ESG

What is ESG?

ESG stands for Environmental, Social and Governance.

ESG is another way of describing sustainability; in a business context, sustainability is about a how socially responsible and ethical a company’s business model is, i.e. how its products and services contribute to sustainable development.  It is also about a company’s risk management and decision making, i.e. how it manages its own operations to minimise negative impact. 

Here's a more detailed breakdown:

• Environmental: This pillar focuses on a company's impact on the environment, including issues like pollution, resource management, and climate change. 
• Social: This pillar examines how a company interacts with its immediate stakeholders, such as its employees, customers, and the community. 
• Governance: This pillar assesses a company's internal management and leadership practices, including transparency, accountability, and company performance. 

ESG frameworks help to identify potential risks and opportunities for companies, and they are increasingly used to make more informed investment decisions.

Adherence to these principles is why Charles Trent has been able to thrive in business whilst offering fantastic customer service, for more than 99 years.

Our environmental stance

We believe that the state of the environment is worsening due to climate change.  We also believe this change is caused by human activity, in particular the widespread use of fossil fuels - coal, oil and gas - in homes, factories and transport systems.  Unless there are fundamental changes in practices, things are likely to worsen in the coming decades.

As an organisation, we are committed to making a difference where we can – improving our carbon footprint, advancing further our recycling and re-use methods, managing waste, and continually making small changes to lessen our impact on the environment.

We do this over and above the responsibility we have as an authorised treatment facility (ATF) to responsibly and legally treat, process and destroy end of life vehicles and their waste.

Our ESG – an overview

Our ESG approach is embedded in our Company DNA, through our Vision, Purpose, Mission and Values, and we are continually striving to improves processes and our overall impact on the environment.  Our aim has always been to make a positive impact on our customers, employees, other stakeholders, and the wider environment we live in.  Over the last 99 years we have developed significantly in the areas of environmental awareness, social responsibility, and governance.  Examples of our current practises include:

• Recycling over 96% of every vehicle that we destroy, minimising waste to landfill
• Having effective processes in place to comply with all relevant legislation, as well as requirements set out by the Environment Agency (who carry out annual on-site audits)
• Converting natural, renewable energy and utilising it to power our operations, e.g. solar panels to power electric plant and machinery, and collecting rain water to wash our cars
• Efficient logistics planning of our fleet of transporters to reduce carbon emissions
• Energy efficient use – e.g. LED lighting and on-grid solar panels
• Local purchases of good and services where possible
• Support of local communities through fundraising, volunteering, and donations
• An ethical, fair and transparent outlook; focusing on our people, our partners, our customers and our communities, across a wide range of business aspects
• And many more!

ISO14001

As part of our accreditation to ISO14001, our environmental responsibilities are embedded throughout the whole company, including the setting and monitoring of our objectives.  The high-level objectives we have outlined for 2025 are below:

• Control of hazardous substances – to understand if there are any further opportunities to substitute substances for non-hazardous alternatives, if we haven’t already done so
• Reduction in energy usage – enhancing our current renewable energy sources, and encouraging energy conservation across all elements of the business
• Climate change mitigation – working towards implementing carbon neutrality policies
• Increase recycling targets – to further improve our recycling efforts, reducing the waste sent to landfill

We have a dedicated team that is keen to continually drive environmental awareness throughout our business, and which supports the company to make continual improvements, that benefit both the environment and the company.  We are taking this one step further and reaching out to our supply chain, to understand their approach to environmental sustainability, choosing, where possible, to only work with companies with a shared commitment to supporting environmental preservation. 

Environmental Policy Statement

Evidence of this commitment can be found in our Environmental Policy Statement (insert link to our Environmental Policy Statement).

ESG commitments

Further details on our environmental plans, and our social and governance standpoint, can be found in our ESG policy (insert link, copy attached for reference).

SBTi

Our vision and commitment to this cause are further highlighted by our allegiance to the Science-Based Targets Initiative Scheme, a worldwide corporate climate action scheme we have subscribed to which helps to drive sustainable growth, boost innovation and lead the way to a net-zero economy.  By setting ourselves greenhouse gas emissions targets which we will publicly report on annually, we intend to play our part in combating the climate crisis.  

It's more than ‘ticking a box’

As a business, we’re not constrained by simply doing the bare minimum, and we don’t ‘do’ ESG just to tick a box.  We’re serious about it.

As above, ESG to us is about sustainability.  In addition to setting ourselves up properly to manage the environmental aspects of our business, and to give back when we can, we take our responsibilities seriously in other aspects, too.

Information/data security

We are certified to ISO27001, a globally recognised international standard for information security management. 

ISO 27001 is the world's best-known standard for information security management systems (ISMS), and sets out a framework for organisations to establish, implement, operate, monitor, review, maintain and continually improve their ISMS.

Having ISO27001 is a great way for us as a business to demonstrate to our customers, staff and partners that we safeguard their data.

Resilience

As part of ensuring we have a sustainable business model, we carry out key activities to ensure our business continues to operate even when faced with one-off incidents causing interruption.

Our risk planning activity ensures we identify, and regularly review, events which may happen and the extent to which, if they did happen, they would compromise business operations and performance.  We create a list of actions we then undertake to mitigate the impact of a risk event occurring.

We regularly audit the effectiveness of our risk exposures and mitigating controls.

We have created a business continuity plan (BCP) which tests specific high-impact scenarios to ensure we have proper, laid-out plans for dealing with the immediate aftermath and long-term avoidance, should one of these events occur.  We also work closely with external agencies to ensure the impact on not just our business but the local community and the environment are considered in our plans; for example, with our local fire brigade to ensure they can have access to all areas of our sites in the event of a fire, and to ensure they have knowledge of our drainage system in order to protect the watercourse.

Regulation

As one might expect, vehicle recycling is a heavily regulated industry.  We hold all required permits, licences and insurances in order to conduct our business. 

We work closely with the Environment Agency, not only to demonstrate compliance with required regulations but also to help set an example of ‘best practice’ across the industry.

Evidence of our ongoing continual improvement can also be demonstrated through the reports published by our annual audits carried out by the Environment Agency.