At MAC Clinical Research, we take our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) very seriously. Our commitment is multifaceted and extends throughout our organisation and beyond; into our supply chain and communities.
We commit to:
- Conducting business in a socially responsible and ethical manner;
- Protecting the environment and the safety of people;
- Supporting human rights; and
- Engaging, learning from, respecting and supporting the communities and cultures with which we work.
Our work in this area is based around the United Nations Sustainable Development goals. To that end, we have an active working group focused on building and monitoring our CSR framework. MAC Clinical Research undergo an annual EcoVadis sustainability assessment which helps shape direction.
In the early days of our CSR group we made the decision to split our efforts into a focus on the Planet and a focus on the People. Both are far reaching. The Planet group covers everything from recycling and waste management through to emission reduction and a cycle to work scheme.
Most recently, we have made a public commitment and set emissions reduction targets through the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), with levels required to meet the goals of the United Nations Paris Agreement. Tackling Climate Change requires ambitious action from businesses. Our science-based target proves our commitment to building a sustainable economy, by doing not what is easy but what is necessary.
The People group is, again, all encompassing – covering initiatives ranging from internal and external Health and Safety to charitable giving, through to community outreach and education schemes. Community is a hugely important part of our work here at MAC, we seek to involve schools, colleges and patient populations in all that we do and compliment that educative work with structured charitable initiatives.
We strongly believe in paying it forward and both areas of the group are supported by a foundation of ethical business practice and fair trading.
A final area of focus is for our supply chain. We are committed to partnering with vendors who also hold CSR at the forefront of their business practices and conduct their business in a sustainable fashion. For that reason, we have introduced CSR assessment and scoring into our vendor qualification processes, along with training on heightening Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI) in the workforce of our suppliers and training for our internal purchasing managers on the importance of sustainable procurement.
Claire Horsgood, MAC’s VP of Business Optimisation, leads MAC’s CSR efforts and speaks proudly of all we are achieving in this area, “It was both an honour and a challenge to be invited to lead MAC’s CSR strategy. With a wealth of education available in this area and bold commitments from the company to undertake an annual EcoVadis sustainability assessment, formulating our plan and approach soon gained traction. We have a hugely passionate and dedicated team working with me on our CSR efforts and with various achievements already in place, there are some very exciting initiatives to look forward to. We already do so much as a company to help the global future and improve health, this is the next step, and it feels really good to be part of it”.
We’re proud to announce that we recently completed a thorough evaluation of our operational sustainability practices with EcoVadis.
As mentioned, EcoVadis is the global standard for rating operational sustainability commitments, practices and performance. We earned a Bronze Medal, which places us in the top 70th percentile in our market. Our overall score was 58/100 – which is 11% above industry average. Our top performing sustainability assessment themes were Ethics and Labour & Human Rights. The rating validates and demonstrates our commitment to sustainability and supports our CSR goals.
This is a great milestone for our company and an important aspect of our ongoing work to be more sustainable.
Find out more on our CSR initiative and commitments here.