Corporate Responsibility

Excellence in delivery

We take pride in delivering complex, time-critical projects for our clients and a selection of these can be found in our Project Showcase. Examples of our award-winning environmental projects can be accessed by clicking the links on the left.

Continually improving our business

As part of the Group’s business improvement programme, significant progress has been made to develop and adopt a common business management system (BMS). The aim of the BMS is to enable more consistent practice and improved performance across our operations and through our service delivery. Common processes are now defined and a programme of activity to integrate business-specific controls has started. Successful implementation of a fully integrated common BMS is a key objective for the year ahead and will include a refreshed and more intelligent approach to auditing across the organisation.

Technical networks

To help ensure that we consistently deliver technical excellence, 14 technical networks operate across the Group. These networks are chaired by respected specialists who provide leadership in their appointed subject or discipline, identify investment opportunities, and raise our profile. During 2011 we appointed new chairs to come of the networks to drive further benefits across the business.

Supply chain

We recognise that our supply chain plays a significant part in delivering successful projects. Following the creation of our supply chain sustainability commitment in 2009 we have initially surveyed principal suppliers in the UK to understand how they manage important economic, social and environmental factors. The results from these surveys will be used to target key areas and agree improvements with suppliers. We plan to extend this activity to operations worldwide.

Assurance

All of our businesses successfully transitioned their management systems to the revised standard for ISO 9001 before the November 2010 deadline. This significant achievement reflects ongoing compliance with pertinent sector schemes, as required by some of our clients, and with all certificates having been renewed in the reporting period.

In response to the growing need for information security assurance, a number of our businesses are seeking management systems approval against the information security management systems approval standard, ISO 27001: 2005. Following the lead provided by our Group IS operations and management consultants business in the UK, asset management in the UK, defence, aerospace and communications (DAC) in Bangalore and the Middle East operations will be including information security management as part of their improvement programmes for the coming year.