Our Corporate Social Responsibility

Charity & Community Work

At Ashcourt, we understand our duty as a large local employer to give back to our immediate community, be that through fund raising activities, donations or other adhoc activities.

Charity fund raising is a key aspect of our commitment to giving back to our local community. We try and spread our fund raising to help as many charities as possible. We also make use of some of the great services some of the charities provide, such as HEY MIND Charity and Andy's Man Club. As well as fund raising, we are also able to provide charities with donations or services or products.

We work with local sports teams to support them through each season, providing them with kit, training equipment and other team payments that come up throughout the season.

Ashcourt & MIND Charity

Care Leavers

Ashcourt intakes care leavers from the council every 2 months giving them work experience leading to potential long term careers across the whole business. Working closely in partnership with Hull City Council means we can give our local young people the very best chance of a new start within our business which is already proving very successful.

We currently have care leavers working across construction, civils and our head office operations and we are constantly looking to expand with them and for their next opportunity. We love to see how the individuals grow with us from having little or no experience to being successful in their trade. Just recently we were asked by the council to feature in a film promoting the benefits of getting into work and incorporating all of the key aspects to get a successful career with us. We are constantly looking to help improve the unemployment rate in our area.

HCC is really appreciative of the support Ashcourt has offered our Care Leaver Initiative. They have taken the time to understand the challenges care leavers face and created opportunities for our young people to get into the industry that they would not ordinarily have had access to. They have gone the extra mile to ensure our young people have been supported to make the most of work experience opportunities, work trials and real jobs which can often be a catalyst for them making the successful transition from care to independence and adulthood.

- Mark Jones MBE, Director of Regeneration and Strategic Lead for Care Leavers, HCC

Promoting Local Skills and Employment

As a local employer, we understand the importance of tackling unemployment and labour market inactivity through the creation of high-quality jobs, skills, and training opportunities.

90% of Ashcourt's workforce live within a 20-mile radius of either our main office in Hull or our Pocklington office in East Riding. We regularly attend the local careers fair, as well as advertising all vacancies across our social media channels and on Indeed.co.uk. We have a strong reciprocal relationship with both Hull College and East Riding College, which involves them sending young people to undertake work experience placements with us for one day a week and our apprentices carrying out part of their studies at these institutions. We have provided placements for 12 weeks to students considering their career paths to give them an insight into how each division is run and what is required in different job roles. We frequently offer these students apprenticeships if they show the dedication and strong attributes needed to complete the job role.

We offer up to five apprenticeships annually to school leavers, graduates and people looking for a career change. We currently have multiple apprentices (civil engineering, accounts, plumbing) and MBA Level 7 apprentices undertaking further training.

Supporting Growth of Responsible Regional Business

Ashcourt recognises the importance of local MSMEs and VCSEs as we are a family-run business with a large workforce. We hold regular fundraising events for charities such as Macmillan Cancer Support and MIND amongst others. We donate equipment and materials to local community projects, including four skips to Charterhouse Community and Residents Association in Hull. We use monthly newsletters, office noticeboards and social media to promote health and wellbeing campaigns across the business.

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Creating Healthier, Safer and more Resilient Communities

Ashcourt ensures the diverse needs and interests of local communities are reflected on all our projects. We gather intelligence to identify vulnerable road users and residents, such as the disabled, visually impaired, those with hearing impairments and the elderly, and proactively implement suitable mitigation measures to ensure their needs are prioritised when designing schemes and while we carry out our works.

Decarbonising and Safeguarding our World

Ashcourt is committed to protecting and enhancing the built and natural environments. We take our environmental responsibilities extremely seriously and always strive to minimise the impact of our operations on the communities in which we work. We aim to become carbon neutral and understand the importance of reducing our carbon footprint, as well as those generated by the activities of our partners, subcontractors, and suppliers.

We adopt a fabric first approach to all our projects, which maximises the performance of the components and materials that make up the building fabric. This improves energy efficiency and reduces carbon emissions and ongoing maintenance costs. Ashcourt Group has delivered many BREEAM schemes, including The Foundry in Leeds (Excellent), Chapel Heights in Durham (Very Good) and The Boulevard in York (Very Good).

All our offices have been powered for the last three years by biomass boilers with energy generated by our main recycling plant.

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