Slavery and human trafficking statement
As an ethical supplier of sustainable energy, Ecotricity aims to ensure slavery and human trafficking never occurs in our business or in our supply chains
Financial Year 2024-2025
Green Britain Group Limited, owner of the Ecotricity group of companies, is at the forefront of the global green industrial revolution. Our businesses are pioneers in the new green economy and include the first green energy company in the world.
Green Britain Group’s purpose in life is the environment and to promote sustainable living in all its forms. We do not just ‘try’ to reduce our impact; it is what we do – it is in our DNA.
We power more than 160,000 customers across Britain from our growing fleet of wind and sun parks. Green Britain Group Limited is also investing in green gas mills and energy storage facilities, and we have brought green principles to transport, food, sport, telecoms, jewellery and more.
Our mission is to create a greener Britain – working across the three frontiers of energy, transport and food.
Company Structure
Our structure includes numerous ground-breaking Green Britain Group Limited subsidiaries, including amongst others:
Ecotricity Limited, the first energy company of its kind offering green electricity and gas to businesses and domestic customers;
Forest Green Kitchen Limited, our venture manufacturing super-healthy vegan food for consumption in schools;
Britwind Limited, our specialists in small-scale wind power;
The Sky Mining Company Limited, one of the world’s first producers of sustainable diamonds made entirely from the sky;
Forest Green Rovers, the world’s leading sustainable and vegan football club;
GreenCode Sustainability Limited, a green accreditation body providing organisations with a clear pathway to lowering their environmental impact and improving their sustainability credentials;
Ecotalk Limited, a green mobile network powered by renewable energy and using its profits to restore nature by rewilding and replanting;
Carbon Bank Limited, an innovative solution for organisations wanting to offset their residual carbon emissions and/or make a positive impact by reducing atmospheric CO2; and
Green Knight Studios Limited, a creative agency dedicated to building greener brands with creative crusades for a greener Britain.
The majority of our operations, including our manufacturing processes, take place within the UK, with the exception of some specialist services and the sourcing of some raw materials and components – for example, those required to build our generating assets. Some of our group companies – in particular Britwind and The Sky Mining Company – export manufactured products internationally.
We employ around 800 people across the group.
Tackling Modern Slavery in our Supply Chains and Business
We are committed to acting ethically and with integrity in all of our business relationships and to implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls to ensure slavery and human trafficking is not taking place anywhere in our group.
We are an ambitious, expanding business and so we acknowledge that as our areas of activity increase, we need to pay close attention to the risks of slavery and human trafficking.
We are careful about who we work with and who our partners are. We do not work with any organisations directly involved in anything we consider to be unethical, immoral or just plain wrong.
Potential suppliers in high-risk areas or industries are subject to careful assessment and approval before we work with them – including desk-based research into country of origin and their sector of activity, and supplier questionnaires interrogating their policies and practices in respect of modern slavery – in order to identify any potential risk.
Employees are expected to uphold our values as representatives of the group. Our ethos is to reduce the environmental and social impact of our own activities by encouraging and pursuing behavioural change from both inside and outside the group. As a result, we attract employees who share our values and strive to achieve our ethos in their working lives, whilst making sure that the organisations we interact with share our values too.
We monitor our employees’ working hours and have systems in place to flag where colleagues may be working hours or shifts in excess of the average limit set by The Working Time Regulations 1998. We value our people and have policies in place to protect and promote their welfare.
Due Diligence, Existing Policies and Risk Assessments
Slavery and servitude have no place in our supply chain, and we are committed to the continuous improvement of our policy framework to ensure that it never will. We have in place procedures to:
identify, assess and mitigate potential risk areas and red flags in our supply chains and in our dealings with our colleagues and customers;
record identified risks, including flagging key strategic risks for the attention of the Board;
monitor potential risk areas;
protect whistleblowers and enable colleagues to raise grievances;
promote equality;
promote employment rights and colleague safety and welfare; and
record and report concerns about slavery and human trafficking wherever they are identified.
These policies and procedures help us to investigate any concerns safely, promptly and confidentially.
Measuring Effectiveness
We review our modern slavery practices at least annually, when we prepare our Modern Slavery Statement. The review is conducted by a cross-organisational working group. Once we have conducted our latest review, the results are used to inform internal policies and procedures that specifically help to combat and reduce the risk of modern slavery and human trafficking in our business and supply chains.
Training for Colleagues
To ensure a high level of understanding of the risks of modern slavery and human trafficking in our supply chains and our business, we provide training to our colleagues.
All new employees receive training on modern slavery - including guidance on identifying potential victims and policies on making notifications - during their induction.
All employees have easy access to our ‘Modern Slavery Awareness and Victim Identification Guidance’ training documents, which include the group’s ethos and guidance on interacting with trusted organisations.
Additionally, our dedicated People Team are trained to deal with any employee concerns safely, promptly and confidentially.
Subsidiaries of Green Britain Group Limited
The Green Britain Group contains many smaller companies that do not fall within the mandatory reporting obligation of the Modern Slavery Act, but we ensure that each and every one of them is still subject to the same policies and procedures. In this way, we’re endeavouring to ensure that modern slavery and human trafficking does not take place in any of our supply chains or businesses.
Continuing Review
Overall, the steps we’re currently taking, and our continuing review and improvement of supply chain management, will help us to ensure that slavery and trafficking never have a place in the Green Britain Group.
This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes our slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year 2024-2025.
This statement has been approved by the Board of Directors.
You can download a PDF of the signed statement here