Corporate Social Responsibility
Our Employees
Chariot is committed to equal opportunities for all employees. This commitment covers all aspects of employment, from recruitment, through to training and promotion.
It is our Company Policy that all employees, regardless of disability, age, sex, gender reassignment, pregnancy, colour, race, nationality or ethnic or national origins, marital status, sexual orientation, religion or belief or any other form of discrimination prohibited by law, should have equal opportunities in employment.
One of our most basic beliefs is that everyone should have the opportunity to work. Chariot complies with the applicable employment laws and our obligation is to ensure fairness in the hiring and advancement of all employees, both permanent and temporary without discrimination. All of our staff have a personal responsibility for maintaining a respectful work atmosphere, free of abusive or unprofessional conduct. Every employee is expected to respect other people and treat them with dignity.
Chariot recognises that the success of the company depends on its employees performing at the highest level. To support the attainment of high levels of performance the company will provide training, support; resources and encouragement that will allow staff members to develop their skills, knowledge and experience. This will help the employee achieve their potential and assist the company in the achievement of its strategic goals.
Chariot has developed an apprentice program with assistance and advice from Total People, our apprentice and training provider. This also includes the upskill training of our existing staff.
Chariot understands the importance of effective communication, to ensure our employees are aware of key information within the company. We regularly communicate and engage through various methods, such as email, noticeboards, employee briefings and employee forums. If employees are communicated too regularly and in an effective manner, they are much more involved with the company and will have a more positive attitude towards their role, with suppliers and our customers.
We maintain a robust Health and Safety policy covering all aspects of equal opportunities, diversity, and fairness to our employees. This is communicated to staff members via our Employment handbook. An electronic version of our Health and Safety policy is available on request.
Our Environment
Chariot is committed to reducing the environmental impact of our business and has achieved both ISO9001 and ISO14001. We are proud of our green credentials and Chariots management are firmly dedicated to continually improving our sustainability and to minimising our carbon footprint.
Managing our environmental impact is a priority and an important part of our overall commitment to a responsible business. Green considerations are part of our decision-making in every part of our business. We promote an extensive range of green products; we promote green practices among our customers; we constantly evaluate the environmental practices and credentials of our suppliers; we continually review our own operations to ensure that we improve our performance against our green objectives.
Due to the locality of our customer base, we have been able to invest in electric vehicles to reduce the amount of carbon produced to carry out our operations. One of our clients, The University of Manchester, now receives around 80% of deliveries via our electric vehicles creating an impressive reduction of approximately 1.1 tons of CO2e per year. A number of our staff travels to work in a vehicle provided by the company, two of these members of the team have now been provided with electric vehicles to commute to work and carry out daily duties. This has reduced carbon emissions by approximately 6 tons of CO2e and also reduced personal tax being paid producing additional income. We strongly believe in reducing carbon footprint to mitigate climate change. Chariot has moved from two separate sites into a single use site located at the City Works, Manchester, next to The Manchester College Openshaw site. This has enabled a reduction in the use of fossil fuels and created a new staff facility encouraging people to stay on site rather than traveling out for lunch reducing the use of vehicles.
We recycle our waste through Emerge, a local social enterprise located on Smithfield market just 5 minutes from the Openshaw campus. Chariot also helps promote the work Emerge carry out by marketing their impressive service offering.
- Secure destruction and recycling for all business waste
- Quality training and volunteering opportunities including back-to-work experience
- Diverting in-date surplus food to those who need it most
- Compliant reuse and recycling for difficult wastes like IT/WEEE equipment
- Redundant wood collections from sites for re-use
By offering high quality, excellent value commercial waste recycling, reuse and food redistribution services, Emerge meet social and environmental objectives and contribute to a more economically sustainable and just society.
Although we have carried out many improvements and much investment over the last 24 months, we have plans for further improvements such as solar panels to generate energy to power our electric vehicles. We have also completed the final 10% of our lighting upgrade to LED
Our Customers
Chariot is fully dedicated in providing the best service and support for our customers, by giving access to a wide range of products and offering service solutions to meet and exceed the expectations their business.
Our mission is to be the partner supplier of choice in delivering great value on all products and services provided. We will be lean and cost efficient focusing on service and added value to our customer base.
A key platform in meeting this vision is to provide industry-leading levels of service and we will continue to operate the current ISO9001 and ISO14001 Quality Management System, in which we are fully certified. Chariot will strive to improve and enhance its performance by setting objectives and targets, which are continually reviewed to ensure they are understood, acted upon and met.
We believe in regular, clear and open communications with our customers to ensure the long-term success of our business and theirs. This is carried out in many ways, from digital means, face-to-face meetings, forums, training sessions and focus groups. This allows Chariot to fully meet its requirements, allow us to adapt and grow our business and in turn providing the correct range of services to our customers.
Our Suppliers
Chariot understand the importance to fulfil our social responsibilities by selecting suppliers who have honest credentials, which include respecting human ethics, labour rights, health and safety regulations and legal compliance.
We aim to build solid, strong partnerships with suppliers and will continually develop the relationship to provide an improved service and product offering. Securing the right quality and price in order to provide our customers with a stable supply of products, to ensure we gain the full confidence of customers.
We help protect the global environment through sourcing environmentally friendly and recycled products. In addition we promote catering products under the Fairtrade mark, as we believe in offering our customers a choice. That choice includes the ability to buy fairly traded products, which are sourced from producers in developing countries, who receive a fair price for their products.
Our commitment to respect in the workplace includes our full support for international efforts to promote ethical principles and practices related to the prevention of the exploitation and abuse associated with modern slavery and human trafficking. We also expect commitment to these principles from all organisations with which we do business and will not support or do business knowingly involved in slavery or human trafficking.
Although Chariot is under the £36 million threshold to require a Modern Slavery statement, we still feel it is a necessity that we practice the actions of our corporate clients such as MCFC, The University of Manchester, NHS, and LTE Group which is why our Directors attend The Greater Manchester Modern Slavery Business Network to gain as much knowledge and understanding of this terrible crime and help pass on this knowledge throughout our customer base, our suppliers, and our team of employees. We also require that our suppliers provide us with a Modern Slavery Policy of which we hold copies of in our management system, and/or complete our questionnaire.
Our Communities
We aim to positively contribute and tackle the issues that impact our society, affecting the communities in which we operate.
We strive to give time and financial commitment to our local charity’s and social enterprises, to not just offer financial support, but also build long term relationships through working in partnership.
One of our chosen charities is the Oasis centre in Gorton who helps local people in crisis situations. The work that the Oasis Centre carries out is simply inspiring and offers essential help to people who have no other place to turn. Part of our growth plans is to create employment opportunity for people within the Oasis Centre, helping to re build their lives. In 2019, the Oasis Centre opened a brand new facility to further support the local community.
Chariot supply a high number of schools, colleges, and Universities around Greater Manchester, and we strongly believe in offering our support through sponsoring raffles, sending surplus stocks, and offering any other type of support that will contribute the performance of the students and staff. By working closely with our local communities we will collectively create future opportunities and strengthen our local economy creating improved wealth and health.
Mike Carter
Managing Director
