Many businesses and organisations have embraced the concept of corporate social repsonsibility.
However, just being an employer and adhering to statutory legislation like the minimum wage, for many, is no longer viewed as being good enough.
But there are a growing number of employers, across the private, public and third sectors, that are going that extra mile, whether through becoming employee-owned or giving generously to good causes.
Here we feature those employers across Wales who are making a significant positive social impact.
This is by no means a definitive list and appears in alphabetical order.
Aber Instruments
Aber Instruments is an employee-owned company supplying thousands of advanced systems for use in the brewing, biotech, bio-renewables and biofuel industries.
It counts some of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical and brewing companies, including GlaxoSmithkline, Novartis, ABInBev, Heineken and SAB Miller, as customers.
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And the Aberystwyth-based firm says its employee-owned model is the best platform for nurturing talent, recognising achievement and elevating standards.
It also highlights its ownership model as helping them lead the way in terms of both product innovation and customer service.
Admiral
As well as constantly rewarding its staff with equity for positive trading performance, Admiral makes a huge contribution to good causes.
Wales' only FTSE 100 business which employs more than 7,000 at offices in Cardiff, Newport and Swansea, recently confirmed donations over the next two years of £400,000, to charities Llamau, Maggie’s Royal Voluntary and Wooden Spoon.
And two of its founders in David Stevens and Henry Engelhardt have given millions to good causes through their respective foundations in the Waterloo Trust and Moondance.
Admiral is also consistently recognised as one of the best places to work for in numerous surveys and initiatives.
Its latest recognition saw it being named the fourth best large employer - employing more than 1,000 ‑ in the 海角视频 Best Workplace Awards from Great Place to Work.
Antur Stiniog
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Ffestiniog-based Antur Stiniog is a not for profit a social business.
It was established in June 2007, having received pledges of support from more than 2000 local residents, each sharing the same vision: “To develop the potential of the outdoor sector in the Ffestiniog area in a sustainable and innovative way for the benefit of the local residents and economy”.
It is realising this vision through a number of projects which vary from enjoyment and training in the sector to developing a series of mountain bike trails in the area.
Arts Factory
Based in Ferndale Arts Factory is an award winning creative design agency.
It's mission is to create "life-changing opportunities" for individuals who feel written-off in our already disadvantaged communities.
Profits are ploughed back into the communities they serve for social benefit.
Volunteers and others on work-placement schemes find vocational and work-readiness training opportunities.
Bluestone National Park Resort
Bluestone’s employee wellness programme was started by its chief executive William McNamara in 2016 with a personal commitment that “every person counts" at the Pembrokeshire tourism business.
The programme focuses on the individual employee experience. It provides opportunities to find out more about personal diet plans, mindfulness sessions and much more.
It is underpinned by employee survey data (including regular pulse surveys) and it regularly receives feedback from its employee consultation group.
This information is collated and puts live information at the fingertips of senior leaders and managers alike.
Staff also have a 30% stake in the business through an employee benefit trust.
Burns Pet Nutrition
Last year Carmarthenshire-based Burns Pet Nutrition announced it was donating £1m to charity to mark 25 years of trading.
The firm donated a quarter of its annual profits to a number of charitable organisations, including Dogs for the Disabled and Forever Hounds Trust, as part of its continued efforts to support community projects and animal charities.
A significant portion of the record donation (£800,000) was invested into the Burns Pet Nutrition Foundation, a charity established in 2007 by Mr Burns to improve the lives of people and pets across the 海角视频 with an emphasis on tackling the effects of social isolation in rural west Wales.
The family-run business, based in Kidwelly, has been producing natural pet food for dogs, cats and rabbits since being set up in 1993 by John Burns.
Today it operates on a global scale with trade deals in place across Hong Kong and Europe. Every year Burns donates huge amounts of its pet food to around 31 rescue centres across the country.
This year, as part of its Charity of the Year scheme, the company will support Yorkshire Cat Rescue and GalwaySPCA, offering the organisations a year’s worth of financial assistance and food amounting to more than £100k in value.
Castell Howell
Castell Howell Foods is Wales’ largest independent food wholesaler – and environmental sustainability is a key priority for the business.
Based in Kidwelly its Green Team initiative, established in 2013, reduced the environmental impact of all operations.
Originally, the business tended towards a focus on waste, but in recent years this commitment has been expanded into administrative, storage and fleet operations.
