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Corps Security Achieves Silver EcoVadis Award

Corps Security Achieves Silver EcoVadis Award

Corps Security has received a silver award from EcoVadis, the independent provider of business sustainability ratings for over 150,000 companies. The rating places it among the top 15% of companies assessed by the organisation in the past year.

EcoVadis provides dynamic scorecards for organisations so procurement teams can monitor the sustainability performance of their organisations and trading partners. It scores organisations against four themes: environment, labour and human rights, sustainable procurement, and ethics. These themes cover the whole life cycle of a business under 21 subgroups, from the impact of product use and end-of-life, employee health and safety, diversity and discrimination, to anti-corruption policies and supplier environmental practices.

Corps gained two points from the previous year’s assessment and scored highly across all areas, achieving advanced weightings in environment, labour, and ethics, and a good weighting for sustainable procurement. To celebrate the improvement, EcoVadis planted a tree on behalf of Corps, through its partner One Tree Planted.

Sharon McLaren, quality and compliance manager at Corps Security, said: “Our improved score is testament to our ongoing commitment to sustainability and responsible business practice. As a social enterprise, our mission is to balance commercial success with positive social and environmental impact, and this recognition from EcoVadis demonstrates that we are on the right path.”

Corps recently demonstrated its wider sustainable impact in its 2025 Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) report. The report detailed its Gold certification from independent sustainability reporting accreditor Neutral Carbon Zone, how 99% of all colleagues earn at or above the Real Living Wage, its ESG Scrutiny Group’s work, and its growing spend with social enterprises. The full ESG report can be read here.

About Corps Security:

The Corps of Commissionaires Management Limited (Corps Security), is a certified social enterprise that was initially created to provide employment for ex-servicemen on return from the Crimean War. Corps Security is the only major social enterprise security provider in the UK and has been providing dedicated security services for over 160 years. Services include security guarding, state-of-the-art monitoring, electronic solutions and security risk management reviews incorporating specialised consultancy services to deliver effective asset protection to organisations.

Corps Security is a Living Wage Recognised Service Provider and Corps Security’s CEO Mike Bullock is a member of the Living Wage Foundation’s Recognised Service Provider Leadership Group.

Corps Security supports military charities in particular Combat Stress, the UK’s leading charity for veterans’ mental health, The Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association (SSAFA), the UK’s oldest national tri-service military charity and BLESSMA, the limbless veterans charity. In 2021, Corps was awarded Gold status in the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme for outstanding support towards the Armed Forces community.

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Reflecting on a year of ESG progress at Corps Security

Reflecting On A Year Of ESG Progress At Corps Security

As we publish our latest Environment, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) report, it feels like the right moment to pause and reflect on what has been a pivotal year for Corps Security.

With clear targets set and robust data collection systems in place, 2024 became the year we could truly measure our progress and see the tangible results of our ESG commitments. The outcomes have reinforced our belief that the more we do, the more we discover – and the more there is to achieve.

Gold-standard reporting and environmental progress

Perhaps the headline achievement this year has been earning Gold certification from Neutral Carbon Zone – a recognition that reflects the comprehensive nature of our emissions reporting across all scopes.

The numbers themselves are promising. We’ve achieved a 7.15% reduction in total emissions compared to our 2023 baseline, with particularly strong progress in Scope 1 emissions (down 14.44%) and Scope 2 emissions (down 14.90%).

Key to this has been the transformation of our fleet. 15 out of 42 company vehicles are now electric or hybrid, up from just four in 2023. Our Glasgow and Bristol offices now run on green energy tariffs, and we’ve installed EV charging points at our London and Glasgow locations.

One of our most significant discoveries came from a survey to help us understand our commuting and homeworking footprint, which accounts for nearly half of our total emissions. Through 2024, thanks in part to this increased understanding, these emissions fell by 18.70%, with initiatives like expanding our Cycle to Work scheme limit to £1,000 proving popular.

Building stronger communities

On the social front, we’ve deepened our community-based commitments in ways that go beyond our already strong veteran support heritage.

Nearly 99% of our colleagues now earn at or above the Real Living Wage, and every single bid we submit meets this standard as it speaks to our belief that good security starts with fairly paid, valued people.

Our Corps Together initiative has evolved from aspiration to embedded practice. For the first time, we published a comprehensive ED&I Survey and Action Plan Report, giving us new insight into our workforce. The findings revealed both our strengths and our challenges – from our diverse ethnic representation (44% of respondents from minority ethnic backgrounds) to areas where we need to do better, particularly around gender representation in our male-dominated industry.

