Modern Slavery Policy

Overview

At Red Oak Consulting, we recognise that our operations have environmental impacts, primarily
through staff travel and the services we procure from other organisations.

Red Oak’s Environmental Policy aims to demonstrate commitment to managing and minimising these impacts as part of our commitment to environmental sustainability and continual improvement protecting the environment, to the principles of sustainability and to the incorporation of environmental principles into company operations wherever possible.

It is our intention to lead by example through minimising negative environmental impact and
promoting positive impacts and communicating this to our stakeholders.

Our Commitments, implemented through our Environmental Management System (EMS)

• Legal Compliance: We will comply with all applicable environmental legislation and other requirements
  relevant to our operations.
  
  
• Pollution Prevention: We will prevent pollution where possible by reducing waste, conserving resources, and
  promoting more sustainable choices in our daily operations.
  
  
• Continuous Improvement: We will set and review environmental objectives and targets annually to drive continual improvement of our environmental management system and performance.
  
  
• Sustainable Procurement: We will seek to work with suppliers and partners who share our commitment to
  environmental responsibility and consider environmental performance as part of our
  procurement decisions.
  
  
• Responsible Travel: We will minimise the environmental impact of staff travel by encouraging the use of
  remote meetings, promoting low-carbon transport options, and offsetting unavoidable
  emissions where feasible.
  
  
• Resource Efficiency: We will use energy, water, and materials responsibly in our hired office space, and
  promote recycling, waste reduction and actions which reduce energy consumption and
  resource use.
  
  We will question purchases with a view to following the R’s of Reduce, Reuse, Repair and Recycle. 
  
  
• Employee Engagement: We will communicate this policy to all employees and provide appropriate training and
  support to help them contribute to our environmental objectives. We will also look to promote improvement in environmental awareness and performance through clear
  messaging and targets.
  
  
• Office food: We will seek to reduce the footprint of the foods purchased for team meetings, meeting catering and during our office socials.
  
  
• Lead by example: We will share our sustainability journey and progress online to lead by example and incentivise other companies to take action.

Our Requirements of Employees

Specific actions that we require staff to undertake are:

• Office recycling, resource management and waste reduction: Adhere to our office recycling requirements, disposing of waste in the available recycling bins in the kitchen, being careful with water use. For items which cannot be recycled within the office i.e. electronics, printer cartridges, these should be taken to a sustainable location to be recycled.

  Switch off lights, monitors and other electronics when not in use.

  Use natural lighting and ventilation where possible to reduce energy use.

  Avoid printing unless essential; use digital formats for reports and documentation.

• Document and email storage: Only save documents that have a required business function (including the requirement to maintain historic files for legal or regulatory purposes). Review your file areas regularly and delete documents which no longer have a business use or storage requirement.

  Note that our PL0201 Data Retention Policy and Integrated Management Manual supersede this policy and must be adhered to.

  Follow the same principles for email storage and regularly delete old emails.

• Transport: Where it is reasonable, seek to take public transport into the office and to travel to customer sites and conferences.

  Car pooling is also encouraged.

• Procurement: When choosing or purchasing items for the home office or business, seek out more sustainable options.

  Avoid purchasing single use items where possible.

  Avoid unnecessary purchases; reuse or repurpose office materials before ordering new.

• Reduce travel: Choose video conferencing as the default for customer and internal meetings.

  Combine multiple appointments into a single trip to reduce travel frequency.

• Comply with policies and provide improvement ideas: Provide feedback and suggestions for improving the company’s environmental performance.

  Comply with EMS (Environmental Management System) procedures relevant to their role, this ensures we meet our objectives and legal obligations.

  Participate in company sustainability initiatives.

Employee Engagement

We will communicate this policy to all employees and provide appropriate training and support
to help them contribute to company footprint reduction initiatives and more sustainable
practices across resource management.

Implementation and Review

Implementation, communication, reporting and identification of any training need will be the responsibility of the Sustainability Director.

This policy will be communicated to staff via team meetings and sharing of this document.

This policy is also publicly available to interested parties upon request or via our website.

This policy has been approved and authorised by the Partners of Red Oak Consulting LLP, Owen Thomas & Angela Chadwick, July 2025.