Our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) commitment is to always act in line with:-

Our Values:- Commitment, Trust, Honesty, Integrity, Respect and Empathy; and
Our Purpose which includes our wider role in improving your wellbeing: socially, economically and environmentally; as a community anchor organisation. It is also part of our commitment to being value for money as a social landlord.

Social
We will continue to build an Association that our people feel proud of through recruiting, managing and developing our people in a responsible way and in a safe and rewarding environment. This includes ensuring our people have an opportunity to volunteer and support our chosen charities and develop our approach to people, rewards, health and well being. Our employee support package includes family friendly policies, healthcare for all and other flexible rewards tailored to individual needs.

Tenants want a sense of community, within their immediate area and the wider settlement. We are more than a landlord and provide services to improve quality of life and employability, tackle fuel poverty and discrimination, and address times of household crisis or financial difficulty through tenancy sustainability services provided through the SMART and ASSIST Teams. We are also addressing digital exclusion and engagement to ensure that tenants and other customers are part of what we do.

Our aim at community level is to grow and support the social capital and diversity of third sector and voluntary activity in communities we serve. We will continue to build sustainable communities through our investment in community regeneration.

What we will do to improve your social well-being
In the new community based operational model, Neighbourhood Officers will be able to make investment and operational decisions in support of their communities and work with tenants to find funding to improve their environment.

In order to calculate the social value of our projects, we will work with the SFHA to develop the methodology of determining social value.

In our wider role as a community anchor, we will support local groups by information sharing, offering volunteering opportunities for staff, provide governance and organisational advice and where appropriate support. We will develop a tenant apprentice scheme to help build confidence, engagement and customer board membership.

Economic
We will work with our partners to secure social value and manage our supply chain in an ethical and sustainable way. We will do this by developing a consistent approach to social value that encourages our partners and suppliers to contribute to the Grampian Group’s aims and work in partnership to attract inward investment, maximise our impact and grow our business.

The principles of the circular economy will apply to how we work whether that is through procurement, service design or our wider role in the community.

What we will do to improve the local economy
When considering our financial and buying power, we will place community benefit and local economic impact center-stage in our procurement of supplies and services. We will support the development of social and co-operative enterprise across the North East, where this has a positive impact on our communities and tenants. We are leveraging additional social value from our contracts and frameworks around the creation of local jobs and training opportunities.

Environment
Tenants want a safe, secure, biodiverse, healthy, pollution free place to live in, to reduce waste and recycle more, and opportunities to participate in a low carbon world, whether that be in terms of energy use, transport or food. We will nurture a sustainable environment – through understanding and managing GHA’s impact on the environment, looking for new and sustainable ways to operate our business and supporting our tenants & customers to do the same.

This includes educating our colleagues to minimise the impact they and our services have on the environment and using products and contractors who will minimise the impact that our built assets (existing and new) have on the environment. One outcome of transforming our business by moving to a new Grampian 2.0 operating model will be reducing travel to work time and our carbon footprint.

As part of our CSR commitment we will decarbonise our business and share innovation with our sector. Grampian's electricity supply is already 100% renewable. We will move away from fossil fuel use over the next decade, and work with tenants to become a carbon neutral association. We are also assessing our stock and identifying opportunities in existing and new build homes to install new energy technologies such as solar panels, electrical storage batteries, renewable heating systems and LED lighting.

We support your community with a range of initiatives including energy saving, employment opportunities, enterprise, training and volunteering. As our work goes far beyond bricks and mortar we will continue to develop and expand this support.

What we will do to improve the environment you live in
Create a set of standards for thermal efficiency, local electricity generation and use, water saving and biodiversity for new homes through our Grampian Design Vision.

We will increase biodiversity in green spaces on our estates with better maintenance and management, including planting more trees, food forests and looking after your environment.

We will improve our supply chain on social and environmental targets to cover responsible sourcing, energy and waste.

We will work with tenants, community groups, the councils and third sector to reduce food waste and find alternative uses for surplus and waste food in our communities.

Our planned maintenance programme will design out waste.

We are working with communities, councils and the third sector to create a social enterprise to turn fruit waste into value and investment in the environment. We are creating a energy transition strategy and operating model for existing and new homes that stops our reliance on fossil fuels, whilst keeping homes affordable to run.

Promoting Social Justice and Equality
The Association recognises that despite progress injustice and inequality remains and often unseen.

The Association has a charity sees action to tackle poverty and assist those in need as a core purpose. This is reflected in how it approaches service delivery and design as well as specific services which aim to support those who may be vulnerable or experiencing financial difficulty.

The Association is committed to addressing inequality and ensuring that all members of the community are able to access services and good quality homes. It has adopted a policy which sets out that commitment and an action plan to ensure that is delivered.

The Association is also committed to the eradication of modern slavery and has adopted a statement in support of that and action plan setting out the practical steps that it will take to make this commitment a reality.