Corporate Responsibility

At Marshall, we recognise the importance of proactively managing the impact of our operations on our wider stakeholder group and the environment. Our response to corporate responsibility (CR) considerations has been structured under the following four core areas:

Our Customers
Our People
The Environment
The Community

A global business, the Marshall Group takes pride in its commitment to the communities in which its businesses operate, which particularly includes Cambridge, as well as the unbroken support it provides to the country. The Group recognises the direct link between well-motivated and happy people who enjoy what they do and the delivery of great service to its customers, and continues to invest heavily in the development of our people’s skills and the ongoing communication of our brand values and objectives.

OUR CUSTOMERS

Our commitment to our customers and our unwavering belief in integrity and fairness in all our business dealings are enshrined within our core organisational values and processes.

Understanding our customers’ requirements
We recognise that responding rapidly and proactively to the ever changing requirements of our customers is critical in today’s business environment. We have a Group-wide project designed to review and enhance our process for obtaining and responding to feedback from our customers. We anticipate this will help us deliver continuous improvement in how we deliver products and services to delight our customers.

Embedding integrity and fairness in our business
To reinforce our commitment to integrity and fairness in our business dealings, the Board has approved a Code of Business Ethics which is issued to all employees of the Group and is also made available to all stakeholders via this website. This code seeks to encapsulate in one document the various Group ethical policies and guidelines in place. It seeks to ensure the Group’s commitment to the highest ethical standards in all its dealings and provides a framework and guidance to employees and other stakeholders in terms of how we expect to do business. It also includes a confidential “whistleblower” mechanism for reporting serious breaches of the code. The Group has worked hard to ensure all of its operations and policies are compliant with the legislation brought in by the Bribery Act 2011.

OUR PEOPLE

At Marshall we recognise that our employees are at the heart of our success. To achieve this we aspire to demonstrate consistently the highest standards of leadership and communication, teamwork, whilst understanding the importance of highly effective personal development and recognition.

A Great Place To Work
Following a very positive experience of using the widely recognised Great Place To Work employee feedback process in our Motor Group in recent years, we have rolled out the approach across the Group. We hope to be able to use the valuable feedback obtained to deliver continuous improvement to how we engage with and motivate our employees in recognition of their critical contribution to our success.

Recognition and personal development
We gain competitive advantage by attracting, retaining and developing the best talent from the broadest range of people. We, therefore, continuously review our approach to motivating and developing our employees and are currently implementing two significant employee related projects which are anticipated to strengthen further our commitment to recognition and personal development:

To reinforce our commitment to developing our current and future business leaders we are developing a bespoke leadership and management training scheme. We also continue to emphasise the importance of learning and development for all of our staff in each of our businesses. Furthermore, to recognise those employees who demonstrate the highest standards in terms of “living our values” we are implementing a values recognition framework which culminates in an annual MAVTA (Marshall Achievement Values and Teamwork Awards) celebration which recognises and reinforces our commitment to our values and their fundamental contribution to our success.

Health and Safety The Group is committed to safeguarding the health and safety of its employees, customers, contractors and visitors to the Group’s premises, and the community. Each of the operating companies employs health and safety advisors for the implementation of the Group’s health and safety policies.

This commitment and the "positive safety culture" of the Group continue to be recognised by The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA). During 2010 the following RoSPA Occupational Health & Safety Awards were won by our operating companies:

Marshall Aerospace received their 5th consecutive Gold Medal;
Marshall Specialist Vehicles received their 4th consecutive Gold Medal;
Marshall Vehicle Engineering received their 2nd Silver award; and
Marshall Motor Group was also successful in receiving its 1st Silver award in early 2011.

THE ENVIRONMENT

The Marshall Group continues to take a highly responsible and pro-active environmental stance, and works closely with local Councils, the Environment Agency and the Government Offices of the Eastern Region.

We continue to make progress across the Group to lessen our impact on the environment and use our resources efficiently. The focus has been on education and changing the behaviour of employees to maximise the efficiency of our processes and reduce our consumption of energy. With this in mind, it is pleasing to note that our carbon emissions, from the consumption of core fuels, remained relatively stable, on a like-for-like basis, with the only absolute growth arising from the acquisition of our advanced composite facility, Slingsby, and the additional motor retail outlets acquired or opened in the year.

Having performed some preparatory work for the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRC) in the prior year, we entered our first year of being a CRC participant in April 2010. We continue to keep a watching brief on how the scheme develops and welcome the Government consultations on how to simplify the CRC scheme and reduce the administrative burden it places on the participants.