Some of our most meaningful progress has come through targeted support networks. Head Room, our mental health support group specifically for men in security, addresses the unique challenges faced by colleagues in our industry. Meanwhile, our Disability Buddy System pairs colleagues with lived experience of disabilities with new starters.

Meanwhile, participation in our diversity networks has grown by 50% over the past year, with particularly strong growth in our Women’s and Pride networks.

Putting our money where our values are through ethical procurement

As a Social Enterprise, we understand that every purchasing decision is an opportunity to create a positive impact.

This year, our spend with social enterprises grew by 88%. Behind that statistic are real partnerships that align with our values. For example, our 675% increase in spend with Brightkidz means our new starter welcome packs now feature sustainable, high-quality educational resources focused on workplace safety and wellbeing. Our 51% increase with Clean for Good, meanwhile, supports an ethical office cleaning company that, like us, pays the Real Living Wage.

Our newly established Supplier Diversity Programme is already showing results, with over 55% of our suppliers owned by individuals from underrepresented groups. It’s early days, but it shows how systematic approaches to ethical procurement can drive meaningful change.

Governance that drives real operational change

The evolution of our ESG Scrutiny Group has been transformative. Once an oversight body, it is now a central driver of operational change, influencing everything from travel policies to procurement practices.

This integration extends beyond environmental measures into practical safety governance. Our Health & Safety Advocates programme now reflects broader ESG thinking, with updated company vehicle policies, enhanced stress management protocols, and improved accident reporting procedures that align with our environmental and social commitments.

Looking ahead

As we reflect on 2025, we’re proud of the progress we’ve made, but we’re also realistic about the journey ahead. The security industry continues to face challenges around gender representation, with women making up just 15.4% of our workforce. We’re committed to addressing these systemic issues by working collaboratively with industry partners, clients and colleagues.

Our ambitions for 2025-2026 are bold. We seek to host our first ED&I conference, develop science-based targets for emissions reduction and launch a comprehensive veteran engagement programme.

Why does this matter?

At its heart, our ESG journey is about ensuring that our 166-year heritage of service remains relevant and impactful in a rapidly changing world. We’re proving that a company with deep historical roots can be at the forefront of modern sustainability practices.

The feedback from our colleagues tells us we’re on the right track. In our latest Your View Matters survey, 73% of colleagues feel proud to work for Corps and would recommend us as a good place to work – up from 70% the previous year. Understanding of our Social Enterprise significance increased by 12%, and perception that we actively promote ED&I grew by 11%.

As we look towards the future, we don’t want to simply maintain our position as the UK’s oldest security company. We’re building its most sustainable future, and that’s something worth celebrating.

Download our full report here.

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ESG Report
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Corps Security ESG Report

Corps Security’s most recent Environment, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) report is now published. Our ESG report is a data-driven document to show important changes made, and we are proud to share our progress across 2023. In this blog post, we’ll cover some of the main highlights from the report.

Environment

Corps is committed to driving positive environmental change through transparency and impactful sustainability practices. In 2023, we achieved silver status from EcoVadis. This places us in the top 15% of organisations committed to the environment, sustainable procurement ethics, labour, and human rights.

We decarbonised our car fleets by replacing some of our existing un-eco-friendly cars with hybrid or electric cars. Our offices in London and Glasgow now have charging points installed. Due to the complexities of infrastructure and charging points across the UK slowing progress, we chose to focus on reducing even more carbon by tackling our Scope 3 emissions.

Supporting the previous government’s Cycle to Work scheme has been a priority in achieving sustainable commuting. We increased our commitment to £1,000 per employee, meaning Corps employees overall saved £31,868.48.

We have been going as paperless as possible. After switching to e-files in April 2023, we focused on paperless new starter paperwork and vetting files. This saved around 48,000 sheets of paper: equalling five trees, combined with the 200,000 sheets saved from Electronic Daily Occurrence Books. Corps has also made use of online dashboards for new starters, rather than distributing printed materials. Where not possible, we have used Avena Group to provide zero-landfill document recycling services. We also work with Avena to process discarded garments, saving around 26.7Kg in carbon emissions.

Social

In the spirit of the values created by Captain Sir Edward Walter, who founded the Corps of Commissionaires in 1859, we aim to aid the brave veterans who return to civilian life.

