Friday 26 July 2019

Dear Mr Secretary-General,

I am writing to confirm that Pure Planet Ltd remains completely committed to the UN Global Compact and its ten principles regarding: human rights; freedom of labour; the environment and anti-corruption.

We are committed to ensuring these principles are part of our business culture - a business which supplies renewable energy to the British residential market. We also commit to advancing the Sustainable Development Goals, all of which we see as necessary to create a fairer society and a sustainable world. Of particular interest are 7. ‘affordable and clean energy’, 12. ‘responsible consumption and production’, and 13. ‘climate change’. We pledge to engage actively in practices and projects that will strengthen and further the goals. We will be, at all times, transparent and open to the public on our commitment and actions.

We commit to report on our progress annually according to the Global Compact policy. This statement will include:

A letter from the CEO expressing continued support for the Global Compact and
renewing ongoing commitment to the principles;

A description of practical actions or projects that the company has undertaken in each of the four key areas;

An honest measurement of the outcome, success, and the degree to which targets to further the goals and SDG’s were met in the previous year.

Yours sincerely,

Andrew Ralston

CEO & Co-founder

As a British-based service business, supplying renewable electricity and carbon offset gas to householders, Pure Planet's primary area of human rights' work is for our employees. As such, we strive to offer inclusive and equal policies for staff, recognising and promoting differences among our people in order to build an engaged and fully-participative workforce.

Principle 1: We treat our staff fairly and equally. All employees are elicible to our benefits, which include contributory pension, healthcare, health cash plan and life assurance. This is subject to acceptance of the policies and the rules of the various schemes.

Principle 2: We take human rights very seriously. We have several clear policies which outline our stance, including an equality and diversity policy and a harassment policy.

Pure Planet has become the first energy supply company in Britain to offer employees of any gender the same parental leave and financial entitlements when they have a child.

We offer new fathers the same benefits and rights including the amount of leave traditionally offered to mothers on maternity leave.

The policy also does away with discrimination based on gender, sexuality or identity – with all employees entitled to the same benefits upon becoming parents.
Our equal parental policy applies to all new parents, whether they have a child by birth, surrogacy or adoption.

The progressive policy is believed to be a first for the British energy industry which employs over 637,000 people in the UK.

Pure Planet’s parental policy equalises the rights of parents. Essentially, it means parents can take up to 52 weeks’ leave on exactly the same terms regardless of their gender. For example, if a couple worked for Pure Planet, both could each take up to 52 weeks’ leave.

Our company’s health insurance benefit encourages and rewards an active lifestyle with cinema tickets and discounts. We also offer a cycle-to-work scheme and discounted gym membership.

We also offer private medical insurance, equally available for all employees, regardless of seniority, our PMI includes mental health care. It also includes a health cash care plan to help cover the costs of medical care.

We also have two qualified mental health first aiders at our place of work, alongside the more traditional first aiders.

We run a bi-annual staff survey to measure staff engagement and our team’s sense of well-being. The relevant results (July 2019 poll; 90% response rate) to Human Rights are shown below.

90% Feel they are developing at Pure Planet
100% Would recommend working here to a friend
100% Feel fairly treated
100% Feel Pure Planet looks after their well being
100% Proud to work for Pure Planet

We are yet to record any occupational diseases, injuries, and absenteeism.

Principle 3: Pure Planet's staff are treated fairly. We encourage a flexible, responsible way of working. Pure Planet's employees are elgible to participate in a share option scheme, engendering a sense of collective ownership in our business. Staff are free to belong to unions should they choose.

Principle 4: Our employment contract clearly states that our staff are entitled to a minimum of 25 days holiday, and in actual fact the number of holidays available is unlimited. We believe refreshed and happy staff are of more value, and as such we eliminate all forms of forced and compulsory labour.

Principle 5: We do not engage with child labour.

Principle 6: We have a clearly set out Diversity and Equal Opportunities Policy, which recognises the risks and negative connotations associated with discrimination, and commits to supporting the principle of equal opportunities in employment.

Pure Planet is a progressive and flexible employer.

We're a certified Living Wage Employer and a Disability Confident Employer.

In 2018/19 we introduced an all-employee share option scheme (for those employed at the time), providing a sense of mutual ownership, which ensures alignment and progression across the whole company.

A number of employees took advantage of our unlimited holiday policy throughout the past year, taking time off to study, travel, spend time with their families, or to rest.
We have been encouraging applications from among certain demographics, in particular returning-to-work mothers who often need flexibility with working hours to support children, which we have provided.

We consider flexible working requests at the point a job offer is made for a role at Pure Planet. This is an improvement on the government ruling, which requires firms to offer this only after staff have worked for a firm for at least six months.

Our bi-annual staff survey (July 2019 poll; 90% response rate) shows the following results:

90% Feel they are developing at Pure Planet
94% Think there is good communication between teams
94% Think they are receiving the necessary training to conduct their roles
95% Think they are kept informed on Pure Planet plans
100% Are confident in the senior management team
100% Feel fairly treated
100% Feel Pure Planet looks after their well being
100% Proud to work for Pure Planet

Pure Planet aims to help create a Britain powered entirely by clean, low-carbon, renewable energy. As such, we take a progressive approach to the environment in which we work and on which we depend.

Principle 7: Our entire business proposition is based around being sustainable, and helping take climate action. As such, we champion an active approach to environmental responsibility not simply a precautionary approach.

Principle 8: Sustainability is part of Pure Planet's culture (and one of our three values), and an interest in environmental responsibility is one of the most important aspects we look for when taking on new starters.

Principle 9: Our stated purpose is to power Britain with clean, green renewables.

Over the past two years, we have made a number of measures to reduce our staff’s carbon impact during their journeys to work.

We have introduced interest-free season ticket loans to encourage train travel.

We have introduced a green-only company car scheme, where our staff receive discounts on electric or hybrid vehicles. We do not offer a company car scheme for petrol and diesel engined vehicles.

Additionally, to help raise internal staff awareness of reducing our travel carbon footprints, we have organised a ‘Zero Carbon Commute Day’ to coincide with National Clean Air Day. During these days, we encourage our team to commute to work without using carbon. Last time, people commuted to work on foot, by bike, and by canoe along our local canal.

Across the two days, we covered over 480 miles carbon free, saving approximately 60kgs of CO2.

Pure Planet’s primary business is supplying renewable electricity and carbon offset gas to British householders. Last year, as a result of consumers switching to our service we estimate that each household mitigated 3.7 tonnes of CO2 on average. In total, this saved half a million tonnes of CO2.

In addition, we have been nominated as finalists for several sustainability awards related to our CSR.

Principle 10: Our written internal policies allow us to wholly commit to principle ten of the global compact. We are a young and growing organisation, and as such have been able to align our policies to the Global Compact from our inception.

We ensure all our business practice operates within the boundaries of Competition Law.

It is in our best interest to operate in a fair and competitive market, as these are the ones which lead to the greatest innovations and advancements. As an organisation that is built around innovation, anti-corruption is something we take very seriously.

Each new starter is given a presentation on our Disciplinary and Information Security policies, and the importance of abiding by the Fraud Act (2006). We make it clear that there is zero tolerance on fraud, and we outline the steps our staff should follow should they suspect fraud or other forms of anti-corruption.

The rules regarding Confidentiality of Company Information are clearly outlined in employment contracts.

Our Whistleblowing Guidelines are also clearly outlined to all staff.

In our annual audit (to IFRS standards), we report and verify to our auditors our anti-corruption status.

To date, we have had no reported incidents of bribery, coruruption or fraud.