Our commitment to….

The Findel commitments are the good things we do to inspire and empower our educational community, customers, colleagues and each other because we care. We are passionate about placing sustainability and wellbeing at the heart of everything we do for future generations.

We have set out ambitious targets to outline the key areas we are working on to make the world a better place by 2025. We have already made a good start, but you can follow our progress on this brave new journey right here.

The Findel Foundation forms part of our ESG commitments to lead positive change for children, their education and their environment in the UK.

Findel’s Sustainable Development Goals

The Sustainable Development Goals or Global Goals are a collection of seventeen interlinked objectives designed to serve as a “shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future”.

The SDGs were formulated in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly and emphasise the interconnected environmental, social, and economic aspects of sustainable development by putting sustainability at their centre.

The SDGs should support strategic growth within businesses by giving them a clear framework through which they can align their understanding of business purpose to. The SDG categories and sub-targets provide a mechanism that allows businesses to track their progress against set objectives and demonstrate measurable impact to an internal and external audience.

Findel and Endless LLP have worked jointly to identify Findel’s 13 priority goals that closely align with Findel’s business activities which are summarised in the infographic displayed and in the table of information. Findel is committed to maintain and strengthen the priorities which align to the company’s overarching ESG strategy.

High Priority	Findel Performance
2. Zero Hunger	Findel supports the Greggs Foundation breakfast clubs, impacting over 165 children in 2023.
4. Quality Education	Findel provides quality educational resources supporting successful learning outcomes. Over 24% of Findel employees volunteered, impacting lives of over 3100 young people.
12. Responsible Consumption & Production	5.8% of SKUs are sustainable core products. Responsible management of waste & recycling. 53% of Tier 1 suppliers in high-risk locations audited.
13. Climate Action	Scopes 1 & 2 CO2 emissions measurement. SBTi validation of emissions reduction targets. ISO 14001 compliant.

Medium Priority	Findel Performance
1. No poverty	Training workshops to support young people from disadvantaged communities in Greater Manchester
3. Good Health & Well- Being	Health-promoting policies and products for employees
5. Gender Equality	33% Female board members, well ahead of industry benchmarks
7. Affordable & Clean Energy	72% renewable energy consumed across all sites in 2022
8. Decent Work & Economic Growth	Support for apprenticeships and robust protection for workers rights in the organisation and supply chain
10. Reduced Inequalities	Strong Diversity and Inclusion policies
15. Life on Land	Tree-planting through partnership with Ecologi and availability of sustainable/FSC certified products
16. Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions	Effective governance and compliance policies and processes for Findel and its supply chain
17. Partnerships for the Goals	Working with DPD, Santander and community organisations to promote and achieve SDGs

Ten things that we’re doing to help make the world a better place by 2025 – and beyond

1. Giving children the right start.

Our commitment
Breakfast clubs not only deliver a benefit through providing a meal at the start of the day. Evidence suggests there is a direct correlation to improving attainment as a result. Club attendance can also enable parents to secure employment.

We will expand our support of the Greggs Breakfast Club Foundation Programme, to support over 500 children per year, focusing on areas of deprivation across all parts of the UK.

We commit to supporting the Greggs Breakfast Club Programme in six areas for the next 2 years, with an ambition to expand this even further in future years.

Supporting those areas that need it most to support the wider levelling-up programme.

Our progress
We currently support one Greggs Breakfast Club and we are in the process of signing up an additional five clubs. To date we have now successfully signed up three schools, including Moston Lane.

Giving children the right start image-min

By the end of 2023…
We will support an additional five Greggs Breakfast Clubs in the UK.

By the end of 2023…
Our waste streams and packaging waste will continue to be independently audited annually.

2. Zero landfill waste.

Our commitment
We continue to ensure none of our waste from our two UK sites, as well as the packaging waste we have direct control over, goes to landfill.

Our progress so far
Our waste streams are audited annually as part of our ISO14001 integrated management system audit. For the packaging waste we produce, this is controlled under “The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations” for which we do an annual submission via Valpak.

3. Embracing equality, diversity and inclusion.

Our commitment:
By 2025, we will have a well-established culture of diversity and inclusion, in which all Findel colleagues feel a strong sense of belonging to our organisation and are able to thrive.

