At FRC Group we create social value and have a positive impact in many ways, outlined here are just some of the ways we do this.

Our stringent and thorough social value measurement and management means we can numerically demonstrate the overall impact our service has had on the lives of individuals. Find out more here.

 

We also measure our positive and negative impact and how we create social value and aim to End Furniture Poverty through a series of annual social value reports, and have won numerous national awards for our impact and rigorous reporting standards. Download our reports here.

Unless we measure and manage the level of impact and social value we are creating we would not be able to identify areas for ongoing improvement which allows us to help even more people.


If you’d like to know more or have any recommendations relating to our approach to measuring our impact and social value please don’t hesitate to Contact Us

Our mission to End Furniture Poverty

  • We highlight the reality of living in ‘furniture poverty’
  • We lobby and campaign for the eradication of ‘furniture poverty’
  • We develop and run successful social businesses that tackle furniture poverty
  • We donate furniture free of charge to families living in furniture poverty
  • We have a referral scheme through which we give free furniture to people in crisis situations
  • On each site we have a referral scheme where preloved white goods are PAT tested and donated to people in need
  • We sell good quality, clean furniture at very low cost to people in need
  • We assist charities and schools with a requirement for furniture
  • We donate and sell IT equipment to schools, charities and people in need

Social Impact

  • We train and develop people out of poverty and into sustainable, well paid jobs and careers through our Driving Change and Apprenticeship Programmes
  • We use our core skills to develop and run successful commercial businesses, using the profits to create social value across FRC Group
  • We offer opportunities to people seeking voluntary work and create meaningful work placements
  • We work with local agencies to ensure access to opportunities to long term unemployed people, NEETS, ex-offenders and people with disabilities
  • We offer career mentoring and support local school and colleges in this
  • We are an accredited Living Wage Foundation employer and always pay at least the Living Wage
  • Where possible we recruit people locally
  • We treat staff and organisations that we work with, fairly and with respect
  • We value and encourage work/life balance and will support flexible working practices wherever possible for our staff
  • We train our staff on best practice across many areas including sustainability, diversity and modern slavery
  • We seek to improve staff wellbeing and recognise the importance of good mental health
  • We have an Employee Assistance Line with trained counsellors for staff to speak to 24 hours a day
  • We measure and report on our social value impact annually

Economic Impact

  • We support ethical investment and management of our funds
  • We work with our suppliers and other partners to develop and deliver sustainable practices, products and services
  • We seek to procure fair trade and environmentally friendly, sustainable products
  • We prioritise early payment to small local suppliers and always aim to pay all suppliers on time
  • Where possible we spend with other voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) within our supply chain
  • Where possible we spend in the ‘local’ supply chain
  • We offer business advice and support to other VCSEs
  • Through our staff volunteer programme, we donate voluntary hours to support VCSEs
  • We support equal opportunities and fair access in our procurement practices including the way we commission

Environmental Impact

  • We make best use of resources and reduce, re-use and recycle our waste
  • We develop new solutions to maximise the level of furniture reuse we achieve
  • We focus on movement of waste up the waste hierarchy through increasing our furniture reuse
  • We continuously seek to improve our own internal waste management practices
  • We seek to reduce our consumption of energy and water and use renewable energy resources where possible
  • We operate efficiently in our working processes and practices to avoid duplication, waste and unnecessary expense
  • We seek to use the most efficient and effective channels for communicating internally and externally
  • All company cars are hybrid
  • We operate a cycle to work scheme and encourage car sharing (when safe to do so)
  • We use technologies such as Microsoft 365 and Teams to minimise the need for travel
  • We plan driver routes effectively and carry out tyre pressure checks weekly to reduce the impact of fuel wastage
  • All vehicles have EURO 6 engines which are more fuel efficient and we monitor vehicle carbon efficiency
  • We continuously upskill our staff on issues to minimise our environmental impact
  • We carry out an annual review and carbon assessment of buildings
  • We have LED Bulbs across all premises to minimise the energy used on lighting
  • We have Solar panels installed on our head office building roof to save carbon
  • Our buildings are insulated and have self-closing doors to minimise heating wastage
  • We educate staff on issues such as turning off lights, closing doors, turning off electrical items when not in use and operate a paper free office as much as possible
  • Through staff education programmes we encourage single use water bottles and Tupperware lunch boxes to further minimise difficult to recycle plastic waste being produced
  • We utilise the services of our local milkman for deliveries in an electric milk float of milk in glass bottles, which are reused
  • We purchase refillable toner cartridges, further reducing plastic waste and where possible we use rechargeable batteries, which also reduces wastage of single use batteries
  • Our sustainable waste management solution based on the premise of reducing, reusing and recycling is enhanced through our own waste collection service.
  • We have great onward relationships to ensure any waste we cannot reuse is recycled where possible and where not, a zero waste to landfill promise is made.
  • Our goal for any residual waste which cannot be recycled is to process this as a refuse derived fuel facility to generate green energy
  • We measure and report on our carbon footprint for our activities with a view to minimising our footprint over time