As a business, our purpose underpins the choices we make as an organisation. We are responsible for the communities we recruit from and sell our products in, our employees, suppliers, and the environment. Environmental, Social and Corporate governance (ESG) and the Social Value we provide for our local communities have long been significant aspects of NRS’ operations, contributing to a sustainable future.
NRS launched its ESG strategy to embed sustainability deeper within its operations and create positive change extends across the organisation and beyond. Making sustainable choices helps protect the future for the next generation.
Colleagues are passionate about delivering the very highest levels of customer service to our customers and service users and NRS works hard to support people’s mental and physical wellbeing.
Please take some time to read our ESG Report.
This is further supported by our ESG Policy.
Charity Partners
NRS Healthcare is committed to having a positive impact on local communities and supports several national charities, which align with our work and ESG goals.
Blesma is dedicated to assisting serving and ex-service men and women who have suffered life-changing limb loss or the loss of use of a limb, an eye, or loss of sight. They support these men and women in their communities throughout the UK and overseas. NRS Healthcare has the knowledge, skills and provisions to provide ongoing, multi layered support to this charity, achieved through equipment donations, fundraising, volunteering and joint research projects.
NRS colleagues regularly meet and work with unpaid carers when providing services, providing first-hand insights into the challenges they face. This was a major contributing factor in deciding to be an official partner of Carers Trust, a national charity which supports unpaid carers of all ages across the UK.
NRS works with local carer charities from Carers Trust’s UK-wide network as part of its partnership and supports its provision of services, advice, and social events for unpaid carers in the communities served.
Chosen charity partners are important to NRS and supporting them through fundraising and volunteering projects. All NRS colleagues are given two working days per year, to dedicate to volunteering in their local communities.
You can read our Volunteering Policy.
Social Value in our local communities
NRS works in partnership with customers to ensure we deliver additional social, economic, and environmental value to local communities. This work is carried out in accordance with The Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012, The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 and The Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.
- Jobs: Promoting Skills and Employment: To promote growth and development opportunities for all within a community and ensure they have access to opportunities to develop new skills and gain meaningful employment.
- Growth: Supporting Growth of Responsible Local Businesses: To provide local businesses with the skills to compete and the opportunity to work as part of public sector and big business supply chains.
- Social: Creating Healthier, Safer and More Resilient Communities: To build stronger and deeper relationships with the voluntary and social enterprise sectors whilst continuing to engage and empower citizens.
- Environment: Decarbonising and Safeguarding our World: To ensure the places where people live and work are cleaner and greener, to promote sustainable procurement and secure the long-term future of our planet.
- Innovation: Promoting Social Innovation: To promote new ideas and find innovative solutions.
Carbon Reduction and Net Zero
NRS announced its first Net Zero Carbon Reduction Plan in its 21/22 financial year. This is an important milestone in our sustainability journey and the first big step in achieving net zero.
NRS is committed to ensuring we work alongside alongside other UK organisations to achieve the UK Government’s Net Zero target of at least 100% reduction in the net UK carbon emissions by 2050 (based on 1990 levels) for UK Operations. This is as well as aligning to the NHS’s target of becoming Net Zero by 2045.
NRS is committed to taking action to reducing annual emissions and achieving Net Zero emissions by 31st March 2030 - 20 years earlier than the UK governments target and 15 years earlier than the NHS target. Emissions will be reduced year on year to achieve:
- 90 % reduction in our Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030
- Offsetting our residual Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2028 to become carbon neutral via high quality verified offsets
- 77% overall reduction in all Green House Gas (GHG) emissions across Scopes 1, 2 and 3 by 2030 off setting any residual emissions via high-quality nature based or direct air capture projects and becoming Net Zero.
You can read our Carbon Reduction Report.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), or global ‘goals’, are a collection of 17 interlinked targets designed to be a “blueprint for achieving a better and more sustainable future for all.” The United Nations General Assembly established the SDGs in 2015 with an achievement deadline of 2030.
NRS has chosen SDGs to align to and has incorporated these into our ESG objectives.
Governance for ESG and Social Value
Consistent with the broader national and international Sustainable Development Agenda, NRS Corporate Governance Policies underpin our ESG approach and are fully aligned with the Climate Change Act (2008); the Government’s Nationally Determined Contribution (2020) under the Paris Agreement (2015); and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 underpinned by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). All NRS Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions data has been prepared according to the statutory Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) standards.
As part of NRS’ desire to adopt best practice within ESG, we engaged Sustainable Advantage to score us across 62 ESG areas. Each area is graded 0-4 with an overall score rebased to 100. An ESG action plan has been created following the scoring process and disseminated to the individual departments under the overall management of the ESG Committee.
This process will ensure continued improvement during 2022 and 2023 with progress being tracked year on year.