Social responsibility
As VGC is built on long-term relationships and goals, sustainability is extremely important to us.
We believe that business has a central role to play in the creation of enduring social, environmental and economic well-being. VGC is well placed to bring ongoing healthy change and our many talented and dynamic people are champions of this vision.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR)
By involving the community in our projects, and considering the needs of residents and local businesses, we believe that we produce the very best results for everyone.
We’re aware of the positive contribution our projects can make on local employment and skills and so fully support the use of local labour and training of personnel. Wherever possible we give consideration to the use of local suppliers for materials and services.
Our values show how important fairness is to us. We work with a range of partners to encourage people of all kinds to consider careers in construction and we support our people. Companies with a good gender mix are 21% more likely to outperform their competitors than less diverse companies. However the ONS (2016) reported that women make up only 13% of the construction workforce as a whole and UCATT reported that only 1% of women have site-based roles.
For our International Women’s Day campaign, we created a collage version of our logo, showing VGC people prepared to call out gender bias and inequality.
Securing our environment
We achieved ISO 50001 certification in Energy Management in January 2016. We are committed to efficient energy management, and aim to ensure that our activities do not have a detrimental impact on the environments in which we live and work.
Throughout our business, we endeavour to use environmentally-friendly construction materials and equipment and to ensure that products are procured from sustainable and / or fair trade sources. We also work to measure and reduce energy usage, and recycle and reclaim materials to reduce our overall carbon footprint. Wherever possible we use local waste management facilities.
Our policy of local employment on our projects aims to ensure that staff do not travel long distances and can use public transport wherever possible. This reduces the environmental impact caused by carbon emissions.
In our offices, energy champions promote environmental awareness. Staff are encouraged to use the stairs instead of the lift and switch off all equipment when not in use.
Economic stability
We believe that a sustainable economic future is best achieved through consistent, long term investment in our people and technology. Moreover, we are committed to delivering value to our clients as we see this as a fundamental ingredient of our own success and profitability. As a significant employer within the construction industry, we also have a responsibility towards the security, health, wellbeing and development of our people.
We are working hard to increase the diversity of our workforce. We are committed to fairness, inclusion and respect in everything we do.
By considering the wider impact of everything we do, we’re confident that VGC is taking the right steps towards a sustainable future for our people, our clients and the wider community.
Partnerships
By collaborating with the wider community, we can share expertise and support to benefit everyone who is impacted by our work. Our partners include State of Mind Sport and the Supply Chain Sustainability School, of which we are gold partner members.
Read our sustainability policy.