We invite customers to allocate 1% of revenue from new contracts to Combat Stress, a mental health support service for veterans. This amounts to more than £30,000 per year. Our fundraising activities for Combat Stress, alongside the Army Benevolent Fund and SSAFA (Soldiers’, Sailors’ & Airmen’s Families Association), raised over £26,000. We have also partnered with Change Please, a social enterprise focused on ending homelessness, and donated old uniforms to Suited & Booted, a charity that helps vulnerable, unemployed and low-income men get into employment by providing suitable interview clothing, interview advice and mentoring.

To boost diversity and support for our disabled colleagues, we partnered with Pre-image Learning and Action (PILAA) and took part in the Disability Confident Scheme.

Corps Security continues to be a Real Living Wage recognised service provider. During the 2023/24 financial year, 99.09% of colleagues were paid the Living Wage Foundation rates appropriate to their area, with a higher rate in London. Our CEO Mike Bullock is also the co-chair of the leadership group for the Living Wage Foundation.

In 2023, we listed new benefits for our colleagues:

  • Enhanced (occupational) maternity and paternity pay.
  • Improved parental bereavement and early pregnancy loss pay.
  • An extended volunteering policy.
  • The Corps Advantage Pension Sacrifice scheme, which helps colleagues to save money.
  • A death in service policy for all colleagues.
  • Expanded discounts and perks through Corps Connect, which enables colleagues to save money on various products.

Our ESG report also covers how we have contributed £36,000 into the colleague welfare fund for emergency situations, as well as refining our policies in health and safety and modern slavery.

At Corps Security, we believe that everyone matters. We aim to provide a safe and welcoming workplace through Corps Together. Last year, we expanded our guardian network even further to encompass seven new colleague groups focused on supporting age diversity, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnicities, (dis)ability, faith, the LGBTQIA+ community, parents & carers and the Women’s Network.

We’re proud that Corps Together won two awards; the Security and Fire Diversity & Inclusion Champion award, as well as the ED&I Initiative of the Year award at the Security Institute Awards. Our wellbeing work was recognised by the British Safety Council and we were shortlisted for their Wellbeing Initiative award.

Governance

As we don’t pay shareholders, we can commit all profits to re-investment and donations to our nominated charities. We do this with the Audit Committee and Renumeration Committee, working collaboratively to improve internal processes and present transparent procedures.

In 2023, we formed the ESG Scrutiny Group to help achieve performance objectives across the organisation. They are committed to uphold the five Nolan principles of good governance: integrity, objectivity, accountability, honesty, and transparency. They support work on sustainability, work culture, diversity, reporting methods, and supporting the surrounding community.

We work with stakeholders to collaborate with partners who share our goals. This includes our customers, and making sure that they pay the Real Living Wage as we do.

What 2024 holds

There’s much to be proud of in our 2023 ESG report and we will continue be progressive in 2024, doing all we can for people and planet.

Here’s what we aim to do by the next ESG report:

  • Change the way we process and document travel activity; to create better visibility and accountability by tracking flights, taxis, and trains.
  • Achieve Gold in an EcoVadis rating.
  • Reach Level 3 in the Disability Confident scheme by 2025
  • From April 2024, grant staff access to Digital GP to access quicker healthcare.

Download our full report here.

 

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Our Ongoing Journey To Net Zero

Our Ongoing Journey To Net Zero

The journey to Net Zero is a challenge most of us face. At Corps Security, we take our responsibilities to the environment very seriously. But as many will understand, it is an ongoing challenge and requires a dedicated team to review many business areas.

We equally take the reporting of our goals, achievements, and areas of improvement very seriously. Our annual ESG report is a testament to our commitment to be open and transparent with our colleagues, customers, suppliers, and the wider community we serve.

This year has seen significant investment to understand our position on the road to Net Zero truly, and we wanted to provide an update on where we are now and what we have done to ensure we remain on target to be a Net Zero Emissions business by 2050.

Communicating with our colleagues

Our annual conference took place in July 2023. It is customary for us to discuss our achievements in ESG and our progress on the journey to Net Zero. This year, we took that communication further and used the conference to educate and enhance our colleagues’ understanding of the jargon they often see communicated. We explained what Carbon Neutral means as an alternative phrase to Net Zero. We explained the scopes of our plans in easy-to-understand terms to ensure our colleagues could grasp the magnitude of the challenge we face, including what it means to the future of our business and industry, whilst communicating our actions and further commitments to set ‘science-based’ targets as we advance.

Corps are delighted to say that our Annual Conference in Oxford was a certified Carbon Neutral Event. Our quality and compliance team engaged with industry specialists at Neutral Carbon Zone (NCZ) to offset the event’s emissions, attended by hundreds of colleagues from across the country.

