Environmental & Social Governance Policy

Building Back Better - Our strategy for change

Dancing Squirrel was launched to help our clients better communicate their message & we do this mainly, but not exclusively within the live events, online & hybrid sectors, by embracing the very best of technology & creativity of our team.

But at the same time we want to drive forward a culture of change within our industry & to do this we are focusing on two key areas;

The environmental impact of events & how we will strive for zero impact events

The growth of our team by supporting the individual, we believe that mental health issues & diversity has been overlooked in the creative industries, but we aim to help change this.

During the Covid-19 pandemic these foundations have been developed & are now the cornerstones to our ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance), the following pages are designed to give an overview of our strategy.

Environmental

Dancing Squirrel have always believed that creating environmental sustainable events is not only desirable but essential & with COP26 having finshed the future of our planet a global priority, sustainability has become a key buzzword. Hybrid & virtual events are now ubiquitous in our industry, which has contributed to a far lower carbon footprint but more can be done & & we have targeted ourselves with being able to offer net zero carbon events solutions by 2025. To help drive this target we are focusing our efforts in the following areas;

Renewable fuels

We will pledge to use renewable fuels wherever possible & commit to ensuring our brand new office, studio & workshop facility (opening Spring 2022) will have a fully renewable energy supply.

Greenhouse gas emissions & energy efficiency

We pledge to halve our greenhouse gas emissions by 2025.

Waste management & recycling processes

From limiting internal printing & then only using recycled & non-bleached paper, to the goal of creating a paperless office, each little step helps we are also committed to the separation of all waste, including that created at events.

Ethical sourcing

We commit to the standards set out in the Ethical Trading Initiative Base Code where relevant to our organisation.

Social

How we manage our relationships with employees, suppliers, customer & the community.

Diversity & inclusion

One of our founding principles was to create an inclusive workplace, we will continue to monitor the diversity of our workforce & commit to close the gender, disability & ethnicity pay gaps. We have signed the Mental Health Charter.

Impact on local communities

We understand that events can have the impact on local communities as such we will work towards minimising distribution & if possible we will leave having created a positive impact, locally we will continue to engage & support our local community & charities especially where our skill set can offer real support.

The living wage, working conditions & fairer hours

We are committed to paying all directly employed staff included freelancers, as a minimum, the living wage as defined by the Living Wage Foundation & we commit to not using zero hour contracts & giving at at least two weeks’ notice for shift scheduling & paying for shifts cancelled at less than two weeks’ notice & we will develop clear, fair & transparent policies that support staff wellbeing.

Prompt payment

We are signatories of the government’s Prompt Payment Code, showing a commitment to paying our suppliers promptly.

Commitment to customers

We recognise our commitment to our customers, we will gather & monitor customer feedback.

Governance

How we manage our company

Health & safety

We will strive to continually develop our approach to health & safety to protect the well being of employers, clients & event delegates. We will increase the training offered to all team members to including not only those required by law but those advices as a standard, but also developing strategies for pandemic resilience.

Management & company diversity

We activity encourage diversity at key stages of recruitment, selection & retention of employees? In addition to this we have put in place robust measures to prevent harassment or victimisation in the workplace with all staff having access to an independent third-party support provided by Mentor Services.

Cybersecurity, data protection & privacy

Dancing Squirrel Limited is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office, & will continue to ensure that no client sensitive data is storage

Commitment to paying taxes

We commit to pay our taxes, not engage in tax avoidance, & to be transparent in our relationship with HMRC