Zero Hunger
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End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
Our co-op has a strong focus on helping to deliver food justice in our region. We’ll continue to work closely with local and national organisations to understand how we can best design and support initiatives that contribute to the goal of ‘Zero Hunger’.
Zero
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Supporting our local foodbanks
We continue to lead the fight for food justice in the region through our support of local foodbanks. In 2021, we donated more than £22,000 to 25 different organisations. This included cash donations directly to foodbanks and money raised through our foodbank donation gift cards, in addition to products donated by our customers in store.
We launched a Foodbank Donation Gift card in our Food stores in December 2020. This year, these Cards raised £6,690 through 994 donations with people giving on average, more than the £5 fixed price. Our Christmas campaign for foodbank donations raised £7,521 in just six weeks, through sales of Donation Cards as well as cash donations made at the till.
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Supporting our local foodbanks
At our Annual Summit in October, foodbanks told us they had a major undersupply of much-needed items such as nappies, so we created Shop and Share donation bins which move around our stores, directing customers to donate the products foodbanks need the most.
They also told us that prejudice deters people from accessing their services, so we ran a myth-busting campaign with colleagues and customers to encourage those who need help to access it.
Quality Education
Ensure inclusive, equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
Raising awareness and equipping our colleagues with the right knowledge and skills is key to integrating sustainability throughout our business and promoting it within our communities.
Quality
education
Training opportunities for all
Helping our colleagues flourish
We want to be the best place to work in the East of England and support our colleagues to reach their full potential.
Over the past year we’ve invested in a blended approach to training and we now offer a mix of face-to-face, digital and online training. All of our online courses are now mobile compatible too, so they’re available to every colleague. We’ve created our first-ever suite of tailored training videos for our Food store colleagues, and we’ve refreshed our training offer for our Funeral colleagues to cover everything from service arranging to supporting families.
For our new starters, we’ve developed the ‘Welcome to our Co-op’ curriculum and the ‘Onboarding Your New Colleague’ programme for managers to ensure we communicate everything about who we are, our values and our culture, right from the start. When we launched Our Co-op mission and vision, 65 colleague ambassadors delivered face-to-face training to 2,500 colleagues over 180 sessions.
Apprenticeships
Our learning and development offering continues to go from strength to strength, providing structured learning pathways for our people. Now in its sixth year, our Apprenticeship Programme has supported more than 150 colleagues to date, through schemes in areas including accountancy, leadership and HR.
In the last year we’ve added apprenticeships in PR and communications and learning and development to our offering and have welcomed 27 colleagues onto our programmes.
Our colleagues have flourished as a result, such as Food Branch Manager Jonnie Gilbert, who is completing a management apprenticeship and was named ‘management apprentice of the year’ by West Suffolk Business College, and Lewis Upson, who is completing a level 4 PR & Communications apprenticeship and was responsible for securing record attendance at an episode of ‘Your Co-op Live’, our interactive live shows for members.
Alongside our apprenticeships, we proudly support colleagues with a wealth of learning opportunities through the Hive learning portal, offering interactive content on how to do the job, as well as personal and professional development, delivered both virtually and face-to-face.
Not only is Lewis an integral part of our team, but he's also enthusiastic and a quick learner, and we value his opinion. I think the apprenticeship has been the making of Lewis; he's well respected within our co-op and I am incredibly proud of him and what he's achieved.
Lynn Warner, Line Manager to Lewis Upson
achieved Distinctions
colleagues have joined our apprenticeship programme
pass rate vs National average of 55%
Industry, innovation & infrastructure
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Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation
We’re committed to undertaking development projects across our business that will keep our buildings sustainable and contribute to sustainability in our local area.
Industry,
innovation &
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Solar panel expansion
We’re expanding our use of solar panels across our estate, taking proactive steps to generate our own renewable power.
Solar panels are already in place at our head office and at four of our branches. Last year, these generated almost 60,000 kWh of electricity – enough to power an average UK house for over 17 years, * saving around 13 tonnes of CO2 emissions. Most of the energy produced by our solar panels is used on-site, with a small amount exported to the National Grid.This year, in partnership with Suffolk County Council, we've added solar panels to three of our supermarkets; Brightlingsea, Acle and Long Stratton.
These additional panels will generate 214,000 kWh per year in total, saving around 45 tonnes of Co2 emissions annually, and 1,000 tonnes over their expected lifespan.
*Based on 3500kw
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LED lighting
One of our latest energy efficiency programmes is seeing us replace as much of our lighting as possible with LED lighting. This is far more efficient than standard tube or bulb lighting, therefore helping us reduce our overall energy consumption.
In work that began last year, we’re upgrading all lighting at our Head Office at Wherstead Park, and we’re working through ‘back of house’ areas at our retail and funeral premises, as well as replacing the lighting as part of overall refurbishments.
