Sustainability Policy

ATS provides a comprehensive interpretive service to clients in the heritage, leisure and tourism sector. This service includes consultancy, content development and production, hardware design and manufacturing, and technical and operational support. The objective of everything we do is to provide exceptional visitor experiences for the end user, our clients’ visitors.

ATS Heritage is committed to minimising the impact of its activities on the environment. We are proud of the efforts we undertake to ensure our sustainability credentials are operative in every aspect of our work. We are working through WEEE compliance, and our current own defined sustainability standards that we work to are:

• Working with suppliers and product manufacturers who share the same ideals (all of our tier one suppliers are ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 compliant and certified).
• Providing conscientious and effective waste management
• Ensuring efficient consumption of energy and materials
• Actively promote recycling – both internally and amongst our customers and suppliers
• Effectively planning company logistics to minimise waste

 Summary of our practical approaches to minimising waste, repairing, reusing and recycling:

• From cradle to grave – ATS design our own products and accessories to a very high standard of quality, maximising the life in service of each product (e.g. using tougher materials, components designed for heavy use so products last longer).
• All products are designed to be disassembled, in order to service and repair more effectively.
• We design, produce and assemble our own products – therefore we control the security and availability of spare parts for the life-cycle of the products (new stock management software implemented to support effective supply of parts)
• ATS has a team of in-house of technicians who maintain our stock of over 30,000 devices in operation.
• Where possible products are designed in a modular way – allowing us to repair components for re-use, or should components have terminal faults we can recycle individual parts – not sending a whole device to waste.
• Boxes for life – we reuse our recycled packing materials.
• Majority of our clients are lease customers, so we have greater control on maintaining device serviceability across our total device park.
• Our device software is programmed to maximise battery life and efficiency (including auto sleep mode).
• ‘Double battery’ design provides increase product life, reduced charging cycles per user.
• Our charging racks are designed to use energy efficiently, only charging devices that require it.
• Batteries are disposed of with approved recycler.
• Repairs which cannot be carried out on-site will take place at our HQ in Hampshire, England or Support Centre in Scotland, keeping our carbon footprint low.
• Employees are encouraged to car share, use public transport where available and many choose to cycle to work.
• The office operates a recycling policy and actively manages recycling paper, card and plastics.

Social responsibility: Diversity and Inclusion

ATS Heritage recognises the benefits of a diverse workforce and is committed to providing a working environment that is free from discrimination. We seek to promote the principles of equality and diversity in all our dealings with employees, workers, job applicants, clients, customers, suppliers, contractors, recruitment agencies and the public.  We aim to ensure that no employee, worker or job applicant is subject to unlawful discrimination, either directly or indirectly, on the grounds of gender, gender reassignment, race (including colour, nationality, caste and ethnic origin), disability, sexual orientation, marital status, part-time status, pregnancy or maternity, age, religion or belief, political belief or affiliation or trade union membership. This commitment applies to all aspects of employment, including:

• recruitment and selection, including advertisements, job descriptions, interview and selection procedures
• training
• promotion and career-development opportunities
• terms and conditions of employment, and access to employment-related benefits and facilities
• grievance handling and the application of disciplinary procedures
• selection for redundancy

We take our corporate responsibility seriously and will regularly review all policies and implement necessary changes where these could improve equality of opportunity.

Fair Working Practices

ATS Heritage are dedicated to supporting each member of staff to be their best, and we have created a powerful set of values and an impressive work ethos that our clients recognise and value. Below is a summary of some of the ways in which we demonstrate our commitment to our employees’ wellbeing and development:

• In the recent events of the Corona Virus crisis, ATS furloughed a number of staff (including our Operations Team at St Paul’s Cathedral). ATS topped up the salary paid by the government to ensure staff received 100% of their wages during this time.
• All staff receive annual reviews with Line Managers and MD
• CPD – company budget for training available to all staff, can be suggested by staff or if recognised by Manager / colleagues as opportunity
• Fair wages based on performance, no zero-hours contracts, minimum salary increases in line with inflation
• 50/50 split male to female employees at HQ
• Free Employee Healthcare Benefit scheme
• Pension scheme (Company Contributions)
• Flat management structure & active line managers – means day to day engagement and feedback, openness is encouraged and the MD’s door is always open
• Regular senior team meetings discuss employees, morale, performance, and we identify and celebrate exceptional work by individuals and teams.
• Monday morning breakfast meetings – company gathers for breakfast and a weekly review of the week before and the week ahead, opportunity to share or ask questions.
• Pizza Fridays – just because pizza makes for a great start to the weekend!
• Free fruit, tea, coffee, snacks – keeping a healthy workforce, the small things all help.
• Company social calendar – regular team bonding is important and enjoyed by the team (regular events paid by the company include Escape rooms, BBQ’s, London to Brighton bike ride)
• Christmas end of year – an event every member of staff looks forward to, the Christmas Party surprise, kept a secret until we arrive, wine tasting, horse racing, racing cars, private dining rooms have all been part of the celebration of another year’s hard work and accomplishments.
• Open plan office – move to open plan office in 2019 has resulted in improved communication and social interaction.
• Microsoft Teams / WhatsApp Group – the company keep in touch using various platforms for social and work.
• Home grown investment – many of the team are graduates from local universities (many been with ATS over 5 years)
• We actively encourage development of new skills, exposure to new projects and activities, taking responsibility for their work
• Internal ‘Streams’ – as part of business development and growth we share our plans and openly encourage teams to get involved in ‘Streams’ of work that help the company improve, e.g. products, processes, procedures.