Support Staffordshire has three staff working groups: Climate Emergency, Anti-racism, and Thrive at Work. We had an aim to achieve independent accreditation for all of our working groups to ensure we have frameworks to work towards, and that our work to improve the culture and sustainability of our organisation is independently quality assured. With the awarding of the One Planet Standard, we have now achieved this aim.

We met with our assessor for a pre-assessment discussion and used the Self-Assessment Tool to assess our work against the Bronze Award criteria. Once this was complete, two members of staff met with our assessor again to clarify any final points: our Climate Action Manager, who manages the day-to-day sustainability work, and a member of our Executive team.

Working towards the One Planet Standard accreditation has helped us to quantify and celebrate the achievements Support Staffordshire has made towards sustainability in recent years. Achieving an externally accredited award has helped us to demonstrate our commitment to sustainability within our everyday work, strengthening our position as a leader in this field locally.

Our Climate Action Plan was due for review at the time of the assessment, and the Areas of Continuous Improvement in the assessment report helped to guide and prioritise our actions for the next few years. It was also helpful to receive confirmation of our Areas of Strength, which was useful information to relay to our Board of Trustees and gave them confidence that the investment of resources into this work has proven worthwhile.

I would recommend Assessment Services as an assessment body.