Corporate Social Responsibility

This Corporate Social Responsibility Policy Statement will demonstrate how P W Gates Distribution Limited takes into consideration its environmental, social and economic impact in the way it operates as a business. By indicating our commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility our objective is to balance our business values, purpose and strategy with the needs of our customers, whilst ingraining such responsible and ethical principles into everything we do.

The components of this Statement cover our method in dealing with our customers, suppliers and the local community in a bid to reduce transport costs, procurement, energy and water usage and other business usages to essentially reduce our carbon footprint and impact upon the environment.

Environment

Safeguarding the environment in which we work and live in is part of P W Gates morals and ideologies and we believe it to be the foundations of successful business practice.This Statement should be juxtaposed with our Code of Conduct policy.

In this Corporate Social Responsibility Policy Statement we obligate our company to the following:

Responsibly manage and dispose of all waste
Communicate our environmental performance and other shareholders regularly
To ensure all staff are working in accordance to this statement and are aware of the environment by means of providing training.
Comply with each relevant environmental regulation, approved codes of practice and legislation
Seek to keep waste to a minimum level and encourage maximum efficiency with the use of resources and materials
Strive to protect the environment by minimising our contribution to pollution of water, land and air
Surveillance of environmental performance and continually improving performance
Develop management processes to safeguard the environmental factors and ensure these are considered during planning and implementation

The Directors of P W Gates will ensure that the Company reduces the environmental impact on the Company by the following:

Ensuring all documentation from the business is recycled and shredded
Where possible and confidentiality permitting, re-use scrap paper for drafts and notes
Keep printing to double-sided copies where possible
Switching off equipment and lights when not in use
Ensure efficient usage of water
Source and buy locally to cut fuel costs, where possible
Organise regular servicing and checks to vehicles and monitor the emission levels and how economical they are to run on fuel
Where possible, reduce transportation requirements and utilise public transport or encourage car sharing
Source recycled materials where possible
Speak to customers and suppliers to encourage taking steps to protect the environmental impact

Local Community

The Directors of P W Gates will monitor and ensure that our work with the local community comprises of the following:

Support and work with local and national charities
Encourage volunteer work within community activities
Support schools in the local area
Partaking in voluntary business advisory services with the aid of professional bodies

Customer and Suppliers

The Directors of P W Gates will ensure that we as a Company deal with all customers, suppliers and potential customers and suppliers fairly, openly and responsibly by:

Safeguarding all of our advertising and documentation relating to the business and the activities it deals with are clear, informative, legal, honest, truthful and decent
Avoid pressure selling techniques
Listen to customers and suppliers to enable us to improve the products and services offered to them
Ensuring that should something go wrong we as a Company will acknowledge the problem and deal with it accordingly
Promoting openness and honesty about our services and telling customers and suppliers how we as a Company are socially responsible
Benchmark and assess what we do to continually improve our competitive edge within the marketplace.

The Directors of P W Gates will ensure that we as a Company deal with all customers, suppliers and potential customers and suppliers fairly, openly and responsibly by:

Not expecting any substantial discounts which could have a negative effect on their business
Use local suppliers as much as possible
Aim to pay on time

With regards to operational responsibility for the commitment to our Corporate Social Responsibility ultimately lies with the Directors of P W Gates. Within P W Gates every employee is expected to give their full co-operation to the aforementioned principles in their activities at work. Visitors to P W Gates are also expected to apply our environmental ethics.

The effectiveness of the Policy Statement will be observed and reviewed on an annual basis by the Directors to ensure P W Gates is continuing their compliance with the relevant legislation; to achieve new business requirements and to identify areas which are in need of improvement. All employees will be notified if any areas have been changed as required.

Delivering what we promise

Environment

Local Community

Customer and Suppliers

Head Office

Southern Hub

Bedford