/07. This can be explained by a decrease in the use of heating. In June 2006 Bulky Bob’s Oldham began operating and throughout the year used 7,131 kWh of gas and 5,257 kWh of electricity from June 2006 to March 2007. The CO2 emissions were 3,616kg, 1,355kg from gas usage and 2,261 kg from electricity.
2 0 0 6 /0 7
We did not set any targets for savings on CO2 in Oldham for 2006/07 but will address this for 2007/08. B u l k y B o b 's O l d h a m C O
2
e m is s io n s fr o m G a s a n d E le c tr ic ity
2500 CO2 emissions (kg)
2 0 0 4 /0 5
As well as continuing to improve our energy efficiency, we are committed to switching to renewable sources. We are aware that the renewable energy market is changing and offers more and more options for business customers to choose from. We will continue to investigate renewable energy suppliers and seek capital investment to support the best energy saving options we can afford.
2000 1500 1000 500 0 G as
E le c tr ic ity
48
Our Logistics Fleet
2
e m is s io n s e ffic ie n c y
0 .7 0 0 0 .6 0 0
CO2kg/km travelled
In 2006/07 our Logistics team based at FRC Group head office provided transport for Bulky Bob’s Liverpool and Warrington, Revive Liverpool and Halton and was the base for the nationwide Furniture Resource Centre furniture supply business. In 2006/07 our Logistics team grew. The Bulky Bob’s Oldham team was added, plus we purchased a skip truck which was used in Sefton between January and March 2007.
C O
0 .5 0 0 M e r s e y s id e
0 .4 0 0
O ld h a m
0 .3 0 0
O v e r a ll
0 .2 0 0 0 .1 0 0 0 .0 0 0 2 0 0 4 /0 5
Our overall CO2 emissions from all logistics operations increased by 0.1% to 206,236kg (205,997kg in 2005/06).
2 0 0 5 /0 6
C O
2
2 0 0 6 /0 7
E m is s io n s fr o m lo g is tic s fle e ts
250000
Achievement 2006/07
200000
Merseyside by 5%
-
13.6% reduction achieved *(See Appendix 3 for methodology information relating to this target)
Across the FRC Group, fuel efficiency improved by 7.9% from 0.544 kg/km (kg CO2 emitted per km travelled) in 2005/06 to 0.501 kg/km in 2006/07. The amount of CO2 emitted by FRC Group logistics operations increased by 0.1% to 206,236kg (205,997kg 2005/06).
CO2 (kg)
Reduce CO2 emissions from our logistics fleet on 150000
M e r s e y s id e
100000
T o ta l
O ld h a m
50000
0 2 0 0 4 /0 5
2 0 0 5 /0 6
There was a 10.8% improvement in fuel efficiency for the Merseyside logistics team based at FRC Group head office. CO2 emissions per km travelled were reduced from 0.544kg to 0.485kg. The amount of CO2
2 0 0 6 /0 7
emitted by the Merseyside based logistics operations was reduced by 13.6% to 177,989kg (205,997kg 2005/06). The reduction in the emissions from our Merseyside operations was due to our Logistics Team Leader and Customer Service
49
Team Leader continuing to work closely to improve the fuel efficiencies produced by delivery scheduling and route planning. Furthermore, in previous years we had received a 10% discount from a supplier to the Furniture Resource Centre if we collected stock from their premises in St Helens. In 2006/07 we stopped using this supplier, switching to a supplier who is also our neighbour here in Liverpool. This has had a positive impact on our CO2 emissions and CO2 emissions efficiency. Bulky Bob’s Oldham was our first logistics operation based outside of Merseyside. From June 2006 to March 2007, Bulky Bob’s Oldham produced 28,247kg CO2, at a rate of 0.630 kg/km.
Achievement 2006/07 Commission DTI Fuel Champ advice -
-
In 2006 we commissioned advice from the DTI’s Fuel Champ scheme and we implemented a number of improvements. In particular, rethinking Furniture Resource Centre’s scheduling, improving fuel efficiency, making financial savings and reducing CO2 emissions.
Achievement 2006/07 Run at least one driver efficiency course for all logistics staff -
.