Contact Assist
Based in Nantgarw Contact Assist provides dedicated helplines, digital services and helpline consultancy services to charity, third sector and public sector organisations.
Established in 2006 as a social business by its chief executive, Patrick Nash, Connect Assist, is committed to providing jobs and growth opportunities for people living in the local area.
And nearly half of its growing team have joined the business following a period of unemployment.
Creating Enterprise
Creating Enterprise is an award winning building and maintenance social business based in north Wales.
Part of Cartrefi Conwy, as well as maintaining properties, they also help local people to find employment, training and volunteering opportunities.
100% of its commercial profits are reinvested into employment initiatives via it employment academy, which creates volunteering, training and employment opportunities for social housing tenants.
Cwmi Da
Dylan Huws, managing director of Caernarfon-based production company Cwmni Da, earlier this year turned the £5m a year firm into an employee owned Ttust.
The move is believed to be a first in the 海角视频 broadcast industry and is being project-managed by the Wales Co-operative Centre. They have drawn up a five-year business plan which will see Mr Huws selling his shares to the trust.
The award-winning company employs 50 staff and a host of freelancers and is based at a production centre in the Goleuad building on Victoria Dock.
Down to Earth
Swansea-based Down to Earth uses traditional and sustainable building methods to offer fully accessible and inclusive commercial construction projects to diverse community groups, particularly from ‘hard to reach’ and disadvantaged backgrounds.
This approach transforms both the participants and the community involved in the project – whilst simultaneously creating stunning, sustainable buildings.
From large scale commercial training spaces to smaller outdoor classrooms, Down to Earth has a strong track record in accessible, accredited training programmes resulting in remarkable buildings.
Dulas
A renewable energy co-operative with around 75 employees, Dulas’ thirty year history has seen the company pioneer innovative uses of solar, hydro and wind renewable energy in the 海角视频 and across the globe.
Its projects have taken them from Austria to Zambia in a bid to provide real solutions to the humanitarian sector, the public and commercial sector.
The Machynlleth business has a strong history of ethical trading. It donates a percentage of profits to charity each year and as a co-operative they actively promote employee wellbeing with a wide range of staff benefits.
Elite Paper Solutions
Elite Paper Solutions, based in Merthyr Tydfil, was launched in 2015 with the aim of creating paid employment or work opportunities for people with disabilities.
The social business currently provides over 500 organisations throughout Wales with the provision of confidential waste destruction, archive storage, and document scanning services.
The organisation is also a stepping stone, allowing people with disabilities and those at a disadvantage to move on and progress within their local community.
Elite also helps organisations reduce their carbon footprint through effective recycling of waste. They recycle 100% of the paper they receive and to date, have recycled more than 800 tonnes of paper.
Fern Partnership
The Fern Partnership was established by Michelle Coburn Hughes in 2015 with an onsite creche overseen by five staff.
Four years later and the organisation has created 55 jobs for local people and revitalised a number of facilities and established across the Rhondda Valley.
What originally started as a childcare venture has diversified substantially and now the charity offers a number of other services in the local community.
Significant achievements overseen by Michelle have included the development of five child care facilities, the asset transfer of a local library and the running of a number of community classes, job clubs, holiday programmes and employment support.
Greenstream Flooring
Established in 2008, Greenstream Flooring CIC (community interest company) was established in response to the number of carpet tiles being wasted and sent to landfill.
They recognised the life left in the tiles and how they could be used when the colour scheme no longer matched in offices.
Reused carpet tiles save carbon and enable the Porth-based business to provide low cost flooring to people and organisations who could otherwise not afford flooring.
They also provide training and volunteering opportunities all supported through the sales of flooring.
Green Willow Funerals
Green Willow Funerals provide a range of funeral services across Cardiff, the Vale of Glamorgan and Newport.
It offers services on behalf of the Cardiff YMCA Trust, a 海角视频 registered charity.
As a not for profit operation, proceeds from its funeral are reinvested back into the communities is serves.
Profits donated to charitable causes from the Cardiff-based business in 2017/18 exceeded £484,000.
Hjinx
Awarding wining Hijinx is a professional theatre company based at Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff.
At the heart of its mission is the training of actors with learning disabilities and/or autism to perform at a professional level.
