Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Standards

Teesside Hospice is committed to reviewing the impact it makes on society, the environment and the economy. We endeavour, where possible, to operate in a sustainable way and maximise the organisation’s positive consequences arising from its activities for all stakeholders. Our stakeholders are at the heart of our ESG objectives, and we will focus on how to create value for each stakeholder group. We are just commencing our ESG journey and although we are already making inroads into good practice, we need to formalise this by reviewing our short-term and our long-term aims. We need to consider our service users, supporters, the NHS, donors, suppliers, regulators, our employees and our volunteers as well as society as a whole. 

Our responsibilities fall into the following initiatives:
Environmental – How can environmental impact be minimised or improved
This is how the charity interacts with and impacts the environment including areas such as resource use, travel, recycling, waste, pollution and green energy.

Social – How can the organisation contribute positively to society
This includes how we fit with society to create benefit without harm and extends more broadly than our charitable purpose to incorporate happiness, health, well-being, inclusion and empowerment. It is often difficult to measure but is of value to people and society. From a HR perspective this includes recruitment, terms and conditions, health and safety, communications, inclusion, diversity and fair treatment, learning and development, performance management and rewards and benefits. We have our own volunteer workforce but are also keen to work with corporate colleagues with their own supported volunteering programmes.

Governance – The mechanism for holding executive management to account
Effective governance is critical for a well-run charity. Successful boards will hold a strong set of objectives, have a clear understanding of the sector environment and will have the strength and independence to challenge the organisation. Reporting must be strong and robust policies and procedures should be in place. Teesside Hospice follows the Institute of Fundraising Code of Practice, and our Board of Trustees has adopted the Charity Governance Code.
United Nations 2030 Agenda

The agenda is founded on 10 principles in four key areas: human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. It promotes 17 sustainable development goals in the areas of people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership. Teesside Hospice’s primary action is to form an ESG working group which will introduce an ESG strategy linking back to the UN agenda:
•    Identify all stakeholder relationships needed for ethical and sustainable business success
•    Clarify the areas in the agenda that are most relevant to the organisation
•    Answer the question ‘where are we now and where do we want to be?’
•    Understand how the ESG strategy is aligned to business strategy and working practices and imbed into the culture
•    Partner collaboration 
•    Measure and evaluate ESG performance and impact so that results can be clearly seen and improved
•    Report and promote success and continuous review cycle

Click here to view the current progress of Teesside Hospice's ESG Goals. As the group works through these aspects, this information will be updated accordingly.