As a result of the DTI’s Fuel Champ advice two senior drivers were appointed as “Fuel Champions”. They were trained as instructors to deliver Safe and Fuel Efficient Driving” (SAFED) training to all 20 drivers in the Merseyside Logistics Team. SAFED training gives recipients fuel efficient and defensive driving techniques to reduce fuel consumption and reduce accidents. Drivers in the Oldham Logistics Team did not receive SAFED training in 2006/07. This will be a priority for 2007/08.
Achievement 2006/07 Introduce an incentivised fuel efficiency
/
programme for logistics staff -
We explored ways to introduce an incentivised fuel efficiency programme for logistics staff. We have not found a fair and efficient way to do this as drivers use a variety of vehicles in a week or month and because the types of driving between Bulky Bob’s and Furniture Resource Centre are not comparable. Furniture Resource Centre vehicles travel nationwide making a small number of deliveries daily whilst Bulky Bob’s services make up to 40 collections per vehicle per day all based in one neighbourhood. We will continue to work on this with a view to putting a team-based scheme into place in 2007/08.
Achievement 2006/07 Introduce the use of Bio diesel fuel in our fleet as soon as local fuel supplies are available -
.
In September 2006 we tried to pilot using biofuel in 5 of our Bulky Bob’s wagons. Unfortunately the trial was unsuccessful. Our biofuel supply was of poor quality, unreliable and resulted in 3 wagons being out of use for one day due to technical difficulties with the fuel pump filters. Therefore the trial was suspended while we reviewed our approach. Following the unsuccessful trial in September, we investigated two other potential biofuel suppliers. In March we began another trial, using biofuel from one supplier in two of our wagons. Meanwhile, we have been researching the best long-term option on an environmental, technical and financial basis. We have made applications for funding for the technical conversion that our vehicles would need to cope with biofuel from one possible supplier. Through this we met Regenatec, a possible local supplier of a biofuel produced from waste cooking oils. We are aware that there are a number of issues with the sustainability of biofuel production and we will consider these issues
50
very carefully before we decide to mainstream biofuel use by our fleet.
Care sources 80% of its off-sets from energy efficiency and sustainable energy projects.
Achievement 2006/07
We have reported on the CO2 emissions from our use of gas, electricity and diesel in 2006/07. We will continue to develop and improve our approach, to enable us to articulate the carbon footprint of all of our operations.
-
During 2006/07, we benchmarked the efficiency of fuel usage against other companies in the waste and logistics industry. We used this Information to set targets for the Logistics Team for 2007/08. In 2007/08 we will continue to strive for CO2 emission efficiencies through the scheduling of our logistics work, training and encouraging drivers to develop efficient driving techniques and maximising our use of biofuel.
Water W a te r u s e a t F R C G ro u p H e a d q u a rte rs
3
industry
M per person
Benchmark our logistics performance against other companies in the waste and logistics
Our water use increased by 65% from 3.1m³/per person (2005/06) to 5.12m³/perperson. We cannot explain this increase. There have not been a significant number of additional employees at FRC Group head office. Our fleet of vehicles based at head office has not increased.
1 1 1 1
6 4 2 0 8 6 4 2 0
Cat’s Pyjamas
2 0 0 4 /0 5
2 0 0 5 /0 6
2 0 0 6 /0 7
Achievement 2006/07 Off-set the CO2 emissions generated through the Cat’s Pyjamas air miles through a carbon off-set programme
-
We calculated that 2.9 tonnes CO2 were generated through Cat’s Pyjama’s air miles and offset this. The scheme we chose was with Climate Care an off-setting organisation supported by Forum for the Future. Climate
Achievement 2006/07 Maintain water use levels at FRC Group head office at 2005/06 levels – 3.1m3 per person
/
3
increased to 5.12 m
We have benchmarked this against the Environment Agency’s water use benchmark for Offices (www.environment-agency.gov.uk) and found that our use is below the best practice benchmark. The best practice benchmark for Offices is 6.4m3 per employee and typical water use 9.3m3 per employee.
Our water usage is mostly from washing our fleet of wagons and in employee’s toilets.
51
FRC Group Head Office
The way we have calculated this has changed. In 2005/06 we calculated the paper use per person rate using the total number of employees. From 2006/07 onwards we are using the total number of staff and trainees based at the head office. This change in methodology accounts for part of the increase in the paper use per person.
