Trust Policies

Green Economics Institute Trust Policies

GEI Trust policies

Learning organisation policy

We are a learning organisation and the directors go on many courses relevant to the work in order to try to ensure compliance plus.

We require all our team members to regularly attend third party training from our government training provider ‘Involve’ on a range of relevant issues and require all trustees to go on a course for the rules and responsibilities of being a trustees. Most recently this has included- GDPR data handling updates, mental health courses, food hygiene examinations, being a trustee and its responsibilities compulsory for all trustees, taxation and other courses for our accountants, managing teams, managing volunteers, being a trust treasurer and charity budgeting, women’s budgeting,  data handling and confidentiality, risk management and domestic abuse.

We also attend regular training and educational courses at the Green European Foundation to learn the latest techniques and technology in education as well as often attending courses from the Higher Education Academy on the latest teaching and education techniques.

Risk Management and Risk Assessment and Risk Policies (Required by law)

We have a risk management strategy which pre-identifies certain areas of particular risk associated with our activities and which is constantly updated.

Any risks are discussed between the CEO and Chair of Trustees at our meetings every week and also with the two Directors of GEI by telephone during every week. Additional particular risks are flagged up to other Executive Directors at special meetings and by email.

Investment Policy

We have a policy of no borrowing and no debt at all ever, we have never been overdrawn.

We do not invest the money of the Trust in anything except our work.

We check where sponsor money or fees come from and if we feel it is completely non commensurate with our values we politely thank the person for the offer but decline it- This does happen regularly but we believe it is the correct procedure whilst being mindful of the Charitable aim of ensuring there is enough money in the charity to carry out its purposes.

Vulnerable Beneficiaries

We have a policy of not having unaccompanied people under 18.

We have several senior team members who are police checked.

If younger people choose to attend our conferences we insist that they have a chaperone and we speak to their guardian to discuss arrangements before accepting their booking.

We do try to involve and help more vulnerable at all levels including director board and trustees. If they are young people and it is appropriate we have a policy of speaking to their parents first to discuss requirements and to involve them fully at all times in the proposed care and activities.

We try to have medically qualified personnel at all our major events and they actively participate in ensuring high standards of physical health and safety and we also have a qualified Occupational health specialist and an alternative medical health practitioner University trained to the highest level and also someone trained and qualified as a Medic – with experience of registrar level Accident and Emergency.

We also have a policy of attending regular training in vulnerability and safeguarding run by the local council. One of our Directors has training in the management of disability and special needs in children and adults.

Conflict of Interest

Every Monday our CEO and Chair of Trustees meet to discuss any risks, compliance issues and conflict of interest issues arising. All trustees are asked to sign to confirm there are no conflicts of interests and declare on an on-going basis any chance of circumstances and at the AGM.

We also ask our delegates to the United Nations to sign to advise that they have no conflict of interest-but we manage any potential conflict of interest proactively before issues arise in nearly all cases pre-empting any issues.

Volunteer Management

We attend training courses in order to understand the implications and best practise for volunteer management and our CEO and Chair of Trustees meets every Monday to discuss the best way to offer volunteer management on an on-going basis.

Complaints Handling

Our system of complaints handling involves the Chair of Trustees being advised and the issue being addressed at our weekly Monday compliance meetings with the CEO. We aim to settle any matters arising quickly and without fuss.

We also have a range of professionally qualified advisors who provide specialist advise if any aspect of the law is involved. In addition, we take advice from our local government charity advisors as soon as any questions arise so that we are fully compliant and familiar with the law and understand our duties and responsibilities. These are discussed every single week of the year so that we are totally compliant at all times. We make exceptional efforts to remain so and adapt to any changing circumstances. We also attend and provide training courses ourselves now on our understanding of compliance laws as we have done so much of it.

Paying Staff

We have a policy of written agreement from the Institute before any payment can be considered, We adhere to any legal requirements fully. We have a policy that everyone gets the same hourly rate no matter who and what they are doing. However, the Trust does not employ anyone and has not done so to date. We do not expect to as this is too risky for a small Trust without the complete funds to support a worker. We do from time to time pay for specific services as required by the Trust if they are not available from the Trustees at the time.

Environmental policies

With regard to climate change- we try to travel by overland means whenever possible taking the train rather than flying when travelling abroad. We support and campaign for more and safer walking and cycling routes and rail where appropriate. We also advocate for local services to be included in all building work so that car transport can be cut down to a minimum and we also support evolution to renewables in energy, heating, transport and housing etc.  We are extremely active in promoting climate change prevention policies nationally and internationally as well as a sustainable economy.

