As an employer and business operator with strong corporate values of innovation, partnership and responsibility, UPP is committed to supporting the communities we operate in. UPP became a business service partner of The Prince’s Trust in 2009 and are members of The Prince’s Trust Construction & Business Services Leadership Group.

The Prince’s Trust helps to change the lives of young people in the UK, giving practical and financial help to disadvantaged 14-30 year olds. The Construction & Business Services Leadership Group is a unique industry initiative which aims to raise the profile of construction as a potential career, whilst equipping young people with the vital skills that they need to secure an apprenticeship or employment within the sector. We are in the process of developing our relationship and looking at ways we can support The Prince’s Trust in its ongoing activity in this area, and also at ways to further engage our employees in this process. We hope this partnership helps to cement our core corporate responsibility objectives and we are in the process of developing a formal corporate responsibility policy which we aim to publish in 2010.

UPP already has a number of policies in place that promote fair treatment of staff, engagement with local communities, and which aim to reduce the carbon footprint of our own organisation and those of our university partners. In November 2009, Certification International awarded UPP certification to ISO14001/2004. This is an internationally-accepted standard that sets out how businesses can deliver an effective Environmental Management System (EMS) while achieving a balance between maintaining profitability and reducing environmental impact.