Our progress so far:
We have developed a diversity & inclusion roadmap, which will enable better business outcomes through a more diverse workforce that reflects the communities and customers we serve. As well as training our leaders in inclusive working practices, we have developed an informative guide to raise awareness of inclusion across the business. Our mental health and well-being offer continues to evolve, ensuring that our colleagues feel fully supported.

By the end of 2023…
We will continue to grow a culture of diversity and inclusion to support all our colleagues.

By the end of 2023…
Keep working towards reducing the Scope3 emissions in our UK supply chain.

4. Improving our UK parcel distribution emissions.

Our commitment
By 2025 we will be monitoring and reducing our Scope3 emissions in our supply chain, including wider distribution of our UK parcels on electric only vehicles.

Our progress so far
We are currently partnered with DPD for outbound logistics, who are the leading green parcel carrier for UK deliveries. Over 100,000 parcels were delivered on electric only vehicles in 2022.

5. Supporting education.

Our commitment
By 2025 we will have developed resources and content to help teach sustainability and climate change in schools.

Our progress so far
Our buying and curricular teams have started to explore new resources and engaging content to support teaching about sustainability.

Supporting Sustainable Education image-min

By the end of 2023…
Develop resources and content to help teach sustainability in schools.

Happy,Volunteers,With,Children,Sorting,Donation,Goods,Indoors

By the end of 2023…
We will explore even more ways to support causes which benefit children and their education in the UK.

6. Charitable support.

Our commitment
In November 2022, we formally launched the Findel Foundation to our colleagues. To date, we have supported Derian House Children’s Hospice by organising colleague fundraising activities, provided sponsorships of school sports teams; and donated goods and vouchers to schools close to our main locations in Greater Manchester and Nottingham.

Our progress so far
In November 2022, we formally launched the Findel Foundation to our colleagues. To date, we have supported Derian House Children’s Hospice by organising colleague fundraising activities, provided sponsorships of school sports teams; and donated goods and vouchers to schools close to our main locations in Greater Manchester and Nottingham.

7. Supporting local communities.

Our commitment
So many causes need support within our communities, none more so than education.

By 2028 we will ensure over 30% of our colleagues in permanent locations are engaged in 15 hours or more volunteering to support children and their education. For example, career development, supporting children who are subject to deprivation, or creating engaging spaces to contribute towards the health and wellbeing of children.

Our progress so far
Since launching our volunteering policy in January 2022, 24% of our colleagues have taken part in community volunteering activities, which has positively impacted over 3,100 young persons’ lives.

By the end of 2023…
Keep encouraging our colleagues to participate in community volunteering activities.

By the end of 2023…
Extend our LED lighting conversion across the rest of our distribution centre.

8. Reducing carbon footprint.

Our commitment
Climate change is the biggest threat facing humanity – it is here and now. Our ambition is to reduce the carbon footprint of those directly impacted by our activities – our people and our customers.

By 2030 we will be a carbon-neutral business, using 100% renewable electricity across our entire operations, investing in infrastructure and credible carbon offsetting, in line with limited global warming to 1.5oC

Our progress so far
In 2020 we switched the energy supply for our two UK sites to a renewable supply. In October 2022, the gas supply was also switched to green gas, supporting significant reductions across both our Scope1 and Scope2 emissions and our Science Based Targets initiative pathway. All external lighting at our UK distribution centre has been converted to LED and projects are well underway to extend this across the entire site, in parallel with other energy-saving initiatives.

9. Sustainable sourcing.

Our commitment
By 2028 we will have switched 45% of our Classmates® product range for sustainable alternatives, or sustainably improved them with a focus on removing single-use plastics.

Our progress so far
We have focused on improving the product packaging of our Classmates range in 2022, with 7% of the range already improved.

By the end of 2023…
Work towards switching 45% of our Classmates product range to sustainable alternatives.

By the end of 2023…
Start roll out of suppliers completing the SEDEX SAQ and uploading SMETA audits for high risk factories.

10. Sourcing responsibly.

Our commitment
By 2028 we will ensure that 100% of our tier 1 suppliers in higher risk markets, defined by the Global Slavery Index top 10 and the Corruption Index top 10, have a full ethical audit with credible and recent sector-specific assessments recognised by SEDEX.

Our progress so far
We are now members of SEDEX and we are currently undergoing training on the SEDEX platform, to enable our suppliers to complete SEDEX SAQ and upload SMETA audits for high risk factories.