Ultimately, we are bringing people together internally to form ideas that can impact three areas:
- How we work internally
- How we work with our customers and suppliers
- How we work with the outside world
There are 17 UN-SDGs, each with a series of sub-goals. These goals impact every strand of ESG. The reach of the SDGs is global, and they are relative. This relativity means goals such as “No Poverty” has very different interpretation between countries. Therefore, some impacts can be felt in various ways. The No Poverty SDG is closely linked to ‘Quality Education’; these are then connected to ‘Reducing Inequality. The links between the goals are detailed. They all rest on ‘Partnerships’ (the 17th Goal) for their successful delivery.
Daisy can make an impact through how we treat our People, and this includes paying at least the real living wage. We also need to recognise the importance of learning and development and how it impacts our People. We recognise that our online training resources can be open to the communities we serve to vary extents.
The TRAction group is internal to Daisy; each department has a representative on it. It is there for our People to develop ideas. It is meant to be a safe space, operating under Chatham House rule. It has had a range of successes to date. We expect these to continue. We have joined UN-Compact as a consequence of it. The group will be a critical component of delivering our ambitions of becoming a B-Corp. If you are in Daisy, it is a great place to raise any issues you may have, ideas or raise questions. It isn’t the only place to raise ideas.
The TRAction group is effectively an ESG group. It is deliberately structured to have members of a sufficient level in each department. The group meets without interference (or influence) from a board member. Its outcomes (anonymised) are presented to the Board for actions to be taken.
Bridging the Gap is our Employee Engagement Group. It sits alongside TRAction. They share the same Goal of improving the S of ESG. Each may contain further ways to develop Governance or lower Environmental impacts. They are not weighted in a specific direction deliberately.
The independence from the Board and the need to ensure psychological safety here are critical to the successful functioning of each. Attempting to exert influence through these groups is not acceptable and is a disciplinary offence. It is, however, good to ask questions to the groups. Providing any answers provided are understood to be from the group, not a person or department on it.
The outputs from both groups are presented to the Chairman and the Board, which helps ensure that our People are listened to and heard.
There must be evidence that matters raised result in changes.