Corporate social responsibility at HEFCE

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) for HEFCE means that we take account of the impacts of our activities on the environment, society and the economy.
Our CSR policy sets out our overall aims, key activities and targets in the areas of:‌
    business ethics
    managing our environmental impacts
    procurement‌
    our people
    activity in the community
    working with the sector.
HEFCE corporate social responsibility policy 2011-2015
Download the HEFCE CSR policy 11-15 as PDF (131 KB), as MS Word (73 KB).
Our CSR activities include:

• certification to ISO14001, an international environmental management system standard
• achievement of the Carbon Trust Standard
• publication of an annual CSR report (available to download below)
• regular benchmarking. We have used Universities that Count to benchmark our performance. In 2009-10 we achieved the Gold standard with a score of 90.8 per cent, an improvement on our score of 84.7 per cent and Silver standard in the previous year. In 2010-11 our results compared well with a higher education sector average of 75.3 per cent and a corporate average of 86.1 per cent
• a volunteering policy that enables our staff to flex their hours to undertake volunteer work
• an annual CSR event for staff
• we have adopted a sustainable procurement policy
• our People Strategy, which articulates our overarching principles in relation to people management
• our strategy for sustainable development in the HE sector.

HEFCE corporate social responsibility report 2011-12. Download the HEFCE CSR report 2011-12 as PDF.
HEFCE corporate social responsibility report 2010-11. Download the HEFCE CSR report 2010-11 as PDF.
Reports from earlier years are now available on the national web archive.
HEFCE corporate responsibility index feedback report 2009-10. Download the CSR index feedback 2010 as PDF.
HEFCE corporate responsibility index feedback report 2008-09. Download the CSR index feedback 2009 as PDF.
Further information
For further information about corporate social responsibility at HEFCE, contact Gordon Franks, tel 0117 931 7046, e-mail g.franks@hefce.ac.uk.