Social Value

We have always been committed to making a difference to society and leaving a legacy. How we can add value to those around us – our workforce, our local communities and our environment – has always been important to us.

Our ethos has long been that the decisions we make must have not only a commercial benefit, but a social value benefit too. For decades, we have sought opportunities to change lives and to deliver additional value to the communities in which we work. Looking back, a Social Value mindset sat at the core of our work, before it was so clearly defined by a framework of Themes, Outcomes and Measures.

Today, we take this further; we actively look for positive social and economic outcomes during the delivery phase of a project and through those we partner with. We embed Social Value through a range of policies and procedures that complement our wide business strategy and objectives.

Our activity finds a balance between immediate impact and long-term change, with a focus on employability (training, employment and work experience), community support (volunteering, site educational visits) and environmental protection (emissions, recycling). However, addressing many of society’s inequalities cannot be tackled alone and we have a number of working partnerships in place with our trusted waste partners, suppliers and customers to ensure that we can widen the impact of our work at all levels.

Kenny Waste Management
Announce Social Value Tool

As part of this Social Value journey, we have chosen to partner with Thrive Social Value who provide us with a way to not only collect and track the social value activities that we do, but also assign a financial value to them. This software allows us to easily demonstrate to all our stakeholders a tangible result from our activities and our decisions – both for our community and our environment.

Thrive uses the Impact Evaluation Standard to do this. The framework is a collection of metrics, proxy values and guidance documents designed by a panel of Social Value experts. It takes account of the continually changing landscape in procurement and draws upon the latest guidance from the UK government. The most recent update brings it in line with the latest changes to the Social Value Act, instigated in January 2021.

Kenny Waste Management is determined to embed Social Value into the work that we do. By measuring the results of our actions, we can direct more resource to the areas that have the greatest difference.

Thrive Social Value
Neil Macdonald CEO

“Often Social Value is at the core of any SME business activities – they are highly invested in looking out for their employees and highly embedded in their local communities.

Kenny Waste Management really is a trailblazer in this area – having set up a Social Enterprise, known as Driving Change. One particular focus is on addressing inequalities in employment within their business. By adopting the Thrive Social Value system, Kenny Waste Management is also now better able to capture and demonstrate the social value it delivers, uncovering already that they have delivered more than £2 million in social value over the last 3 years. Our impact measurement tool has been designed for companies of any size to uncover the ‘good’ they can add to society.”

Pledging Better Social Value
in Salford

Kenny Waste Management have proudly been serving the community of Salford for over three decades. Our business still operates its six-acre Materials Recovery Facility from Salford, and a large percentage of our staff live within 10 miles. We use local suppliers, run workshops in local schools, offer community investment to local projects, and support disadvantaged local people to enter or re-enter work.

Although we operate nationally, we are committed to having a positive impact in our local community. We recognise that setting small targets can make a big difference, so we have a made a series of Pledges and joined the 100 other businesses which form the Salford Social Value Alliance. Click here to read more.

Kenny Waste Management
Karen Hampton — Sales Director

“For over three decades, Kenny Waste has continuously supported the communities we operate in and offered targeted opportunities to help people unlock their true potential.

We now have a firm set of activities in place, and a great tool to measure them with. As we begin to scale our activity, our focus remains on understanding the core issues that hold people back and creating life-changing opportunities for some of the most disadvantaged in society. If you want to join us on our mission, please get in touch.”

We are committed

We are committed to having a positive impact across all parts of our business: in our workplace, within our supply chain, in our local communities and in the environment. These four pillars are the guiding principles of our Responsible Business strategy, with each pillar having equal importance. They are critical to our future success; if one fails, they all fail.