Mears Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy

We work throughout the UK and have branches in every kind of community. In areas as diverse as rural villages, bustling market towns, historic boroughs, garden cities, busy metropolitan cities and industrial heartlands you will find Mears working to improve people’s lives. We do work in some of the most socially deprived areas of the country so we feel a strong sense of responsibility towards the wider community. Helping a local community to thrive increases the quality of life for residents and makes our job that little bit easier.

Our Communities

Community based projects have and always will be an integral part of Mears’ success. The concept of ‘community’ is at the heart of Mears. We take an active role in contributing sustainable improvement and support to the communities in which we work, achieved through practical initiatives such as youth projects, local apprenticeship training, refurbishments and local mentoring schemes. Working so intimately with the community on a daily basis helps us to identify opportunities for our employees to really make a difference. The knock-on effect of our community activity is remarkable with the impetus to make a difference and, indeed make people smile, the company is united in this common goal. As a company we believe in empowering people and our community projects do just that. Employee retention and attracting the right calibre of personnel, comes from the very fact that we support and undertake community work. Mears is the only company in our market to approach work in the community in this way, we don’t just donate money we actually give time, labour and materials; the company is at the heart of the communities within which we operate.

Our Environment

To promote sustainability and raise awareness of everyone’s role in taking action on climate change and carbon reduction, the Getting Greener Campaign was launched in Spring 2008. We have encouraged branches to think about and take action to reduce their environmental impacts. Branch Eco Champions have been nominated and they encourage colleagues to review their activities and act in more sustainable ways whenever and wherever they can at work, at home and in our communities. You can download the first issue of our Getting Greener Newsletter for Eco Champions here. Increasingly, our clients and residents have a vested interest in the environmental impact of our work. We undertook our first Carbon Footprint exercise in 2008, to help us determine areas where we could further reduce our emissions across the Group. The Carbon Footprint took account of all companies in the Group and has helped us in setting and reaching targets in 2009. We are in the process of repeating the exercise for 2009. Reducing carbon emissions from existing housing stock and providing affordable warmth are key issues facing our clients. Our first eco project which addressed this issue took place in 2008. We renovated a typical 1930s property in South London for Hyde Housing Association, making modifications to reduce the carbon emissions by a target of 80%. The works were completed in October 2008 and the house is now occupied and being monitored for two years. We also worked with the Building Research Establishment, The Energy Savings Trust and Travis Perkins to produce a guidance report “Roadmap to 60%” on works to existing 1960’s flats to reduce carbon emissions from the properties.

Driving Our Strategy

Leadership and strategic direction is provided by the quarterly CSR Committee, whilst day-to-day implementation falls to the monthly meeting of the CSR Activists’ Group. Our Employee Focus Group meets quarterly to canvas opinion on the CSR program and ideas from this group have been implemented across our businesses. In January of each year, branches that have shown exceptional levels of involvement are recognised through our Community & Environment awards. Staff are continuously updated about developments and achievements through the Community & Environment monthly updates, monthly and quarterly reports, intranet and our quarterly staff newsletter, Mears Matters. We consider client and resident involvement to be a key measure of our success. As well as encouraging residents and clients to participate in Community & Environment projects we communicate with them through the website, Mears Matters, face to face meetings, conferences and localised newsletters.  

For more information about how our strategy is implemented please look at the CSR Goals and Latest Projects.