ESG
As a company that has designed in excess of £1.8billion buildings and environments in the last 10 years alone, we are always conscious of the impact of our actions at a Corporate level, in the communities in which we work and globally.
Everyone within ONE is working to our vision of “Creating a better world through design, sustainability and innovation” which leads the way for our Social Value and ESG approach.
We are fortunate to work with a wide range of clients on some fantastic projects, and we appreciate that some may refer to Social Value, while others ESG. Our clients know that ONE designs innovative and sustainable buildings and environments that maximise the potential of any investment. We work to improve social opportunities, community cohesion, enhance the natural environment and improve health, happiness and wellbeing while considering economic benefits for local people. At a Corporate level we support a range of other activities to benefit people, the economy and the environment with strong governance in place.
Environmental
We strive to protect and restore the natural environment by promoting sustainable development principles and have a company-wide Environmental Policy, ISO 14001 Environmental Management certification and are Planet Mark certified. We are committed to achieving Net Zero during 2026, or before if possible, and work to consume less, reduce and reuse waste, achieve more for less and reduce our carbon footprint in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) while respecting and benefitting our communities.
As a multi-disciplinary company, a sustainable approach is an integral part of the design process with all disciplines working alongside our architects. Our skilled engineers have been recognised in several sustainability awards providing efficient options, renewable energy solutions and innovative structural and civil solutions, while our landscape architects work to increase biodiversity, provide effective planting and can enable carbon offsetting schemes (where appropriate). You cannot manage what you cannot measure and our innovative Digital Estates solutions also help our clients in achieve their decarbonisation goals with a host of other benefits.
Social
The impact on people is one of our key considerations – our clients, local communities, our team and those in the wider world. Our projects support communities and businesses with meaningful stakeholder engagement always taking place, however, we also support local place schemes close to our HQ and our clients, for example, sports teams, theatre groups, family music festivals and help in the community where possible.
ONE is an equal opportunities and inclusive employer that believes in fair payment, a supportive family friendly environment, work/life balance and rewarding a job well done. We invest in our staff – both their CPD and them as a person with our very active Health and Wellbeing group providing a range of social opportunities, health workshops as well charitable activities.
Staff retention is high and the company has grown considerably with clients benefitting from continuity of personnel on their project. We also give back. We share our success with our staff with a range of benefits, bonuses and company paid trips such as Bilbao (Spain), Bath, Praque and Brighton, and also provide support and donations to communities and charitable schemes.
Economic
We invest in innovation which supports widespread economic growth. We always consider how we can positively impact local economies and encourage our clients to recruit local firms e.g. contractors/suppliers wherever possible. We also invest in communities, going the extra mile for projects that are for the ‘greater good’.
With one of our Directors on the Local Enterprise Partnership’s (LEP’s) Board for many years, we are very engaged in the country’s skills programme and promote diversity in the workplace. We work to provide access to the profession with meaningful work experience, apprenticeship programmes and support for other Government programmes e.g. The Kickstart Scheme. Other activity includes: presentations in school assemblies, careers’ events, mock interviews, workshops in schools and promoting STEM skills including women in engineering to inspire the next generation.
Governance
We are a responsible company that is commercially aware and recognise that return on investment should always be carefully balanced with ethical behaviour and the impact on people and the planet. Our 5-Year Plan, which will take the company to the next level is, therefore, underpinned by 4 pillars: People, Sustainability, Design and Innovation.
Our Governance is led by four directors, all of which have been in place since before the Management Buy Out from Prime Plc in 2015. They are supported by Technical Directors, Associate Directors and a skilled team motivated to fulfil the company’s vision.
Our Directors provide strong leadership for all of our standards and policies: we are an equal opportunities employer, Investor in People, hold professional standards such as ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, are members of all the appropriate professional bodies and have an absolute commitment to achieving Net Zero with Planet Mark certification.
Our culture is supportive to help everyone to achieve their potential, collaborative, transparent and fair. We have all of the policies in place that you would expect of of a responsible employer and fully respect, and have well established relationships with our supply chain, choosing to work with companies that adhere to the same high standards that we do. As a result, we work with many clients who assess investment opportunities from an ESG perspective.
The project images above are:
- The Bird Box, Bromsgrove which has supported local businesses and provided social opportunities for people of all ages while almost everything on site was reused or recycled.
- The Coventry City of Culture 2021 Show Windows project which was made almost entirely from recycled household materials previously destined for landfill.
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