Key initiatives and achievements include the following items:

Carbon Trust energy assessment surveys for our Cambridge and Mildenhall facilities have been completed. The recommendations arising from these ranged from how to engage employees and change behaviour through to detailed areas of how to improve the building fabric, lighting systems and building management system to improve our energy efficiency.
Marshall Aerospace commissioned and implemented an energy efficiency awareness campaign designed to educate employees and reduce energy usage across the business.
Marshall Land Systems, has undertaken a number of energy efficiency initiatives including the refit of lights at the Aldridge depot and re-profiling the energy management systems in Hangar 6. Land Systems has also introduced energy wardens to focus on energy efficient practices across the business.
The Motor Group took an innovative step locally, and indeed within the motor retail network, and installed an electric vehicle charging point adjacent to its Citroen and Nissan showrooms in Cambridge for the use by customers.
The Group also contributed to the cost of the charging bays installed by Cambridge City Council in two city centre car parks.
The Chairman of the Group continues in the active participation of the Environmental committee reinforcing the commitment and emphasis placed on the Group’s environmental stewardship.
Publication of articles in ‘Teamwork’, the internal newsletter, to inform and educate employees of best practice and the Group’s current initiatives.
The Motor Group’s waste contractor continues to deal with an increased number of waste streams thereby diverting the amount of waste that would have gone to landfill and thus improving the percentage of waste that we recycle.
Following the success of the cycle to work scheme at the Cambridge site, Slingsby introduced the scheme to its employees during the year.
The continuing use of the smart energy meter network, at the Cambridge site, to monitor energy consumption, help identify areas of waste and allow targeted monitoring and energy optimisation initiatives.
A detailed review of how the Group may harness the various technologies available in the renewable energy field and how the recently announced Renewable Heat Incentive scheme may be applicable to the Group.
Participation in The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders - Dealer Energy Efficiency Programme.
Marshall Land Systems is working towards the achievement if ISO 14001 accreditation to reinforce their environmental credentials in their operating environment.
Continuing the analysis of the pilot smart meter installations at large motor retail outlets within our dealer network.

THE COMMUNITY

As the largest private sector employer in Cambridge, we maintain particularly strong links with the local community, including Cambridge University, local colleges, the Training & Enterprise Council, Business Link, the Cambridgeshire Chamber of Commerce and Industry, SETNET, EEDA (East of England Development Agency), the Learning & Skills Council, Connexions, the County, City and District Councils, as well as with a variety of Residents’ Associations and Parish Councils. The Airport has an active Consultative Committee which acts as an important interface with the local community.

We have a firm and long-standing commitment to the communities in which we live and work. Charitable donations are an important part of our community involvement and we direct this support primarily to causes with educational, engineering and scientific objectives, as well as to social objectives connected with our business and place in the wider community. Examples of the charitable activities undertaken by employees include: four teams of Motor Group employees driving £500 cars to Monaco and back raising money for BEN, the motor industry charity; coffee mornings for Macmillan across the company; and numerous initiatives in support of the BBC’s annual Children in Need appeal.

We also actively encourage our businesses and individual employees to support the local community, particularly in education, the arts, the environment, sports and health care through sponsorship activities and voluntary work. There is also a diverse programme of visits to the Group’s premises.

The Group provides support to a number of schools and has “sponsored” four Cambridge Schools, Teversham Church of England Primary School, Bottisham Village College, Coleridge Community College and the Fields Children’s Centre, where dedicated members of staff assist with a wide range of projects, particularly those connected to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The Group also assists in a number of other schools where employees are involved with school management as Governors.

Senior directors and executives also take on a number of non-executive roles in business, charitable and community projects. The Group also provides support to the Cambridge Air Training Corps Squadron. These relationships help maintain the harmonious relationship between the Company and the many communities where its businesses are located.

National projects which benefit from the encouragement and help of the Group include: The Air League Educational Trust, the Air Training Corps, the RAF Benevolent Fund, the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme and BEN, the charity of the Motor Industry.

The Company has strong links with the University of Cambridge and this includes Cambridge University Engineering Department through the "Sir Arthur Marshall Institute for Aeronautics" (SAMIA) (www.samia.org.uk) which encourages inter-disciplinary research across a wide range of aeronautical engineering disciplines.

In conjunction with the World Land Trust, the Group has successfully led the Cambridge Rainforest Appeal which raised over £200,000 towards the purchase and long-term protection of a corridor of rainforest in Borneo which links two sections of a wildlife sanctuary. This should help to support the survival of orangutans and other wildlife.