As part of our environmental approach we encourage our staff to minimise the amount of paper they use, by reducing the level of printing, printing on both sides of paper and reusing scrap paper. We measure the efficiency of our paper use.
As part of the environmental approach in our head office, we also recycle paper, newspapers, cans and glass. In 2006/07 we recycled 105 bags office paper, 3 bags newspapers, 13 bags of cans and 1 bag of glass. Our recycling service provider has not provided us with data on the weights we have recycled.
4 .0
350
2 .0 300
0 .0
used per person
6 .0
Reams of paper
8 .0
400
paper bought
Number of reams of
Paper use 2005-2007
N u m b e r o f re a m s bought Paper use per p e rs o n
2005/06 2006/07
The amount of paper we have used has increased by 16% from 328 reams in 2005/06 to 380 reams. At the same time our paper use per person has increased by 28% to 6.7 reams per person (4.8 reams per person in 2005/06).
We have not delivered any environmental training for employees in 2006/07. We believe this also helps explain the increase in paper use. We did not set any targets for office recycling.
52
Month Office paper (bags) Newspaper (bags) Cans (bags) Glass (bags)
Total 2006/07 105 3 13 1
Employee Training Achievement 2006/07 Run at least one environmental awareness event for all employees -
/
We did not deliver any environmental awareness training for employees in 2006/07. This is the second year that we have not delivered any formal training in this area. We believe that our performance on water usage, paper usage and office recycling will be improved by staff environmental awareness training. This must be a target for us in 2007/08. Our in-house environmental management system (EMS) provides a framework for identifying, measuring, monitoring and improving our environmental impacts and performance. To provide assurance for our stakeholders, we aim to gain an accreditation for our EMS.
BS85558 is a standard for environmental management systems. It is suited to small and medium enterprises. As such, it is essential that we obtain this kite mark of good practice for our environmental management system in 2007/08. Our environmental performance is becoming increasingly important for us and there are key areas to address in 2007/08. Priorities are: training our staff; reducing our carbon footprint and keeping up with and acting on best practice thinking. We are determined to improve our performance in all these areas in 2007/08.
8
Environmental performance Targets 2007/08 x
Calculate carbon emissions of FRC Group activities in 2007/08
x
Devise action plan to reduce CO2 emissions across FRC Group
x
Maintain performance on use of electricity and gas in 2007/08 at 2006/07 levels
x
To reduce fuel usage after SAFED training by: x 15% for Furniture Resource Centre x 15% for Revive x 5% for Bulky Bob’s Liverpool x 10% for Bulky Bob’s Warrington
x
The Driver / Mentor / Assessor at Bulky Bob’s Oldham to have been trained as a SAFED instructor by the end of November 2007.
x
Bulky Bob’s Oldham Driver / Mentor / Assessor to deliver SAFED training to other logistics staff by end December 2007
www.bsi-global.com
53
x
Bulky Bob’s Oldham to achieve a 5% reduction in fuel usage following logistics staff receiving SAFED training.
x
To further investigate the sustainability of biofuel and make an informed decision about if and how we use biofuel in our fleet by end of 2007/08
x
Deliver at least one session of environmental awareness training to every member of staff by the end of 2007/08.
Priorities x To develop a methodology which quantifies the CO2 savings from Bulky Bob’s reuse and recycling activities, which divert waste away from landfill sites which will enable us to articulate the carbon footprint of all our operations. x
Begin implementation of BS8555 with the aim of accreditation in early 2008/09.
54
FRC Group update April – November 2007 Given the lateness in publishing our sustainability report for 2006/07, this is a business overview April-November 2007. Over the last two years we have invested a lot of effort consolidating our two core businesses and this is now beginning to pay off. Since April ’07 Furniture Resource Centre Ltd has seen increasing sales growth and more local authorities than ever before want to discuss possible Bulky Bob’s contracts with us. This year Furniture Resource Centre’s turnover is already up by 5.9% on April-November last year and has been awarded three major framework contracts with national organisations. Our project with a major customer to establish the social return on investment (SROI) in furnished tenancy provision continues. Our approach to gathering customer feedback has been enhanced and regular customers are now approached on a bi-monthly basis. In May we celebrated Bulky Bob’s 300,000th completed collection and achieved our highest recycling rates ever. Both Liverpool and Oldham Bulky Bob’s launched furniture deconstruction operations and in September reached recycling rates of 58% and 25% respectively.
