Amey steps up sustainability and social value delivery with new five-year strategy

Amey has committed to a step change in the way it works to achieve new levels of sustainability and social value across its operations.

The infrastructure services and engineering company, has launched Bolder Steps Together, a five-year strategy which aims to make delivering benefits for people, places and planet a key driver in its service delivery, with the company saying that it recognises the need for businesses to bring leadership, pace and transparency to their approach and a focus on near-term action alongside longer-term ambition.

Their collaborative approach is defined as; empowering their own teams, collaborating with customers and supply chain, and partnering across their sector for the benefit of society at large.

The strategy is backed by ambitious goals, better measurement and governance changes to help the business meet its environmental ambitions and to deliver a positive legacy in communities they serve.

The Bolder Steps Together commitments include:

To our teams:

• Create an inclusive workplace where everyone can develop and has the freedom to perform
• Ensure everyone goes home safe and well every day
• Empower all to be champions for the environment
• Make the green way the easy way

To communities:

• Leave a positive legacy in the communities we serve
• Collaborate with VCSE and SMEs for positive outcomes for all
• Lead our clients in their response to the climate emergency and achieve their sustainability ambitions
• Achieve Net Zero and support our suppliers to do the same

To society:

• Inspire and encourage young people into our sectors
• Champion a fair and inclusive future for all recognising the value difference can bring
• Take opportunities to help nature thrive
• Source and use materials that promote a circular economy

Each of the commitments is underpinned by goals and targets which include:

By 2023:

• 50% of company leased cars to be electric/PHEV
• Green behaviour tools developed and implemented across the business
• 100% of employees to have completed climate change awareness training
• Sustainability targets included in the employee bonus
• A social value plan embedded in 90% of contracts with measurable results
• 20% annual increase in VCSE spend as a proportion of total supply chain spend

And by 2025:

• 90% of strategic suppliers have a validated Science Based Target (SBT)
• 75% of leased cars and LCV vans to be electric/hybrid
• 75% of our plant and equipment to be alternatively fuelled
• 16,000 young people engaged through education and outreach programmes
• 300 people with barriers into workplace to have benefited from a mentoring or work placement programme
• 1% of Amey employees to come from groups that have barriers into the workplace.

Amey’s CEO Amanda Fisher said: “As a strategic supplier to Government with a presence across the UK we are uniquely placed to help drive equality of opportunity through inclusive procurement and employment. And, our capabilities from design to delivery across transport and the built environment makes us well placed to speed up the transition to Net Zero.

“We recognise we must find ways to work, both for ourselves and for our clients, that re-use materials, achieve energy efficiency, and restores and regenerates our planet by default. In a similar vein, our intent is to create community value, wealth and wellbeing through championing an inclusive economy – one that gives opportunity to all and targets positive action towards people and places that face most disadvantage.”

The Bolder Steps Together strategy builds on what has already been achieved. In 2021 Amey was awarded Investors in People Gold, paid the Real Living Wage to all employees, established new partnerships for inclusion and social mobility, and continued to diversify spend towards social enterprise.