We're proud to announce that we won the Global Offshore Wind Awards 2023 in the ED&I category. And these are just a few reasons why:
In 2022, ‘Sustainability. by Kent’, our sustainability strategy was born, and our Inclusion & Belonging initiatives were strengthened and developed.
We appointed Karen Blanc as our VP of Inclusion & Belonging, who created a global Inclusion & Belonging Changemakers Council. Together, we prepared and launched our Inclusion & Belonging policy, strategy, and new starters induction. This council now leads all-staff initiatives, awareness and education campaigns, including biweekly Allies Network emails, quarterly inclusion expert webinars, and an annual Kent Inclusion Week event. At Kent UK, our Inclusion & Belonging Changemaker Council is co-led by Operations and HR leaders.
Some of the outstanding results from the implementation of our I&B strategy are:
- We partnered with the Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers (AFBE) in the UK to join forces in creating an inclusive work environment where everyone can feel valued, respected and included, with a zero-tolerance approach to discrimination or bias.
- We earned the Clear Assured Bronze Standard in Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion in the UK, thanks to key initiatives like ensuring our offices and assessment venues are accessible to all and regularly reviewing our policies for trans-inclusivity. And we are now striving for the Silver Standard.
- We completed our first gender pay gap review and are committed to achieving a zero gender pay gap. Our approach to achieving a zero gender pay gap at Kent is multi-faceted and can be divided into actions and commitments associated with key stages in the employee lifecycle.
- Aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 5, which seeks to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, we recently enhanced our IT policy to include a section on unused equipment. This ensures that all of our unused IT equipment is properly managed by our local teams worldwide and reaches social justice groups in all our locations.
- For International Women’s Day 2023, we supported the UN Women's theme of "DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality” by directing our charitable donations towards Wonder Foundation, an organisation that bridges the digital gender divide by giving women and girls the tools they need to thrive in a digital world.
- To celebrate Pride Month 2023, we made our presence felt at the vibrant London Pride parade. On the 1st of July, we proudly participated in the InterEngineering Pride event’s march. InterEngineering is a charity with the mission "To connect, inform and empower LGBTQ+ engineers and their supports to foster greater inclusion in engineering."
- We launched our Modern Slavery Statement, reinforcing our zero-tolerance policy towards slavery and human trafficking, ensuring they have no place in our business or supply chains.
At Kent, we’re building our business with Inclusion and Belonging at the core. We want to get this right for everyone within our walls and within our community. Click here to learn more: https://bit.ly/4165eNH