ORE Catapult is the UK’s leading technology, innovation and research centre for offshore renewable energy and we are committed to making a positive impact on the world.

 

Our Vision is a thriving, Net Zero UK, powered by renewable energy.

 

Our Mission is to enable innovation and accelerate the development of offshore renewable energy, growing businesses and creating jobs throughout the UK.

 

We are taking steps to ensure that our Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives support our Vision and Mission. Whilst we continue to develop our overarching ESG framework to set accompanying goals and KPIs to track progress, our framework is underpinned by existing strategies, policies and procedures which sit within the three pillars of E-S-G, which are summarised below.

 

Environmental (E)

 

1. Prioritising net zero: by 2035 we aspire to be ‘net zero’ for the entire organisation which includes reducing carbon emissions from our owned operations and proactively implementing waste and energy reduction initiatives. We are taking practical action to enhance our performance from procurement of sustainable materials to using renewable power supplies for our current and future operations.
2. Raising awareness: we involve our people through steering groups and committees, promoting a culture to achieve our environmental objectives, with necessary information, instruction and training.
3. Travel and Communication: we consider the environmental effects of our communication methods and activities and endeavour to make significant inroads to reduce the negative impact of our organisation, whilst also encouraging our partners and stakeholders to undertake the same protocols. This includes minimising travelling where practical and otherwise encouraging the use of sustainable methods of transport where travel is considered necessary.
4. Collaboration: ORE Catapult are working with our colleagues across the Catapult Network to share best practice and learnings as we navigate our ESG journey, participating in the recently formed cross-catapult sustainability group.

 

Social (S)

 

1. Diversity and Inclusion: We celebrate diversity and promote equal opportunities for all. Our workforce reflects a variety of backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives. Our Inclusion and Diversity Group (IDG) creates a vibrant calendar of events and initiatives. The IDG recognises the need for continuous growth in this area and is committed to creating a more inclusive environment and pursuing outreach measures for those who are currently under-represented in our organisation, including black and minority ethnic communities, disabled people, women and those from the LGBTQ+ community. We are equally committed to eliminating the gender pay gap.
2. Employee Wellbeing: Our employees are our greatest asset. We aim to provide a safe, inclusive, and supportive work environment. Mental health support, flexible working arrangements, and professional development opportunities are part of our commitment. We are a member of Inclusive Employers, Disability Confident and a certified Great Place to Work. We are a Living Wage employer and hold a Good Practice Award for Investors in Young People.
3. Community Engagement: We actively engage with local communities through STEM projects, volunteering, donations and partnerships. We often deliver site tours to local schools, allowing them to learn about what we do. Our Energy Central STEM hub supports local schools, companies and educational bodies around our Blyth site. In Glasgow our STEM engagement science clubs provide STEM lessons and clubs for primary schools. We are also involved in the Enterprise Advisor Initiative and sponsor a full time STEM Coordinator and support associated programmes at Levenmouth Academy. Our goal is to contribute positively to the areas where we operate.
4. Future Skills: We are prioritising the skills agenda through our future skills strategy where we seek to lead and support skills programmes for our industry both nationally and regionally, with the aim of creating the pipeline of talent required for the expanding clean energy sector.

 

Governance (G)

 

1. Ethical Practices: We uphold the highest ethical standards in all our organisation’s dealings and throughout our procurement processes, supported by a range of policies promoting transparency, accountability, and integrity.
2. Board Oversight: Our Board of Directors include diverse members with varied backgrounds and expertise. The Board has the primary responsibility of overseeing the conduct of ORE Catapult, setting the overarching strategy to be pursued and supervising the Executive Management Team, whilst observing individual obligations under the Companies Act 2006. Subcommittees operate in line with our Articles of Association and governance best practice codes to ensure that individual governance areas have specific and tailored support and oversight.
3. Stakeholder Engagement and Impact: We actively listen to our stakeholders, being employees, customers, funders, and the wider community, to inform our decisions and strategy. We are an impact driven organisation and we have charted over a decade of testing and validation, research, engineering and supply chain growth. Our website details many of our impact stories from across the UK and our industry.
4. Quality: At ORE Catapult, quality is integral in all that we do and fundamental to our organisational goals and objectives. We are wholly committed to providing quality services and products that consistently meet or exceed our customers and other applicable requirements and expectations. All employees have an essential role to play in delivering what our customers require, on time and in full, challenging sources of error and waste and identifying opportunities for improvement, which is overseen and supported by our Quality team which forms part of our SHEQ function. In terms of industry standards, we recognise that the successful control of risk, specifically in the areas of SHEQ, is essential in order to underpin our position as a leading research and development platform for new renewable energy technologies.