Our Approach to ESG
We are committed to delivering long-term sustainable growth which benefits the communities and environment we work in. Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) topics impact on multiple stakeholders including customers, employees, Partners and investors. We recognise the importance of our ESG strategy becoming embedded across the broader business in order to support company performance and culture.
We have made strong progress on the objectives we set out in our FY25 ESG Report and in embedding sustainability into how we operate as a business. Highlights included:
- Met our targets for female and ethnically diverse representation in our management roles which reached 43.97% and 30.50% respectively and reached 50% female representation on the Board for the first time in the Company’s history.
- Deployed over £3.92 million from our UW Hardship Fund - providing a lifeline to both UW and non-UW vulnerable customers as the increased cost of living continues.
- Committed a further £280,625 to tree planting projects to support ecological restoration in the UK with 175,375 trees planted in North Devon, Dartmoor, the Scottish Highlands and the Brecon Beacons by the National Trust, Moor Trees, Gruinard Estate and Stump up for Trees.
Our Material Issues
In FY24 we refreshed our ‘Double Materiality’ assessment, undertaken in FY23, to ensure we continue to identify the key issues that our stakeholders really care about. We combined desktop analysis and internal stakeholder engagement with insight from historic stakeholder engagement and feedback from investors, Partners, customers and employees.
Our Strategy
During FY25, we undertook a comprehensive review and refresh of our ESG strategy and framework. We utilised the results of our double materiality assessment. Our updated ESG strategy puts community and the power of people helping people at the heart of how we deliver impact whilst contributing to our wider business goals and embedding ESG across UW. Our updated ESG framework consists of the following four pillars: UW, Partners, Customers, and Society.
Case Study – Partner Socio-Economic Impact
Our Partners are at the heart of how we do business. We’re proud that such a central part of our route to market is driving clear positive social impacts. Through regular engagement with our Partner network, we often hear stories of how becoming a UW Partner has changed people’s lives for the better, but we had not previously quantified this impact. We developed a robust impact measurement methodology and surveyed our Partners in order to quantify the socio-economic impact of being a UW Partner. The key findings were:
- 86% reported being able to earn more flexibly through UW had improved their quality of life
- 79% said the income they had received from UW had provided them with a greater sense of financial empowerment
- 65% had found that being part of UW had made them feel more comfortable in professional or social settings
- 53% stated that being a UW Partner had allowed them to increase their earnings outside of UW, change jobs, progress their career, or start their own business
For further details on our impact study, please see Page 27 of our FY25 ESG Report.
