Our communities
We’re committed to having a positive impact on the communities we operate in. Whether that’s through supporting the local economy through providing jobs, or by enabling SMEs across the UK to thrive, or by contributing to activities that support the wellbeing and safety of the national community in the UK.
Human Rights
Ensuring an ethical supply chain
Wolseley is committed to maintaining high ethical standards across all our operations. Our Code of Conduct, which extends to our suppliers, includes the principles of the UN Global Compact which incorporates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We have a comprehensive Supplier Integrity Programme to which all our supply chain partners must adhere. This programme covers social, ethical, and environmental considerations.
Our latest modern slavery statement contains more detailed information and is available here. In the last year we have not identified any incidents of modern slavery, human trafficking, or human rights abuses in our supply chain.
We are working with Stronger Together to ensure that we are always alert to the opportunities for modern slavery, forced labour, labour trafficking, and the hidden exploitation of workers. Find out more about Stronger Together.
National support
Beyond the environmental impacts, we also take our responsibility to have a positive impact on our wider, national community very seriously. Most of our activity in 2020 was dedicated to responding to the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic in various ways. Some of the headlines include:
- We helped supply products to build emergency Nightingale Hospitals during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 as well as supplying the NHS across the UK throughout the pandemic
- We continued to pay our suppliers throughout the UK national lockdown, helping to support their businesses and employees at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic
- We stayed open for business during the lockdown to ensure that essential systems that were part of the Covid response remained functional i.e., heating / cooling systems in hospitals
- We provided refrigeration equipment to support the rollout of mass vaccination in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic
Local support
Jobs and improving skills
We have a network of over 560 branches along with four Distribution Centres and two Support Centres across the UK that all employ local people. We’re a Certified Top Employer 2022 and at Wolseley, we’re passionate about developing our people and providing opportunities for talent to shine.
As part of our award winning Wolseley Talent Guild, we have over 45 different types of apprenticeships, or as we refer to them, professional qualifications. We also have a kickstart scheme to support young people to develop new skills and gain meaningful employment.
Supporting the local economy
Our colleagues in branch provide expert advice, training, and support to our customers many of whom are locally based small businesses.
We also support our suppliers offering flexible payment terms, e-invoicing, and payment recording. And we paid all our suppliers as normal during the COVID-19 lockdown because it was the right thing to do.
Reducing our impact on the environment and being a good neighbour
We aim to be a good neighbour and respond quickly to concerns. This includes managing, and reducing, the environmental impacts of our activities in the communities in which we operate, and we seek to prevent pollution through the effective control and management of emissions (to air, water, and land), waste, raw materials, and natural resources, and other local, environmental and community issues.
Read our article on the importance of moving to zero waste to landfill
Wolseley Pipe prioritises responsible packaging
Ensuring quality
Wolseley’s nationwide branch network along with its distribution centres, are ISO9001: 2015 certified.
We commit to:
- Continually review and update our quality system, objectives and targets in accordance with ISO9001:2015 certification requirements
- Ensure the compliance of all products to legal and regulatory standards
- Always strive to deliver the best quality to our customers to ensure 100% customer satisfaction
- Take responsible and appropriate actions where any non-conformities are discovered
- Set and reset Quality objectives to drive continual improvement
- Provide appropriate training to all colleagues, to ensure they are fully conversant with the Quality Policy and have the necessary skill and competence through such training, experience, awareness, product knowledge and education to achieve our objectives
Wolseley’s part in supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.
At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries - developed and developing - in a global partnership. They recognise that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our natural habitats.
Wolseley have considered the SDGs in developing our strategy. Those most relevant for Wolseley are:
#3: Good health and wellbeing
#4: Quality education
#5: Gender equality
#6: Clean water and sanitation
#8: Decent work and economic growth
#9: Industry, innovation, and infrastructure
#10: Reduced inequalities
#11: Sustainable cities and communities
#12: Responsible consumption and production
#13: Climate action
#15: Life on land
Why Wolseley doesn't have an ESG policy
We don’t have a policy specifically about ESG because we don’t believe that our journey in this space should be disconnected and treated as something separate from our day-day work. Our determination to have a positive impact on the environment, on society, on our industry, and on people, should be part of everything we do in Wolseley.
This means that ‘ESG-related’ activities and commitments are incorporated into a number of different policies, such the ones we have around environment, the workplace, product integrity, and ethical supply chain.