Our CEO Director took the no flight pledge many years ago and has not flown for several years preferring the train – including travel round Europe and campaigns for more and better trains and ticketing.

We check our carbon usage regularly ideally once a month. https://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx and or:

https://footprint.wwf.org.uk

If our staff have to drive they are encouraged to use smaller cars to transport our books and exhibition stands around if necessary. We are at present preparing to change our fleet to electric cars in 2021 and working hard with electric car suppliers to this end.

We use a lot of skype, phone and have just started to use zoom to avoid unnecessary travel.

We champion recycling of almost everything. We also plant wildlife areas and one of our directors is trained by Oxford University in environmental management and by an agricultural college in wildlife planting and we maximize wildlife benefits.

We are a learning organisation and we try to keep on top of the latest knowledge science and requirements.

We advise others on methodological issues and take a lead in environmental policy formulation and our ideas are popular with governments around the world.

We advise banning pesticides and glyphosate on our grounds and gardens.

Anti-bullying policies

We have a zero tolerance of bullying and we ask anyone found guilty of that to leave. We have also attended anti bullying courses which provide a range of techniques for people to avoid bullying happening whenever possible and how to tackle it when it does occur and how to avoid falling into the trap.

Diversity policy and equal opportunities

We proactively manage diversity doing metrics for our journals and events and attempt at all times to have gender balance on our trust board, our members, our journal articles, our workers our administration, our trustees and our organisational management and we are known for our innovation and success in this area and advise other organisations how to follow our achievements.

We proactively seek out equal opportunities and campaign against the gender pay gap and our work and books in this area are held up as a beacon and we have won awards globally for our work on this. We also advocate gender budgeting etc.

Anti-slavery policies and supply chain policies

Our anti-slavery policy is on our website. We proactively ask where we think there may be slavery in the supply chain and we attempt to avoid it whenever and wherever we see it or think it might be present. We are aware that with global supply chains at present it is very likely to be present in plain sight; we look out for it and try to help where we can, campaign actively whenever we can and bring it to the attention of attendees at our events and trainings.

We try to ensure our supply chain supports all the other policies mentioned here from cradle to grave and we constantly review our supply chains.

Vegetarian and vegan policy

At our formal events we have a policy of providing 75% vegetarian options and 25% vegan options wherever we can as we believe that climate change is about 20% caused by livestock management and food choices and is a quick win in carbon reduction. If people bring their own sandwiches we do not interfere but we feel we ought to lead by example in our own catering.

Environmental Policy

We constantly monitor our impact and supply chains and calculate metric monthly for our impact

In terms of activities, footprints and the effect of our work. We endeavour to walk the talk in all areas and lead by example in fulfilling all the Sustainable Development Goals. We have had a no fly policy in place for 10 years and we have operated virtually for 18 years from the beginning even when there is no pandemic where ever possible. Most of our teams work from home and are flexible offering our teams work life balance as pioneers.

We check our impacts on air, water, soil and climate.  We work tirelessly to raise climate ambition, to prevent pollution and we prevent biodiversity loss and species extinction. These policies are led by our Directors and guide every single aspect of our work.  If we do need to travel we try to use public transport wherever possible. Our catering at our events is mostly vegan or vegetarian and we never serve meat.

We carry out regular training on all these aspects and run conferences and events every month so that all our teams are trained in these areas and we attend climate science conferences as often as possible but usually monthly and also bring together global world class experts in all these areas in order to ensure we keep at the forefront of knowledge.

We monitor our supply chains and have a number of supply chain experts advising us and we lead on global knowledge of green wash. All our policies are determined and monitored at board level.

We monitor the whole life cycle of our equipment in a cradle to grave examination and recycle everything we possibly can and lead in this area at board level.  We constantly reappraise this aspect of our work in a strategic re examination and compliance  monitoring once a week or more.

We advise many other bodies on changes to structure and ways of working to more inclusive of global voices- and in particular indigenous voices, gender perspectives and our boards and teams are some of the most diverse of any organisations on the planet.

We lead on survival solutions, and green economics and are regarded as global experts by members of the United Nations Teams themselves. We publish many books on environmental leadership, global environmental science and leadership and all aspects of environmental leadership and climate action.