In September, after operating for 9 months we were disappointed to have to close our Sefton pilot deconstruction project. The project could not, as we had hoped, form part of a bigger Bulky Bob’s collection service for Sefton Borough Council and proved not to be financially viable as a stand alone operation. On a more positive note discussions continue with 15 North West local authorities about the possibility of launching Bulky Bob’s services. We have 18 trainees on our ILM logistics training programme and in June were delighted to have recruited our first female trainee at Bulky Bob’s, Oldham. In May we were very proud to have one of Oldham’s trainees highly commended in the Edge Upstarts Social Enterprise Trainee of the Year Award 2007.
The environmental impact of our business remains highly important. SAFED training for all logistics staff continued and 100% of our logistics staff have, to date, taken part. Environmental training for all staff is scheduled throughout January 2008 and research has begun on calculating the carbon footprint of furniture reuse and recycling. As always plenty to challenge us and as ever we are relishing it! 8th November 2007 FRC Group Leadership Team
Our employees remain key to our business success and we will continue to use our tried and tested values culture and reward system to celebrate preferred behaviours. To date, we have awarded 143 values awards. In June at our annual staff awards ceremony we celebrated our Employee of the Year and our most brave, creative, professional and passionate employees. In May and June we redesigned our Triple Bottom Line accounts to reflect the changing scope of our activities and reviewed our key performance indicators to ensure they fully reflect business activities and the added value we bring in our approach to business.
55
Auditors Assurance Statement Justassurance is a social enterprise dedicated to working with stakeholders, or ‘people who matter’ in FRC Group’s (FRC’s) language, to provide assurance of social and sustainability reports. Justassurance was paid £4,125 to provide assurance in connection with the FRC Sustainability Report. Justassurance has sought to act impartially with respect to FRC’s various stakeholders. Statements of independence, impartiality and conflict of interest, together with the competencies of the auditors, are detailed at www.justassurance.org. The audit panel was convened in November 2007 to bring a further, stakeholder-orientated perspective to bear on the report. The directors of FRC are responsible for the content of the FRC Sustainability Report. Justassurance has used the AA1000 Assurance Standard. This requires us to review the completeness, materiality and responsiveness of the report. To meet AA1000 we: • Identified claims in the report
• Reviewed the consistency between the Report claims and the underlying records on a simple basis • Traced certain key claims through the accounts and back to source data • Interviewed members of the Leadership Team and of FRC management • Discussed the report, accounts and our statement with FRC and with the audit panel
Opinion On the basis of the work we have done, we believe this report adequately represents FRC’s economic, social and environmental impacts on its stakeholders and its responses to their concerns. Our review against the AA1000 Assurance Standard is set out below.
Completeness FRC has remained committed to sustainability accounting despite financial pressures. However, despite a reasonably mature accounting process in place a lack of resources has meant that some accounting systems have not been fully maintained. This has affected both environmental and social accounting data. Nevertheless in line with our
recommendations from previous years, FRC continues to develop additional techniques to measure its social such as SROI, has maintained its triple bottom line accounting and has extended the period for which trainees are contacted after leaving. A top priority for the future must be to ensure that FRC social and environmental accounting and data collection systems are fully maintained.
Materiality In its principle activities FRC is squarely addressing its mission and working with key stakeholder or environmental needs. However it is important from time to time to refresh each stakeholders mandate through engagement and consultation. We look forward to the start of this process over the coming year, especially for the housing part of the business. It is pleasing to see some additional reporting of some of the more innovative projects which FRC has undertaken.
Responsiveness FRC appears to have successfully endowed the new Oldham site with FRC cultures and values. We believe that the targets which FRC has set itself are appropriate.
56
Overall, FRC’s continuing commitment to detailed reporting is commendable.
Adrian Henriques, Auditor, justassurance; October 2007
57
Appendix I The Furniture Resource Centre Ltd is a registered charity and company limited by guarantee, which has created and wholly owns 3 trading subsidiaries and half owns the Cat’s Pyjamas.