It was an engaging session with the core of Corps Security’s critical operational staff, senior management, regional managers, the board, and trustees.

Accuracy of Reporting

One of the key elements we were keen to address in 2023 is the accuracy of our reporting, not just with the ESG report for public consumption but our internal reporting for the business and individual sites- to give us a much deeper understanding of our emissions and how to control them.

Corps Security retains its ongoing collaborative partnership with Carbon Footprint Limited. Corps remains committed to reducing our emissions and fully engages with the recommendations provided to us to achieve our goals. In addition, we continuously review our Carbon Offsetting Programme and, in the last twelve months, have begun to explore further opportunities in biodiversity as an alternative – or in addition to – tree planting and replenishment schemes.

Working alongside Carbon Footprint, we continue to update our annual Carbon Reduction Plan and make our Carbon Footprint Appraisal available each year for everyone to review.

Corps’ latest initiatives

Whilst we remain on target for our carbon-neutral goals, we are not complacent in our actions or our education on how best to get there efficiently, effectively, and openly. We therefore wanted to share some of our latest initiatives to help us achieve our aims. They may surprise you, impress you or, better still, inspire you.

  • Hybrid/Electric Vehicles and Charging: The company has replaced many of our fleet with hybrid or electric vehicles. Sadly, the charging infrastructure in the UK restricts our ability to replace all our vehicles due to the remote locations of many of our customers’ sites. To reduce the impact of the poor infrastructure, we have installed four EV charging points at the Corps Monitoring Office and Alarm Receiving Centre in Glasgow and two at our London head office in Farringdon. Doing so means we can charge six vehicles at any one time. Our regional offices are leased buildings, so we have begun discussing the possibility of investing and installing points with the landlords of these properties.
  • Car Allowance: Corps have increased the car allowance for those choosing hybrid or electric vehicles to incentivise take up. There is also consideration of a salary sacrifice scheme, to further encourage engagement from our colleagues in this area.
  • Neutral Carbon Zone (NCZ): Following our engagement with CNZ for our annual conference, we are delighted to announce we will be signing a contract this month (September 2023) with them to utilise their unique carbon management and certification platform to track our journey to Net Zero. Our partnership will provide us with all the tools we need to monitor, report, and reduce the emissions of our entire value chain – efficiently and effectively.
  • Uniforms: Corps Security is in talks with a uniform recycling company regarding old uniform supplies. The organisation has a 3-tier system whereby Tier 1 reuses the material for future garments; Tier 2 recycles the materials into different products that can be used again, or Tier 3 the uniform is zero landfill, so if the material is non-recyclable, it will be made into chips and melted or used to generate energy.
    • Similarly, our London Regional Team recently engaged with Suited and Booted, a charity providing clothing and accessories for the less fortunate for job interviews. Not only did the London team provide an array of blazers, trousers, and other valuable items, but they also offered to provide our electric security vehicle to collect donations from across the capital and deliver them to the charity HQ when business operations allow.
  • Stationery: Corps has signed a new, company-wide contract with a leading ethical stationery supplier and fellow Social Enterprise, Ethstat, responsible for all office supplies to all locations across the UK. With every purchase, we can be confident that we are supporting dementia care and ending homelessness with every purchase.

Collaborative Supply Chain

At Corps, we pride ourselves on our relationships with our customers. By collaborating around carbon neutrality with them, we can share best practices, set joint goals, and engage in various partnership relationships to ensure the supply chain works together to better our planet and protect its people.

Get in touch

If you would like to know more about the initiatives we have in place, are a customer and would like to engage with us to help you achieve your goals, or if you have any questions about the work that we have done, please get in touch here.

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Our Social Values

We protect more than you think

There’s a lot more to Corps Security than you might expect. Yes, we are experts in security and we have over 166 years of experience. But we’re also experts in how to put sustainability and diversity at the heart of everything we do.

We are a Social Enterprise

>> ESG Report

>> Carbon Reduction Plan

>> Equal Employment Opportunities Policy

>> EDI Survey 24-25 Action Plan Report

More Information

Accreditations

Corps Security Accreditations

About Corps Security

Built on over 166 years of experience and a clear social mission, we provide specialist security services tailored to ensure the safety of people and property.
Our values are at the heart of everything we do, through the people we work with, the people we employ, the people we help and the planet we protect. Together we protect the things that matter.

Registered Office at 85 Cowcross Street, London EC1M 6PF.  Registered in England No. 03473589

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