To support this, it established Hijinx Academies, the only professional performance training in Wales for learning disabled and/or autistic actors.
They promote over 60 actors with a range of impairments including autism, Asperger’s and Down’s syndrome from around Wales.
Indycube
Co-working space provider Indycube was started in Cardiff 2010 by its founder Mark Hooper.
It now operates across the 海角视频 connecting people and places, having developed a network of co-working spaces that supports freelancers and micro-businesses.
Indycube has also pioneered a membership package to support its tenants.
It was also one of the first businesses in Wales to introduce a four day working week for staff, but continuing to pay wages for five - which has boost productivity in the process.
ITEC Training
Staff at one of Wales’ leading training firms now own the business.
The recent transfer of equity to staff at ITEC Training Solutions was supported by Social Business Wales - a project delivered by the Wales Co-operative Centre.
With offices across south Wales, its head office is in Cardiff.
Its founder and co-owner Steve Doyle, said: “Going employee-owned gave us the opportunity to maintain our independence whilst continuing to grow the brand.
“I expect it to improve efficiency and facilitate further growth by being able to attract high calibre staff and offering them what no other training company currently offers.”
The business is planning significant expansion in England.
Merthyr Tydfil Institute for the Blind (MTIB)
TIB currently directly employs over 50 people at its headquarters, who make frames for the furniture industry, timber and card/fibre fabrication and upholstered buttons, as well as the administration of the new Work Choice employment scheme.
MTIB remain the oldest active manufacturers in the Valleys.
Its contract to deliver the Department of Work and Pensions WORKSTEP scheme in south Wales and the south west of England was a major success for the company, moving from servicing approximately 40 clients with disabilities, to having more than 280 on its books.
Principality Building Society
Principality Building Society, which employs more than 1,000, has a strong track record of supporting good causes and communities across Wales.
It was recently ranked the 13th best large employer in the 海角视频 in the Best Workplace Awards from Great Place to Work.
The mutual is rooted in supporting people in its communities, with more than 400 staff now dementia friends through in-house training.
And more than 5,000 young people in communities across Wales have been helped through Principality’s school based activities, including financial education and careers based workshops.
PS Properties and Interiors
Taffs Well P S Properties & Interiors specialise in all aspects of fit-out and refurbishment.
Profits are gifted to Gofal - one of Wales’ leading mental health charities.
Like Gofal, they also promote the positive mental health and wellbeing of their staff and have a passion for making a positive difference to the lives of their clients and communities through the work that they do.
Read Construction
Family-owned and Wrexham-based Read Construction, is commited to create positive social impact extends beyond that expected of an organisation its size.
It runs apprenticeship and staff development programmes, raises money each year for nominated charities (this year it is backing Mind), and facilitates regular staff volunteering days to support local communities
And earlier this year the business, which directly employs 63, became an accredited Living Wage employer this year.
The Urbanist
Urban and landscape design and planning consultancy The Urbanists has recently acquired in a management buyout that sees its staff owning 51% of the business through an employee trust.
The Cardiff-based business employs 14.
Deb Oxley, chief executive of the Employee Ownership Association, said: “We congratulate The Urbanists on its transition to employee ownership.
“By widening ownership of the business to its employees, The Urbanists is securing the future of the business, including its ethos, values and employees, while rooting itself locally for the longer term to the benefit of the communities which it serves.”
Wales Co-operative Centre
Since it was founded in 1982, the Wales Co-operative Centre has been right at the heart of Wales’s vibrant social economy.
As well as supporting the growth of co-operatives and social enterprises, they have recently launched a new consultancy service, Social Business Connect, to help organisations develop their supply chains in order to trade with the social business sector.
Wales and West Housing Association
Wales & West Housing (WWH) was the first IIP (Investor in People)Platinum organisation in Wales, recognised by staff as one of the best not-for-profit employers in Wales.
The housing association gives 400 employees one paid day annually to work on community projects.
Last year it contributed £90m to the Welsh economy and for every £1 spent in 2018, £2.22 was invested back into Wales through our ‘Buy Right’ process, which procures local and ethical products used in building and maintaining our homes.
Every year its board donates £30,000 to charities in Wales and staff also regularly raise money by fundraising and through their pay, the latest being a £35,000 donation to Age Cymru.
It also provided £87,000 in sponsorship to over 50 community organisations in 2018. It also champions apprenticeships.