Company Structure and Brands May 2007
Organisational Structure May 2007
Board of Trustees
The Furniture Resource Centre Ltd Finance & IT
Retail Leadership Team
People & learning
FRC Trading Ltd FRC Solutions
Logistics
Sales & Customer Service
58
Appendix II Our stakeholders and how we engaged them 2006/07 Stakeholder Staff Trainees
No 72 31
Response number and % rate All asked via 6 weekly reviews
Complete November 2006 May 2006
Ex trainees (18 month year tracking) FRC Board of Trustees RSL customers
38
38 postal questionnaires
On going 3 times a year
6
Not asked this year
Total number is confidential
53 issued 21 returned
RSL tenants FRC Ltd Suppliers
3,131 9
Revive Liverpool customers
3,305
Revive Halton customers
438
40% response Not asked this year Postal survey and face to face visits as part of student survey on sustainable supply chain 50 asked – face to face interviews on the shop floor
28th February 2006
March 2007 Completed October 2006
Not asked – store closed in February 2007
59
Bulky Bob’s Liverpool City Householder Bulky Bob’s Oldham Borough Council Householders Bulky Bob’s Warrington Borough Council BB Liverpool City Council feedback BB Oldham Borough Council Feedback Amovingexperience
Confidential
100 householders - telephone survey
Completed February 2007
Confidential
Not asked this year
Confidential
Not asked this year
1
Face to face interview
February 2007
1
Face to face interview
January 2007
13
7 called for telephone survey 5 responses
May 2006
60
Appendix III Alterations to our environmental reporting methodology In preparing the environmental performance chapter of this report we have made a number of alterations to the way we measure or report on our environmental performance. CO2 Emissions efficiency in our logistics fleet In preparing this report we discovered that a last year a mistake was made in the way we calculated the CO2 2005/06 emissions from our logistics fleet and when we set the improvement target for 2006/07. We made the mistake by calculating the amount of CO2 (kg) emitted per km travelled for different business operations and then added the results together to give a rate of 25.5kg CO2/ km travelled. We should have instead have calculated the overall rate by dividing the total amount of CO2 emitted by the Logistics team by the total amount of km travelled. This would have given a CO2kg/km rate of 0.544kg/km. Using this new calculation, a 5% reduction in the amount of CO2 emitted by our Logistics operations per km travelled in 2005/06 would have given a target of 0.517 kg/km. Paper use The way we have calculated this has changed. In 2005/06 we calculated the paper use per person rate using the total number of employees. As all of our operations were based from one main office site, this was an appropriate way to measure the paper use generated by our business activities.
61
For 2006/07 onwards we are reporting on the total number of staff and trainees based at the head office. In 2006/07 Oldham premises opened and subsequently much of the Oldham operation is administered from this site (human resources and finance functions are still carried out at the Liverpool head office). Accounting for use in this way will help us to monitor and effect change in paper use at different sites.
62
Appendix IV FRC GROUP
Jun-06 Jul-06 Oct-06 Nov-06 Dec-06 Jan-07 Feb-07 Mar-07Jun-06 Jul-06 Oct-06 Nov-06 Dec-06 Jan-07 Feb-07 Mar-07Jun-06 Jul-06 Oct-06 Nov-06 Dec-06 Jan-07 Feb-07 Mar-07
63
64
65
66
EXPLANATION OF BENCHMARKS, GOOD PRACTICE AND TARGETS Water use per person best practice measure taken from www.environment-agency.gov.uk All targets shown are taken from the FRC Group social and environmental accounts for 2006/07 *The nos of full and part time staff are the total employed during the month, whereas the numbers of staff and trainees on the payroll are taken as a snapshot in time. The two sets of figures will therefore not always give the same total. ** Staff turnover is calculated by dividing the total number of leavers during the last 12 month period by the average number of staff during the same period. This excludes trainees but includes all other staff members. *** In 2006/07 the methodology for calculating the lost time due to illness and accidents was changed. These figures are based on the 2005/06 methodology.
67
Appendix V
Bulky Bob’s Environmental Impacts
Key
Items that cannot be reused or recycled go to landfill
householder Every time a vehicle makes a journey it emits CO2
Local Authority call centres Vehicle makes delivery to householder from Revive
Vehicle makes collection
Brings it back to the warehouse
Pre-loved furniture gets delivered to Revive
68
Atlantic Way, Brunswick Business Park, Liverpool L3 4BE. Tel: 0151 702 0550 Fax: 0151 709 4081 Email: orders@frcgroup.co.uk
www.frcgroup.co.uk 69