BCORP
We’re proud to share that The Cotswold Letting Agency is now a certified B Corporation®. The B Corp movement is a global community of people using business as a force for good, working to shift our economic system from benefiting only a few to supporting many; from concentrating wealth and power to promoting equity; from extraction to regeneration; and from prioritising individualism to embracing interdependence.
Certification isn’t handed out lightly. B Corps are verified by B Lab and must meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. Our own journey began in June 2024, and achieving certification marks an important step in how we operate, balancing purpose with profit, and recognising our responsibility to our workers, our community, our customers, and the planet.
Why Sustainability Matters to Us
Living and working in the Cotswolds AONB (the UK’s largest Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) makes sustainability an obvious priority for us. Our passion for working locally with independent businesses and supporting the community is at the heart of everything we do.
- Supporting Local Businesses: Over 60% of our expenditure goes to local companies.
- Local Team: Our entire team lives locally, ensuring a deep connection to the community.
- Living Wage Employer: We are proud to be an Accredited Living Wage employer.
- Outstanding Customer Relationships: Our commitment to building strong relationships with owners and tenants is reflected in our 4.9* review score.
Our Sustainability Actions
We are committed to making meaningful changes that support a sustainable future. Achieving Carbon Neutral status through Carbon Neutral Britain, we are actively offsetting emissions via their UK Woodland Fund. Our commitment to reducing emissions also includes incorporating two electric vehicles into our fleet. Beyond reducing our carbon footprint, we support local causes, including Cotswold National Landscape (CNL) through their Caring for the Cotswolds Woodland Wellbeing projects. Additionally, Maggie’s in Oxford remains our preferred local charity, with the team raising funds through walks, runs, and golf events. We also proudly support The Green Runners, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to lowering the carbon footprint through running.
Delivering Change
Our Governance Goals include reviewing our sustainability KPIs as standard in monthly board meetings, and updating all company policies annually. We are targeting 25% women on our board by 2026, while maintaining our current goal of 50% women in management. Every team member receives two hours of sustainability and ethics training every six months.
For our People, we aim to keep employee satisfaction at 85% or higher, and ensure that all staff earn the Living Wage or above. We offer flexible working, with 20% of time from home.
In our Community, we target 75% of hires to be local and donate 0.1% of turnover to charity, our give back programme is something we prioritise! We also host quarterly community engagement events, where we advocate for sustainability change-making.
In our Supply Chain, all suppliers receive our service level expectation/code of conduct. Our top 30 suppliers account for 85% of our annual spend, and 97% of those are local (as per B Corp guidelines), keeping it local is important to us!
Environmentally, we target a 5% annual carbon reduction, maintain our carbon and net-zero action plans, offset or inset all emissions, compost all food waste, and recycle at least 70% of office waste (see our Carbon Neutral Britain report). We will also continue our three-year partnership programme with Cotswold National Landscape and Caring for the Cotswolds.
For our Customers, we aim for a minimum Google Review score of 4.5 stars (currently we are rated 5.0) and share weekly sustainability updates on our socials. We also provide all guests with our code of ethics and local connections, so visitors to the area can adopt local values.
Our Bold Commitments for the Future
Our journey towards B Corp certification has inspired us to integrate sustainability into every aspect of our operations. We have amended our Articles of Association to include social and environmental goals alongside our business objectives. And as part of our commitment, we aim to donate 1% of our revenue to environmental causes. We are working closely with our property owners to set ambitious targets to reduce electricity, gas, oil, and water consumption across our property portfolio, along with minimising chemical usage. To further engage our community, we are launching a Green VIP pass for our tenants, encouraging them to shop and eat locally.
Looking ahead we are making a bold move to drive sustainable change through a long-term approach. We expect to be on a continuous journey of delivery and refinement as we integrate social and environmental initiatives into our daily operations.
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