Gender Equality
Achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls
We’re committed to being an inclusive organisation as diverse as our communities. We recognise that there is more to be done to realise real change, but we’re dedicated to achieving gender equality and continuing to empower all women and girls across our co-operative.
Zero
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Gender pay gap
Being a responsible employer is something we feel passionately about here at the East of England Co-op. Central to that is ensuring men and women are paid equally across the organisation.
We’re fortunate that our median gap (the difference between the hourly rate of the ‘middle’ male role to the ‘middle’ female role) is quite small thanks to our pay practices. However, a key focus for us continues to be reducing the mean pay difference between men and women. This has come about because we’ve got more male employees in our most senior and highest paid roles, and an under-representation of women in roles which attract the highest level of premium payments, such as callouts and working unsocial hours.
We know that realising real change won’t happen overnight, but we’re committed to some long-term actions to help us get there. These include monitoring the gender balance of internal promotions, strictly governing any ‘out of cycle’ pay increases to ensure fairness and consistency and introducing a new agile working policy to create a flexible working culture.
Adult wages for all
We’re keen to ensure that all our colleagues, irrespective of their age, are paid equally. That’s why those who are under 23 receive our full ‘adult’ pay rate as opposed to national minimum wage.
Alongside this, our hourly-paid store colleagues receive the full rate of pay for a role as soon as they start working with us, rather than a reduced ‘starter rate’.
Our younger colleagues also benefit from enhanced sick pay, holiday entitlement, pension contributions and family leave benefits, along with a colleague discount. Life assurance, a Cycle to Work scheme and interest-free rental deposit salary advances, to help colleagues secure a rental property, are available too.
A fair and inclusive place to work
We value and celebrate the diversity of our colleagues and believe we’re stronger together. We know that a diverse workforce brings with it a wealth of knowledge, experience and talent, all of which are fundamental to the success of our business and its people.
Our vision is to be the East of England’s most valued organisation, and the diversity of our colleagues enables us to better meet and respond to our communities’ changing needs.
We know that it’s not enough to ‘just’ encourage diversity. We’re committed to creating an environment where all our colleagues feel included and that they belong.
Over the past 12 months we have established an Inclusion and Diversity Steering Group to influence and shape our strategy in this area. We have also developed an Inclusion and Diversity Action Plan, and together they will promote a broader Inclusion and Diversity remit within the organisation, including gender diversity.
of all colleagues are female
of our managers are female
of 16 board members are female
Climate action
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Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
Reducing our carbon emissions and improving our energy efficiency are top priorities for our co-op.
We’re committed to using energy from sustainable sources to power our stores, branches and head office, and deliver our services to our members and customers.
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Upgrading our vehicles
One of the ways in which we’re working to reduce our carbon footprint is upgrading our fleet of company and commercial vehicles.
By 2025, our aim is for all our company cars to be either plug-in hybrid (PHEV) or fully electric (EV). We’d like to extend this to all commercial fleet vehicles by 2030. We’ve estimated that these two measures will enable us to save 400 tonnes of carbon per year.
We’re also developing a travel policy to help us reduce carbon emissions associated with all transport and travel and are encouraging our colleagues to work remotely wherever possible.
Decent work & economic growth
Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
As a local co-operative, supporting the communities we serve is deep rooted in our DNA. To promote sustainable economic growth and employment we’ll continue to re-invest in our communities through local development projects and supporting local businesses.
Decent work
& economic
growth
Supporting our local businesses
One of our core principles as a co-op is to reinvest in our communities. That’s why, when it comes to the development and refurbishment of our properties, we strive to use local suppliers wherever possible. This includes everything from materials and labour to professional services such as solicitors.
This enables us to create work opportunities for local people. We estimate that this year, we created 11,000 days of work on projects across our co-op. In the last year, we've spent £37.1million with business and suppliers in our local area.
By 2025, it is our goal for 100% of property development procurement spent with local contractors.
We spent
£5.1 million
with local suppliers last year
We created
11,000
days of work for local people across our projects
Property development with a difference
The £5.5m redevelopment of our historic department store in Long Wyre Street, Colchester was completed this year, offering 24 apartments and five retail units. One of the retail units is already occupied which has created 39 jobs, and more restaurants and shops are set to follow.
Elsewhere our other developments will make a real difference to our local communities, whether that’s through job creation or by providing new homes. In Ipswich, we have leased the main part of our former distribution centre to an existing rental client, supporting their expansion.
We are also installing solar panels at many of our stores and across our portfolio are prioritising renewable energy.
Safety and wellbeing
The safety and wellbeing of our colleagues is of upmost importance, and we invest significant resources into ensuring they have a safe and secure working environment.
This year we’ve recorded:
accidents per 100 colleagues
accident Incident Rate (AIR) per 100 full time employees
RIDDOR incident rate of per 100 colleagues