Mitie PlcMitie’s most recent annual ESG report highlights the progress the facilities management outsourcer has made in incorporating 13 ambitious targets within its social value framework.
According to the report, all 13 of the targets which were set in 2021 have been achieved or exceeded, spanning Mitie’s People, Environment, Supply Chain and Community pillars. Primary focuses outlined in the report include renewable energy sourcing and decarbonisation, fostering a responsible supply chain, investing in skills, supporting colleague wellbeing and creating employment opportunities through The Mitie Foundation.
Environmental responsibility
As part of Mitie’s industry-leading Plan Zero initiative, emissions intensity has been reduced by a substantial 43 per cent, with nine of Mitie’s sites now fully decarbonised, as the business works towards a target of Net Zero operations by 2025. More than a third of the Mitie fleet has now been transitioned to electric vehicles (EVs), with the fleet growing by 1,133 EVs over the past year.
The company’s mission is to help decarbonise Britain by offering joined-up solutions to customers from optimising buildings through energy efficiency, transitioning fleets to EV and installing electric charging points, sourcing and producing clean energy for operations, installing solar panels, promoting the circular economy through its resourceful waste business and driving biodiversity by installing and maintaining green spaces.
Environmental highlights this year include a ‘joined-up’ contract with Essex County Council saving 534 tonnes of CO2 annually through solar panel installations, retrofitting buildings and LED projects. In total Mitie has saved customers 375,000 tonnes of carbon for 24 customers across 800 sites and prevented the use of 40,000 plastic bin liners and 600kg of plastic through its Bin the Bag initiative.
Skills development
Meanwhile Mitie continues to champion skills across the organisation, investing £7.3m in apprenticeships since 2017. Mitie’s apprenticeship strategy focuses on three key areas – skilling new young talent including school leavers and first jobbers, upskilling colleagues to offer on-going development for career progression and reskilling people in the external job market to gain new skills and qualifications. Mitie now has more than 1,000 apprentices learning their trade across 55 programmes , from quantity surveying, engineering, cyber security, and carpentry to legal, sales, HR and horticulture, putting Mitie on track to meet its target of 5 per cent of employees coming through apprenticeship programmes by 2025.
Community action
Through The Mitie Foundation, employees have contributed a total of 14,650 hours of volunteering to good causes in 2022, including the launch of The Big Mitie Litter Pick with colleagues collecting more than 1,500 bags of litter to help clean up public spaces across Britain. A Ready2Work programme aims additionally to drive skills and create employment opportunities for a range of jobseekers who experienced barriers to entry when seeking employment, 536 candidates have gained hands on work experience, with 70 per cent securing a job afterwards.
Supply chain successes
As part of Mitie’s responsible supplier strategy, Mitie has also doubled its voluntary, charity and social enterprise supplier (VCSE) spend in the past year, as part of a procurement transformation to tackle inequality and increase supply chain resilience and capacity. Mitie has committed to increase VCSEs spend to £2.25m by 2025 and has already achieved 50 per cent of that goal. The business will also increase percentage spend with SMEs to 33 per cent by 2025, aiming to issue more regional tenders and work with local SMEs for supplier contracts.
Mitie also joined Minority Supplier Development UK (MSDUK), the UK’s leading supplier diversity organisation to allow diverse suppliers access to procurement opportunities whilst also ensuring Mitie’s supply chain promotes diversity and inclusion.
Jason Roberts, Director of Sustainability at Mitie, comments: “As a business we have taken great strides to decarbonise our own operations, develop our people, promote diversity and inclusion, and buy responsibly, ensuring we remain on track to reach our 13 ambitious ESG goals by 2025.
“We remain committed to our industry-leading net zero emissions target – 25 years ahead of the UK Government’s 2050 target and are harnessing that expertise to make a tangible difference to our customers by driving decarbonisation projects across Britain. ESG is now fully integrated into Mitie’s business practices to lead how we deliver our services to customers and drive social value across our operations.”
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