IE ESG Hub Page

ESG Impact Report FY25

In our third annual ESG Impact Report, we take stock of our environmental, social and governance performance over the past year. The report reflects on progress made, challenges encountered, and the steps we’re taking to continue improving our impact across the business.

We're at the forefront of our industry in working to minimise the impact that our clients' furniture requirements have on the environment.

We achieve this by providing a range of sustainably-focused services and products that help our clients to meet their sustainability goals while advancing our own ambitions to make a positive impact on the planet.

Advancing ESG@IE

We introduced our ESG strategy, Advancing ESG@IE, in March 2022, with a commitment to embed sustainability into every corner of our business to make tangible and measurable differences year-on-year in our sustainability performance.

From procurement and supply chain sustainability, through carbon and energy reduction, waste avoidance and circular design, we’re addressing every area of sustainability in our ESG (Environmental, Social And Governance) roadmap which is helping us to deliver a series of practical actions across IE that will benefit our customers and help us meet our goals.

In 2025 we are very proud to have offically become a Certified B Corporation™. This certification represents a global movement of organisations using business as a force for good, and is a fantastic testimony to the improvements we’ve made towards a more sustainable future.

Steelcase

Our parent company, Steelcase, is a global design and thought leader in the world of work that has been making a difference for more than a century.

Steelcase works to design better futures for the wellbeing of both people and the planet. Their approach is holistic and thorough, embracing both the design and manufacturing of their products and their ecosystem of partners and suppliers. They have set aggressive goals, are leaders in their industry and have won multiple awards for their approach to ESG.

Find out more about Steelcase’s approach to ESG on their website:

The three pillars of ESG

Against the three pillars of ESG, we have set long-term goals for the next 3-5 years, along with shorter-term objectives which we hope to achieve in the next 12-24 months.

We’ve also included a few highlights of what we’ve been doing but please look through our FY25 Impact Report for more details.

Environment

Healthy Planet - Learn more about our work to reduce our carbon emissions and help you meet your sustainability targets.

Social

Healthy People - How we support our people, clients, stakeholders, and the wider community to thrive.

Governance & Policies

Healthy Culture - How we work within our regulations and policies to manage risks and run our company in a transparent and fair manner.

Environment

Our environmental goals and objectives

FY26 objectives:

Reduce GHG emissions from operations by 8% in FY26.
Continue zero waste to landfill.
Reduce overall waste by 8% and increase the percentage of our waste that is recycled.
Continue implementing our tool to make informed sustainable
procurement decisions within the business.

FY25 environmental performance highlights:

Reduced GHG emissions by 15% compared to our 2023 baseline figure.
Measured and reported on Scope 1, 2 & 3 GHG emissions to ISO
14064 compliance.
Reduced emissions from overall waste by 48% and had zero waste to landfill.
Increased the percentage of waste recycled by 4%.

Reducing our carbon footprint

After defining and collecting carbon emission data for Scopes 1, 2 and 3 for the first time in FY23, we set a carbon reduction goal to halve our emissions by 2030, using FY23 as our baseline.

This goal has enabled us to establish annual targets to track progress towards net zero emissions by 2050 across Scopes 1, 2 and 3.

In FY24, our target was to reduce our overall carbon footprint by 8%. We exceeded this, achieving a 15% reduction compared to our FY23 baseline.

In FY25, we set a further target of an 8% reduction. While this reduction was not achieved, the outcome has helped shape our focus and priorities for the year ahead.

Our FY26 target is a further 8% reduction on FY25 emissions.

Carbon Reduction Plan FY25

Helping our clients make sustainable choices

We are committed to helping our clients make more sustainable choices around their furniture assets.

We work with customers to identify and focus on the areas of furniture sustainability that are most relevant and important to them, allowing them to see the impact of their choices before they make them, setting goals and suggesting suitable furniture options to help achieve them.

One of our key focuses as a business has been growing our range of services that go beyond space design and the procurement of new furniture, providing services specifically aimed at keeping furniture within the circular economy.

While every client project we work on is different, we take a common approach to always present the best options available to maximise the reuse of their existing furniture assets first.

Responsible Procurement Programme

We are also committed to working with our supply partners to drive product circularity and sustainable procurement. We have developed a Sustainable Procurement Policy and an IE Supplier code of conduct that all suppliers must adhere to, as well as an ongoing Supplier Sustainability Program to continuously review how our suppliers can improve their ESG performance.

Our programme of continuous assessment allows our clients to be confident that any supplier we purchase from on their behalf complies with all legal and ethical standards.

All our suppliers must sign up to our IE Supplier Code of Conduct. Since the beginning of 2023, all new suppliers have also completed our ESG risk assessment survey, which allows us to flag any higher-risk activities that need further investigation.

Social

Our Social Goals and Objectives

FY26 objectives:

Commitment to fund match up to £10,000 to charitable causes.
Commitment to increase our employee volunteering / charity hours by 8%.
Having zero health and safety non-conformance findings in our ISO and other external audits & no reportable incidents.

FY25 social performance highlights:

Raised £17,461 for Scleroderma & Raynaud’s UK.
Increased our volunteering hours by 6% during FY25.
Training and development plans completed for all employees.
Future focus to fund match up to £10,000 to charitable causes in 2026 and increase charity volunteering hours by 8%.

