Social Purpose and Sustainability at Horizon Platforms
At Horizon Platforms, we're conscious that Sustainability and Social Purpose are of ever-increasing importance to our customers, as they are to us as co-owners of our business.
We proudly demonstrate our commitment to quality and environmental management by retaining our ISO9001 and ISO14001 accreditations. To add to that, we have successfully transitioned from OHSAS 18001 to ISO 45001 in Health and Safety Management, providing the company with the triple crown of ISO accreditations.
Horizon also continues to hold IPAF Rental+ Gold standard and has undergone an EcoVadis sustainability assessment.
We are committed to doing everything we can to enhance our social purpose, become more sustainable and reduce our environmental impact.
Celebrating our people, supporting our environment and helping to give something back.
Our People
As an employee-owned business, we prioritise our co-owners’ welfare. We regularly measure our success in this area using the Best Companies engagement model and have been awarded their two star “outstanding place to work” accreditation in 2022. We proactively work on the feedback from our co-owners to make Horizon an even more fantastic place to work. Last year we focused on addressing work-life balance feedback, and this year we focus on raising diversity awareness across our co-owner team.
Environment
Following our recent EcoVadis assessment, a working party is currently formulating a structured plan to assess and reduce our impact on the environment, including but not limited to carbon emissions, general resource usage and waste production.
Giving Something Back
We continue to strive to enhance our social purpose through supporting our local communities. We have a Charity & Volunteering Policy which encourages each co-owner to volunteer their time and effort to support local initiatives. We also select a partner charity each year, voted for by our co-owners, and proactively organise a number of fundraising activities, with the proceeds donated to our chosen charity.
Sustainability at Horizon Platforms
Sustainability is increasingly important in the powered access industry as we all become more aware of the effect fossil fuels can have on our planet. With this in mind, we proudly provide our clients with electric and hybrid MEWP options, enabling them to reduce their carbon footprint.
Our electric options allow our clients to avoid using fossil fuel completely when operating the machines.
Meanwhile, with our hybrid MEWPs, the machines switch between electric and fuel power where necessary, reducing emissions. This means that you can use fuel power when needed whilst still reducing the carbon footprint of your work. We have also put many measures in place such as sensor-activated lights in our depot to save energy use, using Euro 6 delivery trucks for reduced emissions and route planning technology to keep delivery mileage as low as possible.
Plus, the high quality of our MEWPs means increased battery life and fewer replacement parts for greater sustainability.
"We were delighted our procedures held up so strongly"
Our fleet mix has been focused on low-emissions machines for a number of years, but we wanted to ‘take the temperature’ of where we were as a business and look at our impact more holistically. A strong sense of social purpose and sustainability has always been part of what we do, but we wanted a benchmark from a third party. EcoVadis were an ideal partner for this approach, with a tried and tested framework.
Adrian Bleasdale
Chief Executive Officer
"We're committed to Environmental Management"
Environmental management is standard at Horizon Platforms, and we're committed to third-party auditing through ISO 14001. We believe in sustainable business - after all we only have one planet. Our fleet is primarily electric battery powered machines, and we make sure that as much as possible, we mitigate our impact.
Ben Hirst
Founder
Social Purpose Initiatives at Horizon
Volunteering at Wakefield Hospice
Taking their annual volunteering day as a group, our fabulous Sales team were put to work externally in the gardens and surrounding areas of Wakefield Hospice. Undertaking jobs such as some much-needed weeding around the pathways and car park areas, helping to make outdoor area look neat and tidy for the residents, visitors and staff. The Sales team all thoroughly enjoyed their time at Wakefield Hospice, especially as they could spend the time together as a team giving something back and doing jobs that the Hospice struggled to get done or to get people to do. All said they found it rewarding, enjoyed doing some gardening, and appreciated doing it together as a team. Matt even said he might offer up his services out of working hours in the future ... watch this space!
Time for a Cuppa for Dementia UK
The co-owner team were delighted to take part in the 'Time for a Cuppa' initiative for our chosen charity, Dementia UK. Representatives from all departments were involved in providing cakes, biscuits and other goodies for staff to enjoy, raising a tidy £157.67. All that hard work baking brought about a great result for a great cause.
How are we doing?
Social Purpose Initiatives at Horizon Platforms
Community is deeply important to Horizon Platforms, whether that’s our supportive co-owner community or our wider community, which we like to support with charity initiatives.
Annual Volunteering Day
In addition to supporting Horizon Platforms’ chosen charity each year, co-owners can take a day away from the business to volunteer at a charity close to their heart. For example some of the team helped in the gardens and warehouse of Wakefield Hospice. While some have taken the chance to volunteer at animal sanctuaries. One co-owner took part in the Screwball Rally in aid of Andy’s Man Club!
Donating a Platform to Wakefield Hospice
To further help Wakefield Hospice, we donated a high-quality push around platforms for use in their donations warehouse. We also provided thorough training free of charge to ensure that Wakefield Hospital’s wonderful volunteers could use the platform as safely and effectively as possible.
Scafell Pike Hike for Andy’s Man Club
Our 2023 chosen charity was Andy’s Man Club, a men’s suicide prevention charity. To raise money for this important cause, co-owners and members of the Horizon-led partner network hiked the 3209-foot-tall Scafell Pike, raising £8,860!
Time for a Cuppa for Dementia UK
The co-owner team was delighted to take part in the 'Time for a Cuppa' initiative for Dementia UK, raising a tidy £157.67.
Celebrating Yorkshire Day Together
At Horizon Platforms, we prioritise bonding as a co-owner community, which is why we wanted to celebrate our northern heritage together on Yorkshire Day.
Amongst a delicious meal of pie and peas and a flat cap throwing contest, we also had the magnificent Roger Webster and fellow musicians giving us a sky-high serenade of the iconic Yorkshire ditty “Ilkley Moor Bar Tat” on his cornet whilst elevated on one of our MEWPs.
Social Purpose KPIs
Employee Turnover
19.56% (% of employee turnover in previous 12 months)
Diversity: Gender
42% Female and 58% Male (total co-owner team)
Diversity: Manager Training
17 of our managers have been trained in diversity & inclusion awareness
Contracted Hours of Work
13% part time, 87% full time
Employee Engagement
Best Companies 2-Star accreditation
Social Benefits: Health Plan
100% eligible and 100% membership uptake
Social Benefits: Pension Scheme
100% eligible and 92% membership uptake
Employee Ownership
94% of employees are co-owners of the business
Sickness Absence
1.71% in 2023 (vs national average of 2.6%)
Charity Money Raised
2021 total: £6,566 for Cancer Research UK
Charity Money Raised
2022 total: £5,434.67 for Dementia UK
Charity Money Raised
2023 total: £12,699.25 for Andy's Man Club
Charity Money Raised
2024 total so far: £1,561.07 for Dog's Trust
Environmental KPIs
Total Recycled Waste
We recycled 36.5% of our waste
Vehicle MPG
Our average vehicle mpg was 10.3mpg
Electricity Usage
We used 194,786 kWh of electricity.
Gas Usage
We used 39,039 kWh of gas.
Carbon Intensity by Number of Staff
14.9 Tonnes CO2e per person
Carbon Intensity by Annual Turnover
0.052 Kg CO2e per pound
Carbon Intensity by Floorspace
0.8 Tonnes CO2e per square metre