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Sustainability & ESG

Passionate about people, sustainability and innovation

Our mission is to be the UK’s most sustainable cleaning company.

Principle has always been at the forefront of sustainability, and caring for the environment and local communities. From our head office to our supply chain partners and everything in between, our decisions have always taken into consideration our impact and ability to influence the market around us.

In 2023 we launched our ESG strategy. Informed by all of our stakeholders, our strategy will guide us in continuing to be a responsible, fair and accountable business.

Developing our strategy

    • Stakeholder insights
      A total of 252 stakeholders were engaged through interviews and surveys.
    • Double materiality assessment
      A Business Impact Assessment (BIA) was combined with the results of the stakeholder analysis to produce a materiality matrix.
    • Strategic analysis
      The strategic analysis was conducted to understand the internal and external drivers.
    • ESG framework and targets
      Using the outputs from the materiality assessment and strategic analysis, we developed a strategic framework with four pillars and a suite of KPIs and targets.
    • Action plans and governance
      A set of action plans were created to integrate the strategy over 3-18 months.

Our strategy

Priority areas include:

    • Achieving net zero 
    • Providing carbon and climate change training
    • Employees provided with Personal Development Plans
    • Increasing ethnic minority representation across senior management
    • Creating an R&D fund to drive innovation
    • Achieving the Workplace Wellbeing Charter accreditation

 

 

 

Our Journey to Net Zero

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Other initiatives include:

Chemical-free cleaning processes

“Closed loop” consumable products

Uniforms from regenerated organic material and ethically sourced

Energy and water saving technologies

We are Planet Mark certified!

Our carbon footprint (scopes 1 & 2) and social impact contribution has been independently verified by Planet Mark.

We are committed to making a minimum of 5% reduction in our carbon footprint year on year, with ambitions to strive for much more.

We have reduction strategies in place for our carbon footprint and, through our partnership with Groundwork and our clients, we will continue to improve our social value contribution.

Principle

At our head office, we have worked hard to continuously improve our operations. This has been supported by our ISO 14001 (environmental management) and ISO 50001 (energy management) certifications. 

Our achievements:

And with our supply partners, we ensure that they share our passion and drive. We work with them to understand the best options that result in the highest quality solutions, without compromising on people’s welfare and our high environmental standards. In every case we strive to incorporate circular economy principles. In line with these best practice standards, our supply chain and partners are audited regularly. 

Since 2005, Principle has chosen a local charity to support and work with. For the past 3 years, we have partnered with Richard House, the first children’s hospice to be established in London which supports over 300 families. Since 2019 we have donated over £27,000. As well as supporting fundraising initiatives and providing financial assistance, Principle facilitates volunteer days for team members. 

Previous environmental and community programs have included Thames beach cleans and creating art from waste with Hubbub Foundation.

Clients

We partner with clients to help them achieve their sustainability goals. Through the implementation of our 5 point sustainability plan we are able to identify high impact areas and create lasting solutions.

“Paperless” sites


In keeping with our environmental objectives, we are rolling out paperless contracts across our portfolio, providing all information to the site cleaning teams and client teams in electronic form.


All information relating to the cleaning team and their activities are made available to staff through a tablet which is kept on site. This includes all relevant health and safety information (risk assessments, method statements, COSHH data and assessments etc.), company policies and procedures and all other information as required. Through our use of DocuSign, staff can sign off documents on the tablet therefore meeting statutory requirements. All information is controlled through our Google-based information management system which uses a range of cloud-based apps ensuring that all documents are updated in accordance with reviews which are performed on at least an annual basis.

Crown Estates Waste Scheme

Principle Cleaning Services (Principle) worked in partnership with BNP Paribas Real Estate (BNPPRE) from April 2018 to February 2020 prior to the handover to JLL.

During our tenure with BNP Paribas we established an award winning waste operation in partnership with BPR. Our approach focused on occupier engagement to increase recycling levels in line with the Crowns environmental targets for the future.

Principle and its partners’ – BNP Paribas and BPR Paper Round (BPR) – mission was to improve recycling rates across the St James’s portfolio through a unique waste management scheme, which aims to send zero waste to landfill and process a range of different waste streams in an effective and environmentally-friendly way.

This included removing waste bags from streets to improve the image of the area, reducing vehicle numbers and emissions, consolidating waste, improving services to customers by offering competitive pricing and free recycling advice, and accurate reporting via a live portal.

The partners worked effortlessly together to create a waste scheme for all occupiers – achieving a high level of service for waste collections that remained agile to the demands of the end users. 

In November 2019, Principle Cleaning Services and BNP Paribas won the Partners in Corporate Award at the 2019 PFM Partnership Awards.