At IE, we recognise that our success is deeply intertwined with the wellbeing and empowerment of the people we interact with - our employees, customers, partners, and the wider community.

The social component of our ESG strategy is designed to ensure that we cultivate an inclusive and supportive workplace, contribute positively to the communities in which we operate, and create value for all stakeholders.

Community Engagement & Social Impact

In FY25, we chose to focus our community engagement work with causes that are close to the people at IE.

1. Fundraising for Scleroderma & Raynaud’s UK (SRUK)

In 2023, we lost our friend and colleague Danielle Turner, to complications caused by Scleroderma, a rare, chronic, autoimmune condition that causes the immune system to become overactive and attack healthy tissue within the body. We decided as a company that we wanted to remember her by supporting SRUK, a small charity that had provided support to Danielle while she was alive and is the only UK charity dedicated to improving the lives of people with Scleroderma & Raynaud’s phenomenon.

For the second year running, IE employees and friends took part in a sponsored 15-mile walk along the Thames Path, raising £8,730 for the charity. IE had decided that any monies raised up to £10,000 would be match-funded, bringing the total raised to £17,461.

2. Supporting Rainham Foodbank

Every year, the Rainham Foodbank helps hundreds of families in need put food on their tables. As demand for their services grows, we’ve been supporting the charity’s vital work in the community through our ongoing volunteering programme.

For the past four years, IE has been helping to raise awareness of their cause, collecting food donations outside local supermarkets. We also help out in their warehouse, packing food parcels and special Christmas hampers, helping families who would otherwise struggle to feed themselves over the festive period.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion is at the heart of everything we do. We strive to create an environment where every individual feels valued and can contribute to their fullest potential. By embracing different perspectives and fostering an inclusive culture, we aim to build a workplace where all voices are heard, and everyone has the opportunity to succeed and thrive. Together, we are continually evolving to promote belonging in all aspects of our work and the broader communities we serve.

As part of our DEI education programme, all employees go through online DEI training courses each year.

Employee Wellbeing & Development

We’re here to help our employees through life’s ups and downs, making sure they feel happy and healthy both at work and at home.

Supporting our team has always been a priority, but with the rising cost of living, it’s more important than ever. The UK is facing its toughest financial period in recent times, with inflation, fuel, and energy prices putting a real strain on people. As an employer,
we know we need to step up and do more to support our team during this tough time.

That’s why we’ve set up various programs to help, whether it’s with challenges at work or in their personal lives.

Governance & Policies

FY26 objectives:

Delivering a plan for annual training updates for:

Carbon Awareness.
Product Declaration.
Greenwashing.
Sustainable IT Use.
Responsible Procurement.
Waste Management.
Developing a voluntary disclosure plan via our statutory accounts for FY26.
Deliver the FY26 Business Plan.
Continue to be EcoVadis Gold rated.

FY25 governance & policies highlights:

Training updates on anti-bribery and corruption, equity, diversity and inclusion and modern slavery act.
Retained our gold Ecovadis rating.
Became a Certified B Corporation™

Governance structure

IE strives to maintain the highest ethical standards in our operations. We want to do not only what is right but what is best. The IE executive team and Board of Directors strive to continuously maintain our values as we cultivate and grow this culture throughout the organisation.

Governance at IE is based on the principle of bringing together empowered, distributed decision-making and empathic leadership. We believe curating this culture while simultaneously encouraging employees to find their voice drives a unique culture consistent with our core values of treating people with dignity and respect.

ESG Governance

ESG Governance at IE is based on three principles:

1. Commitment begins at the top - The statutory directors are responsible for ESG, and relevant topics are discussed at board meetings and senior management meetings.

2. Accountability must be established and communicated clearly - Accountability is managed throughout IE, and sustainability and environmental issues are integrated with other business goals.

3. Governance is aligned with our business imperatives – Sustainability is ingrained in the existing business model, organisational structures and decision-making processes.

We have a full-time Sustainability and Compliance Manager reporting to the COO to ensure that all aspects of ESG are implemented and understood across IE.

ESG is also the responsibility of every individual of IE. For example, in our warehouse, our staff will pay attention to environmental or health and safety matters, our planners will plan deliveries in a fuel-efficient way, and our buyers will monitor non-compliant suppliers.

External ESG accreditation

We are committed to demonstrating our ESG performance and improvements through the use of external, recognised international ESG certifications.

Ecovadis Gold

In FY24/25, we were able to demonstrate our improvements in ESG by successfully gaining a gold EcoVadis medal, going from being in the 50th percentile of top-performing companies from our application in 2022 to the 96th percentile in FY24.

This was a giant leap forwards for us in a short space of time and provided recognition of all the hard work that has gone into transforming our business.

Certified B Corporation™

In FY25, we officially became a certified B Corporation™. This certification represents a global movement of organisations using business as a force for good.

Achieving B Corp status requires meeting some of the most rigorous standards for environmental stewardship, ethical governance and community impact.

For us, it also reflects the journey we’ve been on for many years, continuously strengthening the way we operate, serve our clients, and contribute to a more sustainable and equitable future of work.

Our Policies

Below we have included our policies and accreditations for our different management systems that demonstrate our commitment to the responsible governance of our business.