Slavery and human trafficking statement
As an ethical supplier of sustainable energy, Ecotricity aims to ensure slavery and human trafficking never occurs in our business or in our supply chains
Financial Year 2023-2024
Green Britain Group Limited, owner of the Ecotricity group of companies, is at the forefront of the global green industrial revolution. Our businesses are pioneers in the new green economy and include the first green energy company in the world.
Green Britain Group’s purpose in life is the environment and to promote sustainable living in all its forms. We do not just ‘try’ to reduce our impact, it is what we do – it is in our DNA.
We power more than 100,000 customers across Britain from our growing fleet of wind and sun parks. Green Britain Group Limited is also investing in green gas mills and energy storage facilities. We have also brought green principles to transport, food, sport, telecoms, jewellery and more.
Our mission is to create a greener Britain – working across the three frontiers of energy, transport and food.
Company Structure
Our structure includes numerous ground-breaking Green Britain Group Limited subsidiaries, including amongst others:
Ecotricity Limited, the first energy company of its kind offering green electricity and gas to businesses and customers;
Devil’s Kitchen Limited, our venture taking super-healthy vegan food to schools;
Britwind Limited, our small wind company;
The Sky Mining Company Limited, one of the world’s first producers of sustainable diamonds made entirely from the sky;
Forest Green Rovers, the world’s leading sustainable and vegan football club;
GreenCode Sustainability Limited, a green accreditation body providing organisations with a clear pathway to lowering their environmental impact and improving their sustainability credentials;
Ecotalk Limited, a mobile network powered by renewable energy;
Carbon Bank Limited, an innovative solution for organisations wanting to offset their residual carbon emissions and/or make a positive impact by reducing atmospheric CO2; and
Green Knight Studios, a creative agency dedicated to serving sustainable business.
Tackling Modern Slavery in our Supply Chains and Business
We are committed to acting ethically and with integrity in all of our business relationships and to implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to ensure slavery and human trafficking is not taking place anywhere in our group.
We are an expanding business and so we acknowledge that as our areas of activity increase, we need to pay close attention to the risk of slavery and human trafficking.
We are careful about who we work with and who our partners are, too. We do not work with any organisations directly involved in anything we consider to be unethical, immoral or just plain wrong.
Potential suppliers in high-risk areas or industries are subject to rigorous assessment and approval before we work with them – including researching country of origin, their sector of activity, and their policies and practices in respect of modern slavery – in order to identify any potential risk.
We require all suppliers to follow our ethical and environmental ethos. Employees are expected to uphold our values as representatives of the group.
We monitor our employees’ working hours and have systems in place to flag where colleagues may be working hours or shifts in excess of the average limit set by The Working Time Regulations 1998.
Due Diligence, Existing Policies and Risk Assessments
Our ethos is to reduce the environmental and social impact of our own activities by encouraging and pursuing behavioural change from both inside and outside the company. As a result, we attract employees who share our values and strive to achieve our ethos in their working lives, whilst making sure that the organisations we interact with share our values too.
Slavery and servitude do not take place in any of the Green Britain Group businesses, and we have policies in place to ensure they never will. We have in place procedures to:
Identify and assess potential risk areas in our supply chains and in our dealings with our colleagues and customers
Mitigate the risk of slavery and human trafficking occurring in our supply chains
Monitor potential risk areas
Protect whistleblowers
Promote equality
Record and report concerns about slavery and human trafficking wherever they are identified
These policies and procedures promote the health and wellbeing of all our employees and help us to investigate any employee concerns safely, promptly and confidentially.
We are committed to continually reviewing all of our employee-related policies to ensure that they are compliant with modern slavery guidelines.
Measuring Effectiveness
We review our modern slavery practices at least annually, when we prepare our Modern Slavery Statement. Once we have conducted our latest review, the results are used to inform internal policies and procedures that specifically help to combat and reduce the risk of modern slavery and human trafficking in our business and supply chains.
Training for Colleagues
To ensure a high level of understanding of the risks of modern slavery and human trafficking in our supply chains and our business, we provide training to our colleagues.
All new employees receive training on Modern Slavery, including identifying potential victims and policies on making notifications, during their induction.
All employees have easy access to our ‘Modern Slavery Awareness and Victim Identification Guidance’ training documents, which includes the companies’ ethos and interacting with trusted organisations.
Additionally, our dedicated ‘People Team’ are trained to deal with any employee concerns safely, promptly and confidentially.
Subsidiaries of Green Britain Group Limited
The Green Britain Group contains many smaller companies that do not fall within the remit of the Modern Slavery Act requirements, but we ensure that each and every one of them is still subject to the same policies and procedures. In this way, we’re endeavouring to ensure that modern slavery and human trafficking does not take place in any of our supply chains or businesses.
Continuing Review
Overall, the steps we’re currently taking, and our continuing review and improvement of supply chain management, will help us to ensure that slavery never has a place in the Green Britain Group.
This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes our slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year 2023-2024.
This statement has been approved by the Board of Directors.
You can download a copy of the statement here:
