Corporate responsibility

The performance and reporting of the Kier Group CR programme is benchmarked against our competitors and customers through the annual Business in the Community (BITC) CR Index. This index assesses how we address sustainability throughout the business, specifically concerning the environment and climate change, health and safety, employee relations and training, business ethics, customer satisfaction, supply chain management and community engagement. Most importantly, the index enables us to identify areas of weakness which we can address for ongoing improvement.

In order to ensure that our CR programme is constantly reviewed, managed and improved year on year, we established a target in 2010 to achieve 90%, or Gold status, within three years, benchmarked against our 2010 CR Index score of 78.2%, Bronze status. We were therefore pleased that in this first year, by working closely with the BITC team, we achieved a score of 85%, Silver status, in the 2011 BITC CR Index.

Having commissioned a full feedback report from BITC on our CR Index results for 2011, we have identified the management of our community engagement, our environmental data and our approach to equality, diversity and inclusion as key areas to improve in the next year. These issues are all being addressed by the Group CR Steering Committee.

A summary of our CR performance and key activities is shown in Environment and Climate change and Workplace Health and Safety sections below. Other key issues concerning our CR programme in the year are as follows.

The Group CR Steering Committee (see membership list here), chaired by Paul Sheffield, chief executive, met four times in the year to 30 June 2011.

A report from each meeting of the committee was then placed on the agenda for the full Group Board meetings held in August and November 2010, and February and May 2011.

The main issues covered in the CR reports to the Board in the year have included:

• BITC CR Index survey results, targets and actions
• 2010 and 2011 Carbon Disclosure Project submissions
• Carbon Reduction Commitment and the Climate Change Act 2008
• Business ethics and code of conduct
• Bribery Act 2010 and issues concerning e-training and awareness campaigns across the Group
• Waste data collection and target performance
• Equality, diversity and inclusion policies and actions
• Community engagement and the creation of The Kier Foundation as a charitable trust
• The web-based iConnecting CR data collection and performance tool initiative
• The Considerate Constructors Scheme monthly performance data and targets
• Feedback from shareholders on CR issues
• Audit for the Group CR report
• Apprenticeship scheme initiatives across the divisions
• Liaison with national charities
• Annual Report & Accounts CR section

During the year we entered into dialogue with our Group auditors, KPMG Audit Plc, with regard to auditing our CR Report and associated CR data collection and verification. We have now engaged KPMG to work with us on this CR Report, to analyse our data collection processes and existing third-party verification where applicable and to advise on the establishment of appropriate mechanisms and structures for our 2012 CR Report. The intention is for KPMG to undertake a first audit of our CR Report in the year ending 30 June 2012.

Kier employees and our individual business units have exemplary community engagement activities across all the Group’s locations throughout the UK and overseas. However, in order to properly and professionally quantify what we do in our communities, we now collect data on our direct impact upon these communities (fundraising data, sponsorship, man-hours donated and working with schools or charitable organisations). To this end, we have been establishing a web-based performance analysis and reporting system across the Group under the ‘iConnecting’ initiative. This was rolled out in January 2011 and data collection recorded across the Group for the first time for the financial year to 30 June 2011 (see summary table).

Now that we have been able to access and analyse our community engagement activities more robustly, the CR Steering Committee is determined to improve the focus and management of our Group community engagement without in any way compromising the ongoing good work undertaken locally by our businesses wherever they operate among their closest communities.

After researching this issue and debating it at both the CR Steering Committee and at Board level, we have now launched The Kier Foundation, a charitable trust formally registered as a charity through which we can funnel and focus financial support to good causes and the community activities of our employees wherever they are. The Kier Foundation will be managed by Trustees and a fund established from both Group resources and voluntary employee subscriptions. A coordinator for The Kier Foundation is to be appointed to manage the activities and funding opportunities arising.

As part of the The Kier Foundation initiative, the Board will establish a formal relationship with a national charity on an annual or two-year basis through which the Foundation can channel and share resources, as well as helping deliver tangible projects and activities by the Group employees and businesses nationwide.

As well as assessing our CR performance through the BITC CR Index’s five main areas (environment, health and safety, employees and training, customers and supply chain and community engagement), we also benchmark our industry-specific and operational project- based CR performance against the monitoring and reporting system of the Considerate Constructors Scheme (CCS).

We were very pleased to be awarded an exceptionally high number of CCS National Awards in 2011. Since becoming an Associate Member of the CCS Scheme in 2008, our National Awards have risen from eight in 2008 to 21 in 2009, 29 in 2010 and a remarkable 42 in 2011. This number of awards significantly exceeds the total National Awards achieved by any of our competitors in the CCS scheme in 2011.

Our average Group monthly scores in this scheme judged under eight categories (including, safety, cleanliness, environment, good neighbour and respectful) also improved during the year from 34.30 out of 40 in 2010 to 34.63 in 2011.

Kier participated in the 2010 Carbon Disclosure Project (results announced in September 2010) and our Carbon Disclosure Leadership index score of 77 put us in the top 10% of the FTSE 350 in respect of carbon disclosure. We have participated in the 2011 Carbon Disclosure Project and the results, when announced in October 2011, will be posted on our website at www.kier.co.uk/responsibility.

Kier – delivering a brighter future for our communities

The Kier Group vision is ‘to be the most highly respected company in the industry’. To achieve this vision we have to build, maintain, protect and enhance our reputation among our employees, customers, supply chain partners, investors and, particularly, the communities in which we live and work. Supporting this reputation and encompassing our responsibilities towards the environment, society and governance, our corporate responsibility vision is: ‘Kier – delivering a brighter future for our communities’.